National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Walt Disney Pictures released Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in the summer of 2003, adapting a theme park attraction into a full-length adventure film that revived the swashbuckler genre for a new generation. Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film became one of the defining blockbusters of its decade and launched a long-running franchise.

This cell captures Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Hector Barbossa in close confrontation, the two captains framed against a dark background threaded with fire and smoke. Three consecutive frames preserve the same charged exchange, with the third showing a partial circular obstruction at the reel edge — a quiet reminder of the physical life this print has lived.