THE BUCCANEER
US, 1958, 120 minutes, Colour.
Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, Charles Boyer, Claire Bloom, Inger Stevens, E.G. Marshall, Lorne Green.
Directed by Anthony Quinn.
The Buccaneer was a 1938 Cecil B. de Mille action adventure with Fredric March as Jean Lafitte. Anthony Quinn appeared in a supporting role (he was married to de Mille’s daughter, Katherine, for many years and appeared in a number of de Mille features).
De Mille intended to direct this film after the success of The Ten Commandments. However, he fell ill and the film was directed by Anthony Quinn.
Yul Brynner had appeared as Pharaoh in The Ten Commandments and appears a Jean Lafitte. Charlton Heston who was Moses in The Ten Commandments appears here as General Andrew Jackson (he appeared as President Jackson in the 1953 The President’s Lady).
The film has a good cast led by Claire Bloom and Charles Boyer.
The film focuses on the 1812 war against Britain. Jean Lafitte was a pirate and fought against Britain. Andrew Jackson was the general, with only twelve hundred men and was in charge of the defence of New Orleans. The film recreates the war, the battle for New Orleans and the atmosphere of the period. (The film’s action takes place thirty-five years after the Declaration of Independence from Britain.
Quinn directs in the Cecil B. de Mille grandiose style for a lavish adventure epic.
1. An entertaining adventure story? Merely adventure? Something more substantial about American history?
2. A strong film, the old-fashioned Cecil B. de Mille spectacular style, gesturing theatricality, dialogue and acting? Is this important or not?
3. Does the film throw genuine light on the historical period it deals with? De Mille’s own prologue setting the tone?
4. The situation between America and Britain at the period? The aftermath of the War of Independence? Who was the aggressor? Did the film give a fair presentation of both Americans and British?
5. How did the pirate, Jean Lafitte, fit into the situation? Why did these men become pirates? Why did society tolerate the pirates?
6. The film’s stances about loyalty?
7. The significance of the main characters:
(i) Jean Lafitte: convincing pirate, convincing patriot, his
motivations, ambitions, his love for Bonnie? Why did he help
Jackson? Why did he accept the humiliation and separation at
the end?
(ii) Annette, daughter of the governor, the class she came from, her
love, her loyalty, final suffering?
(iii) Bonnie as a pirate, her father, her love for Lafitte, her cruelty?
(iv) Dominique You: a Napoleonic fraud, why a pirate, loyalty to
Lafitte?
(v) The governor and his dilemmas?
8. The role of Andrew Jackson, his heroism, Charlton Heston heroics compared with those of Yul Brynner? The backwoods hero, the strategist, the respected man of his word?
9. The overall impact of the film, as action adventure, as a piece of Americana?
