The Sea Hawk [G]

Although Queen Elizabeth has no quarrel with Spain, a war between the two countries is inevitable as King Phillip wishes to make the world his. The Spanish will attack with an armada, but Her Majesty is not willing to deplete the treasury for a fleet. It’ll take the charm and bravery of English sea pirate Captain Geoffrey Thorpe to convince the Queen, but disaster strikes when a mission to steal funds from Panama goes wrong and the Captain and his crew are captured and enslaved in the Spanish galleys. 

There’s nothing quite like a good ‘ol rollicking, swashbuckling Errol Flynn movie! I must admit that after Captain Blood I just completely fell in love Australia’s own charming Tassie devil and so I bought this box set, which contains 5 movies and a documentary. So be forewarned that there may be a few Errol Flynn movies making the bulk of future reviews… Sorry. But anyway onto The Sea Hawk. 

Although Queen Elizabeth has no quarrel with Spain, a war between the two countries is inevitable as King Phillip wishes to make the world his. The Spanish will attack with an armada, but Her Majesty is not willing to deplete the treasury for a fleet. It’ll take the charm and bravery of English sea pirate Captain Geoffrey Thorpe to convince the Queen, but disaster strikes when a mission to steal funds from Panama goes wrong and the Captain and his crew are captured and enslaved in the Spanish galleys. 

I have to admit that, although I did enjoy this movie, Errol’s repertoire does feature some cleverer things. Really established as an action hero in the genre of chivalry, Flynn’s films do tend to adhere to a specific genre and keep to that generic structure. So there are few plot twists and surprises and the stories can become repetitive and tedious. 

Although featuring plenty of outstanding swordfight sequences, this movie is a about the love that a man feel’s for his country and the pirate genre mixing with a period drama does work, but has a slight tinge of silliness to it. The captain giving Her Majesty a monkey for example and the Queen being portrayed sometimes as strong and commanding and then sometimes as a giggling schoolgirl; I’m not quite sold on the flip between the two. 

The central romance story between Thorpe and Dona Maria, a Spanish beauty captured on the seas, is really just something that’s been thrown in haphazardly without any real love. It’s all hints and neither party really strongly depict the conflicts: Thorpe’s nervousness around women, and Maria’s pride (which she suddenly loses in a rose garden in England when she sees him again). Do you see what I mean? There’s no real development of it, it’s just written really quickly adhering to a generic formula and then thrown right in to try and add more substance to the film. 

But Errol Flynn as Captain Thorpe is gorgeous! This man was born to be a pirate. He’s all sincere smiles, quick wits, and chivalry. And yes I know that he’s a very obvious sort of handsome with his wavy fair hair, thigh high boots, perfect noise, and dashing smile (a type I wouldn’t really consider my type), but I cannot help but just swoon over him. Oh I love Errol Flynn! 

Starring Brenda Marshall, Claude rains, Flora Robson, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una O’Connor, James Stephenson, Gilbert Roland, William Lundigan, Julien Mitchell, Montagu Love, J. M. Kerrigan, and David Bruce, The Sea Hawk is a rollicking movie filled with action, adventure, politics, war, romance, drama, and comedy. I also liked the way that it changes from black and white into sepia tones when the Captain and his crew are at Panama. I thought this technique was really clever. So yes, even though the structure and the story was a little bit generic, I still enjoyed this movie muchly.