Time for me to once again barf some more nonsense all over your dashes about why I love Pirates of the Caribbean even though it's not cool anymore:
So one of the things the first three PotC movies were especially good at was drip-feeding information about the characters in ways that were both valuable and concise, and building on the characters in ways that were largely consistent and sensible. (I said LARGELY)
Like there's the masterful way Jack's intro to the movies with the sinking boat told us everything about how Jack is simultaneously the Worst and Best at what he does at the same time--how he keeps trying to capitalize on bad situations, even if it actually digs him deeper for a while; or the way the history with Barbossa, Jack, Bootstrap and the Pearl gets unraveled, and how it connects to the protagonists' current conflicts etc.
But one of my favorite things the little things they do to lay the groundwork for (surprise lol) Will's character. People have talked a lot about the way his first CotBP scene with him as a 19-year-old tells you in a matter of seconds:
- Will's become a blacksmith apprentice
- He's an excellent smith in his own right and takes pride in his work
- He's smitten with Elizabeth
- The society he's in doesn't grant him respect or recognition for his labor
- The society he's in doesn't "approve" of his love for Elizabeth, so he keeps it secret
- He currently tolerates these dumb rules of society, even if they're at his expense
All of it is setting up for payoffs later in the story, and all of it done without explicit dialogue, in about 60 seconds. The words "blacksmith," "love," "proud" etc. aren't even mentioned in the scene at all. Instead we're told all of this information with blocking, facial expressions, tones of voice, shifts in mood and allusions. Will delivering the order and Swann's mentioning of his master allows us to infer what Will is. His ability and pride in his work is communicated through the flourish, enthusiasm and knowledge with which he presents the sword to Swann. That combines with Swann treating him as just the errand boy and Will's responding pained smile to nail points 1, 4 & 5 all at the same time...
Which is great and cool! But what I especially love is that that style of storytelling doesn't suddenly stop after each characters' introductory scene--you keep learning about them as the movie progresses. So when you get to his second scene, with that amazing swordfight in the forge, the swordfight isn't just an entertaining stint of action, it tells us more about both Jack and Will at the same time, through both their words and actions.
For example, we learn over the course of this scene that Will didn't just go above and beyond on Norrington's dress sword--he essentially runs the forge alone. Again, this is never explicitly stated in the movie, but instead it's presented in ways we infer: the way Will keeps the smithy in tight order, the apparently-advanced state of Brown's alcoholism and how Will works with it, or the way there's a donkey running the bellows--a detail that both gives us a rocking set piece for the swordfight AND also explains how Will can tend the forge and maintain its temperature by himself.
Or for another example: we learn the guy who appeared polite and sweet in that first scene is actually hella repressed and get our first glimpse at how he's kind of batshit crazy. And not only does this fight scene use Will's lusts/desires as a set up for his character arc, but it's beginning a pay off already by this point. How do I mean that? Well, obviously there's the way this scene is building on the prior scene to show that, no, Will is actually NOT cool with where society is keeping him, but he asserts that part of his sword obsession comes from the desire to be able to kill a pirate on sight, which ... WTF, dude? Where did that even come from? Why?
Two reasons, which both were alluded to earlier in the movie for us:
The first is pretty obvious: Will's gung-ho about killing pirates because, as far as he's concerned, they were gung-ho about killing him as a child and trauma therapy didn't really exist in the early 18th century, especially not for the lower classes. The second is a bit more of a reach, but is backed up by commentary from cast and crew: Will's gung-ho about killing pirates, because Norrington is.
PotC is fundamentally the story of Elizabeth Swann and her relationship with her place in society, which means Will's own coming-of-age journey is largely centered in what he can and cannot offer Elizabeth--as a romantic interest, yeah, but also just as a deuteragonist as well. The thing about Will--at least in CotBP--is that his loudest desire is to love Elizabeth, but the other desire that gets overlooked a lot in his character is his craving for recognition. What Will wants, just for himself, is to be Noticed. And because of this, early set up for his character is not only establishing who is, but who he isn't and who he wants to be by using Norrington and Jack as contrasts and benchmarks. This is why they go out of their way to emphasize along the way how young and out-of-place Will constantly is. The giving Mr. Brown credit for everything worthwhile he does, "You are not a military man, you are not a sailor" chastisements, the "whelp" nicknames. Will's a boy, he's poor, he's indentured, he's stupid, he's complacent, he's rash... he's just not Good Enough for her by any measurement.
So in a way, Norrington as a character is a stand-in for the expectations of society for both Elizabeth and Will. Establishing Elizabeth's father's enthusiasm for an engagement with Norrington, establishing him as a rising star in the Navy, not only establishes how Elizabeth is dissatisfied with her life and its trajectory (even if it's not Bad, per se), but also establishes what kind of man Will believes he needs to be to better fit in Elizabeth's world--in the eyes of society, anyway. So a lot of Will's early public image of himself is modeled after who society says a man should be--a man like Norrington. And Norrington is a pirate killer.
So not only is Will's conflict with society underlined and illustrated in his relationship with Norrington, but his main conflict with Elizabeth and what's keeping him away from her is established: he's trying to be like Norrington, the man representative of polite society and thereby representative of who/what Elizabeth does not want--so unwittingly by trying to make himself more suitable, by being something he's not, he's making himself LESS suitable for her--which is implied in their "how many times do I have to ask," "at least once more, Miss Swann" exchange.
And like all of this dense information is packed into the movie about this character in the space of three scenes, all before the major conflict of the movie's first act has even really kicked off. I haven't even touched on yet how this all not only sensibly informs the character and his arc on the back half of the movie, but the payoffs that build on all this in the rest of the trilogy. I'd go on but this is already super long and just...
I freakin' love these first few movies and the lead characters. They're so good.
