By Carly Shaner
If you were an ex-pirate captain, now mother, and someone came to your island and sent men to kill you, how would you respond? By driving a knife into one of their necks? In front of your children?
It’s 1846, and real pirates are a dying breed in the Caribbean. When pirate Captain Francisco Connor (played by Karl Urban) finds some of his gold on a small merchant ship, Connor follows the ship’s captain to his home island in search of the man’s wife, Ercell (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who’s supposedly the thief. “The Bluff” follows the conflict between Connor and Ercell as her past washes its way onto the shores of her peaceful home.
The storyline remained consistent, and if a subplot entered, it wasn’t so large that the main plot had to fight it for attention (I don’t know if this movie could handle any more fights). The movie was a different and more historically accurate take on the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
As an action and pirate movie, there are expectations for the fight scenes. They are placed and choreographed well, adding to the tension and story without being too full of flair.
When I saw that this was a pirate movie and looked at the cast, I was surprised. The chosen cast had a broader cinematic range than I expected, but everyone played their roles well. Priyanka Chopra Jonas effortlessly captures the grace and fierceness of Ercell. Karl Urban embodies the calm, collected and ruthless Captain Connor. Temuera Morrison steps into his fighter with a casual demeanor role as Connor’s quartermaster, Lee. Sophia Oakley-Green and Vendaten Naidoo adapt as Ercell’s family when they learn who she really is and what that means while Connor’s crew hunts them.
At its core, “The Bluff” is about revenge. Connor wants to find Ercell, but for more than his gold. His thirst for revenge has consumed him and is the reason he’s so merciless. It’s the reason that when someone questions the mission, he answers by shooting them.
This movie is also about the importance of facing one’s past. Ercell ran away from hers, and it came back in an ugly way, endangering not only her family but the rest of those on the island. She has to dig up her old self, who Connor nicknamed Bloody Mary, in order to protect the life she’s built.
The only reason this movie is rated R is because of the violence and blood. Even though there isn’t as much on screen as I expected, it still could have been toned down. There are gruesome, blood splattering moments I wished were left off the screen and were only portrayed through sound effects.
“The Bluff” falls short of being super memorable, but it still reached a respectable quality. There are moments from characters’ backstories that rarely get revisited, if at all. There are quotes that go unexplained. In addition, we aren’t given a look into who Ercell was before, so when she starts killing with remarkable ease, the audience is suddenly riddled with questions.
I appreciated the more realistic take on piracy in this movie. The few, small plot twists provide some shocking moments. I just wish we could’ve seen glimpses of Ercell’s Bloody Mary in her prime or more defining moments that led to her becoming Bloody Mary.
I give this movie a 6.5/10.
“The Bluff” is available to watch on Prime Video.
Carly Shaner is a junior Professional Writing and Information Design Major and who has several historical obsessions, one of which is pirates.
Images courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
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