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Reviews
Pirates of the Great Salt Lake (2006)
good stuff, lots of fun
This review contains some thematic spoilers, but not necessarily crucial plot elements. PotGSL is a wonderful and creative comedic adventure on the low sea that rests on the outskirts of suburbia. Many of the reviews that I read before seeing the film compared it with Napolean Dynamite and thus similarly praised or criticized both. I recently saw it at the Indianapolis International Film Festival and I have to admit that the humor is comparable, but PotGSL extends the identity crises of the characters beyond the high school world of Napolean. In early adulthood, many of us find ourselves with jobs that don't give our lives meaning. Sometimes we can even feel like we've lost ourselves to the conventional measures of success. Upon realizing that we are called to a different way of life (like to fulfill childhood dreams of becoming a pirate or a princess), we still might have to deal with how we are perceived if we choose to follow our dreams. But wouldn't it be great if we stumbled on to a treasure map to get us there? The pirate journey in PotGSL is not just about finding a buried treasure, but living life in spite of the mistakes of the past, whether they involve imposed curses or unfinished responsibilities. As a viewer, I was less interested in figuring out what would happen next in the movie than keeping up with the journey of the characters as they learned more about themselves and recognized the impact of the past on their future. Rather than merely living up to some conventional standards indifferent to our individual passions in life, PotGSL seems to be more about becoming the kind of people we want to be in the face of socially acceptable ways to live. And it advocates this with a great deal of humor. I loved this movie, and I hope that you will, too.