Here we are at the ninth installment of my year-long look at The Kiss in historically-set movies.
Recap of movie kisses so far:
January Kiss –The Phantom of the Opera
February Kiss – The Princess Bride
March Kiss – The African Queen
April Kiss – Shakespeare in Love
May Kiss – Quigley Down Under
JUNE Kiss – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
JULY Kiss – The Quiet Man
AUGUST Kiss – Casablanca
SEPTEMBER Kiss – Pride and Prejudice
For the October kisses (yes…plural), I’ve gone to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. I love these movies, and there are many worthy kisses in four of the five movies. I say four of the five, because the fourth installment – Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides – doesn’t have a worthy kiss, since neither Elizabeth or Will are in this movie.
At the end of Curse of
the Black Pearl, we sigh and smile when Elizabeth and Will finally kiss after
she says “No. He’s a pirate.” in response to her father saying “…after all, he is a blacksmith.” She sweeps
off Will’s hat, and they share their first kiss. The music…oh…the music…
The next worthy kiss is in Dead Man’s Chest. This kiss isn’t an Elizabeth and Will kiss. It’s an Elizabeth and Jack kiss. Elizabeth kisses Jack in order to chain him to a mast in what is actually an act of betrayal to both him and Will. She rationalizes that the kiss and chaining Jack to the Black Pearl will ultimately save Will by sacrificing Jack to the Kraken.
I love it, because I
think Elizabeth is fighting her love for Jack and because it was such a bold move
on her part. She says she’s not sorry for chaining him, but she clearly is
sorry. Jack calls her a pirate for betraying him, and he’s exactly right. I
like Will’s character well enough, but the chemistry between Elizabeth and Jack
simmers just shy of boiling. I wanted Elizabeth and Jack to kiss even though I
knew they wouldn’t get together.
In At World’s End, we have three kisses worth looking at. The first kiss is moments before James Norrington dies. Norrington has loved Elizabeth for half her life. His love for her is a wholesome, solid love, but we know from the get-go he and Elizabeth will never be together. Still, I did hope they would kiss if for no other reason than James so badly wanted Elizabeth to know how much he loved her even though he knew she would never love him the same way. Their kiss shows this so well through the passion on his part contrasted with how she breaks the kiss when she realizes she never appreciated how much he loved her.
Finally, FINALLY, Elizabeth and Will marry. It’s a wild and crazy wedding that is appropriately staged on a pirate ship in the midst of a raging storm during a sea battle. I waited through three movies for the wedding and this kiss, and I got both. The music tops off the ahhhh of their kiss. Their happy ever after is here.
But…but… (lip quivering, eyes welling with tears) Elizabeth and Will are star-crossed lovers. Moments later, their happy ever after is denied them with Will’s murder by Davy Jones and that Will becomes the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Will’s father, Bootstrap Bill warns Will, “Where we are bound, she cannot come. One day on shore. Ten years at sea. Steep price for what’s been done.” Will replies, “Depends on the one day.”
And that one day on shore ends with Elizabeth and Will saying goodbye.
Their foreheads together…
Will
wrenches himself away from Elizabeth…
Elizabeth
can’t let him go like that…
She calls
his name and runs to him…
He
turns and catches her into a goodbye embrace…
And this
is The Kiss in all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
Oh My Gosh.
[Note: In the fourth movie, On Stranger Tides, the verbal and physical sparring between Jack and Angelica is fun, and their chemistry sends off tons of sparks, but their kiss just doesn’t quite do it for me.]
By the time arrival of the fifth
installment, Dead Men Tell No Tales, I really, really, REALLY
needed to have closure in the Elizabeth and Will story. I had waited the
required 10 years for Will to be able to set foot on shore again (literally 10
years). Surely, the storyline would come full circle for them.
And it did. This reunion
kiss rivals the goodbye kiss.
My apologies for not responding to comments in previous months. Blogger doesn’t play well with others. I’m not able to comment or respond to comments.
Kaye Spencer
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ReplyDeleteSo many delicious moments to savour and choose from. No wonder this series was such a success, with the dynamics and chemistry caught perfectly in each of these moments. Great choice.
ReplyDeleteOHHHHH MYYYYY LOORRRRD...I love this post. I love every one of these fabulous kisses and that music just makes it all so wonderful. All those movies had such wonderful music. I remember seeing those at the theater and getting goosebumps just about all the way through. Thanks, Kaye, for this walk down memory lane on The Black Pearl and The Dutchman! Great post!
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