One of my top ten favorite movies of all time was Treasure Island, a made for TV movie starring Christian Bale as young Jim Hawkins and Charleton Heston as Long John Silver. This was the best of the three film adaptations I have viewed of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, about the hunt for Captain Flint’s treasure.

I just viewed Episode One of this STARZ original and loved it. Black Sails is a prequel to Treasure Island and begins with John Silver cowering below decks as a passenger on a merchant ship being attacked by Flint’s murderous crew. The opening battle is convincing and sickening, depicting minor ship-to-ship combat in the age of sail better than what most Hollywood movies have. The melee combat is wonderfully disgusting and the choreographer will hopefully be getting steady work after this airing.

The cast is large, the writing tight, and the acting excellent. I don’t know any of the actors, but then again I don’t know who the hell Stanley Kubrick is. Piracy of the late 17th Century and early 18th Century is really a good place for modern film, with the bi-gender and multi-racial protagonists required to satisfy our diverse liberal audience. The proportion and status of black crew was realistic, as piracy was really the only place whites and blacks worked as equals. The inclusion of influential women was also on target, though, as currently required by feminist law, over done.

The Age of Piracy was a short-lived spasm of defiance against three world empires by a handful of free-living men who then represented the only democratic tradition on earth. They went down to dust, but into legend too, so were not entirely defeated.

Get a keg, get a babe, and watch Black Sails!