Why We All Want to Be Jack Sparrow

When Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest grossed more than $400 million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide in 2006, the critics who had bashed the disjointed screenplay and over-the-top comedic action sequences were hardly surprised. That the final film in the series, 2007's At World's End, would also have widespread box office appeal despite critical panning did not come as a shock either. Even the unlikelihood that actor-rebel Johnny Depp was the draw of a major blockbuster had worn off; he proved he did, in fact, have star power in the first Pirates installment back in 2003.

The original Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl had been an unexpected hit with critics and viewers alike. Even the Mouse and the film's writers were surprised. Sure, a fair share of the audience may have attended to see Orlando Bloom wielding a sword in tights. But in addition to realizing only Depp could be a sex symbol as a slightly drunken, gender-ambiguous pirate wearing eyeliner, the public at large latched on to the character. We, as movie-goers, fell head over heels for Jack Sparrow - apologies, Captain Jack Sparrow. Young children bought the action figures and everyone wanted to be a pirate. Men wanted to trade places with Sparrow, and women wanted to replace the strumpets of whom he is quite fond.

A pirate movie had not succeeded at the box office in three decades. The genre was thought to be dead by studios and critics alike. Then, with the release of the first Pirates film came a sashaying, dread-locked Depp with a slurred Cockney accent, ready to prove history wrong.

So why are we entranced and intrigued by a fictional character like Captain Jack Sparrow? Sparrow is a mysterious rogue, a free-wheeling wanderer who embodies the very definition of the word "pirate." On the surface, he represents what so many of us long for in our work-a-day, stressful and caged lives: freedom ... if freedom meant sailing the Caribbean seas, frequenting brothels, making deals with a creature akin to the devil and running from the East India Trading Company. His true appeal, however entrenched in the fun of the movies or Depp's classic irreverent portrayal (probably the closest the actor has ever played to his true self), has more to do with who we are and the constraints forced upon us by modern society.

Beyond the surface idea of who Sparrow is, there is the deeper notion of piratical freedom and the realization that experiencing that true freedom remains elusive to the vast majority of us. Perhaps this is why when individuals within our society are seen as modern-day pirates, living outside of "normal" conventions, they are somewhat shunned and revered at the same time. We are jealous of that kind of life. Ours are too structured, too regimented, and too carefully calculated to ever contain the types of wild, random adventures for which we secretly long. This is why we take vacations to Caribbean islands and jump from airplanes with parachutes strapped to our backs. We long to experience the feeling of doing exactly and only what we want, to live in the moment, even if it is only fleeting.

We embrace Depp's Sparrow because he is who we would all like to be, if we felt it was possible. Or perhaps, in the words of the infamous Captain Jack, we are all just waiting for the "opportune moment" to live out our secret pirate fantasies.