Arrrrrrrr!

I look o'er our collection o' movies an' I canna help but note that thar be an awful lot o' pirate flicks. This here may say somethin` about me lubberly family; I ain`t rightly sure. We dasn't own many movies--about 50, mebbe 55. An' o' them 55 movies, se'en o' them be swashbuckler movies--that`s makes 13 percent o' th' movies we own pirate movies, ye scurvy dogs!

Or, in plain English: I look over our collection of movies and I can't help but notice that there are an awful lot of pirate flicks. This here may say somethin' about my lubberly family; I'm not sure. We own very few movies--about 50, maybe 55. And of those 55 movies, seven of them are pirate movies--that's makes 13 percent of the movies we own pirate movies.

Actually we own eight if you count The Princess Bride (which brings it to 14.5%) but that's a stretch.

We have all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies; I definitely like the first one the best.

We have The Pirates of Penzance, which is just ridiculous fun set to great music.

We have Disney's Peter Pan. I have no use for Peter, Wendy or the Lost Boys, but Captain Hook and Tinker Bell are delightful.

We have the 2003, live-action version of Peter Pan, which is amazing! If you pay attention to what the characters say there's some food for thought. (To live would be an awfully big adventure!) But if you're not looking to feed your mind it's just a wonderfully told story.

But one of our all-time favorites is Treasure Island, starring Charlton Heston as Long John Silver and Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins. Unfortunately it is also the most violent movie we own, and has the worst language. But I've never heard my kids damning anyone's eyes so, I confess, I overlook those little facts.

And if I ever remember, I'd really like to rent Captain Blood some time as well.

The real question is, "Why do pirates appeal to us so much?" I mean, really, they were not nice people; and that's putting it mildly. But we (and I mean movie-goers, in general, not just my family) love those pirate stories. Per'aps we "got no more sense than a sea turtle!" (Long John Silver, in Treasure Island)

You can't deny that pirate movies are rather delightful. Almost as delightful as "to be young and have ten toes." (also Long John Silver). It could be the adventure--pirate movies always mean excitement on the high seas. It could be those fantastically choreographed sword fights--we love that swashbuckling adventure! But I think the real reason is that we just love the language. Who can resist a guy who says, in all seriousness, "Shut up, Israel, damn your eyes! Ye'd think ye never seen a man with 'is throat cut b'fore!"