Arrrh nation's heritage

We, as a nation, are in grave danger of losing our collective piratical pop culture heritage. Fortunately, some folks are doing something about that.

No, I don't mean YARRRH! Yes, we steal and twist conventions from classic pirate movies, only resorting to complete invention when absolutely desperate. But the result, as action-packed and naughty as it will be, is really very postmodern and not to be confused with the classics themselves.

Another popular entertainment, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, is also eroding our collective knowledge about pirate cinema because it is much less honest than we are about the extent of its thievery. When describing YARRH! to my sister, I mentioned the character of Cecily Toadmoor, the beautiful niece of the loathsome Cyril Toadmoor, governor of Jamaica. She said, "Oh! Just like Kiera Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean." Oh, no, no, no. The trope of the daughter/niece of the governor being the love interest of the pirate captain goes back at least as far as Captain Blood (1935). Pirates had erased this from her memory.

But worse than this: some of our own cast members have never heard of Erroll Flynn!

Fortunately, Trylon, the Minneapolis microcinema, is coming to everyone's rescue and whetting our collective appetite for all things piratical with their "Pirates! Pirates! Pirates!" film series (Url: http://www.take-up.org/series/48/). During the month of June, they are showing five great pirate films: The Sea Hawk (1940, with Erroll Flynn), The Crimson Pirate (1952, with Burt Lancaster), Captain Blood (1935, Erroll Flynn again), The Pirate (1948, Gene Kelly and Judy Garland), and The Black Pirate (1926, Douglas Fairbanks --- live music by The Poor Nobodys).

These films are nowhere near as lusty and busty as YARRRH! is going to be, but they have romance, adventure, and stirring swordplay --- and you can bring a kid. Check them out! Then when you come to our show, you'll be able to impress your date by turning and whispering, "Oh that --- they stole that from The Sea Hawk."

Yarrrh, Dan Pinkerton