National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was released by Walt Disney Pictures in the summer of 2003, directed by Gore Verbinski. Adapted from a theme park attraction, it became an unexpected cultural phenomenon, launching a franchise and earning Geoffrey Rush an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Barbossa.

This cell, titled Captain Hector Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann, captures a moonlit moment aboard the Black Pearl in which Barbossa's cursed skeletal hand is raised against deep blue darkness. The three-frame strip holds the same suspended instant, Geoffrey Rush's figure caught mid-gesture in the supernatural light that defines the film's most memorable visual register.