Does having the spoken Somali subtitled detract from the immersion?
That is, the crew would not have understood what the pirates were saying. So, the audience having the luxury of being privy to what they're doing / planning seems like it would remove some, if not a lot of the tension...?
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karslt
Why is seeing these borderline monkeys as human beings important? As far as I can see, most of these African pirates are little more than chimpanzees turning their guns on their owners. ...if you'll pardon the racist-sounding tone.
I would have thought that being unaware of what's going on would ratchet up the tension that much more. Uncertainty is the quintessential human fear, after all.
I also heard there was a Dutch film that tackled this exact same subject matter that did not have the pirate's native tongue subtitled and that this actually augmented the atmosphere of dread. The Hijacking, I think it's called... I can't find information on it.
woshize
I wouldn't say so - or hardly, anyway. It doesn't take a great leap of the audience's imagination to understand how utterly terrifying it would have been for Phillips, not having a clue what was going on. Plus, I think it helps us see the pirates as human beings rather than jabbering maniacs - which, as I said in an earlier post, only makes them scarier. Their bickering and their fear is what makes them really dangerous, since it could just tip the whole situation over the edge at any moment.
Captain Phillips
Released: October 10, 2013
Synopsis:
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.