Abstract

Pirates is a 1986 costume adventure film in comedy convention. Roman Polanski is not only its director, but also wrote the script (together with Gérard Brach). The aim of this article is to show that this is an important (despite a wave of very harsh criticism) film in Polanski’s oeuvre and that it touches – albeit in a comedy convention - on many serious and important topics for the audience. The production features excellent acting, a fast-paced and inventive plot, Sobociński’s cinematography, beautiful set design, costumes and music. However, the paper will pay special attention to the message (verbal and non-verbal) of “life wisdom” or
rather various “life wisdoms” represented and professed by the main, and sometimes also secondary, characters.
Already the two main characters – the pirates Captain Red and Frog – motivations for their actions are quite different. As
the captain says: “A man fights for what he lacks”, thus one for gold and the other for fame (as well as honour, homeland or
respect for a woman). The film is an adventure comedy, and yet it raises – despite appearances – very important issues
(e.g. hunger, wealth, revolution, friendship and love, religion), and this from the very first scenes, as the article demonstrates
with selected examples in the analysis of several themes of this two-hour film.