Captain Phillips is this year’s most thrilling and breathtakingly authentic biopic on how the first hijacking of American cargo ship Maersk Alabama may have gone down.  Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass was definitely the man to bring Captain Richard Phillips’ story to the big screen.  Played to sheer perfection by Tom Hanks, this is as good as acting gets when it comes to these intense hostage thrillers.  Paul Greengrass’ powerhouse political thrillers, such as the more controversial yet critically acclaimed films (United 93, Bloody Sunday, and Green Zone) have been known to be intensely character driven and explosively real for audiences.

Director Greengrass explores some of the film’s themes of survival and morality, as seen through the eyes of Richard Phillips (Hanks) and the Somali pirate ringleader, Muse (Barkhad Abdi).  The film asks with images, instead of words, how dire the situation would have been if one were in the position of Richard Phillips or the pirates.  The same method of storytelling was done for last year’s controversial War on Terror film, Zero Dark Thirty.  The film’s primary outlook on the characters and their situation is more focused on how hopeless the outcome was going to be for the pirates when they had planned to take Captain Phillips hostage aboard the Maersk Alabama’s lifeboat for a million dollar ransom.  Overall there were a few explosions, little patriotism, and low on politics, just a good story told honestly with human characters — another timeless performance from Hanks, and a major breakthrough performance from newcomer Barkhad Abdi as the Somali Captain, Muse.

For me, Captain Phillips is one of the best films of the year.  For that I would give this tour de force of an action film a 9.2/10.  I highly recommend Captain Phillips for anyone who wants a greatly told story of survival and courage.  The official theater release for Captain Phillips was October 11^th 2013; the film is rated PG-13 (for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance use).  Go see this one.