There is no doubting that this is a real nail-biting highjack thriller of a film. But there is equally no doubting that a real opportunity has been squandered to explore the geo-politics of the region. So in the end we are presented with the bad guys, those Somalian pirates seizing and demanding ransom from the law abiding seamen, and the good guys in the shape of the US Navy Seals and other god fearing US military agencies. The good guys naturally win the day with the help of some state of the art technology and the bad guys are either dead or serving time in a US penitentiary.

And life goes on as it should, with global capitalism trading across the planet and minor irritants like the Somalian pirates put firmly back into their boxes, both metaphorically and literally. Of course the real world is not so black and white. Who are these young Somalian men who constantly risk their lives to demand payment for seizing shipping in international waters? What motivates them and what is their back story? And just how fair and equitable is the global shipping trade that these young Somalians seek to exploit?

There was just one brief hint in the film that the producers had some inkling of the bigger picture. The lead Somalian is allowed to confront his captured US captain with the reality of international fishing fleets stripping bare the fish stocks off the coast of Africa. It was a quick one-liner and if you weren’t paying attention you could easily miss it. But this is but one crucial aspect of Somalian fishermen being forced to give up their tradition livelihoods to seek survival in more hazardous waters. There is also the militant Islamic connection which was also referred to obliquely when the Somalians talk of their bosses back in Somalia. Once again this connection is not explored in anything but a dismissive way. There are no flash backs to childhood or family life. No attempt to develop real characters with real and desperate motivations. All we are left with is an image of Somalians as cruel and ruthless criminals who deserve what’s coming to them.

But even a cursory examination of East African history will highlight centuries of ruthless European colonialism, a colonialism that involved the most brutal acts of piracy in human history, acts that involved the wholesale plunder of the continent’s resources both mineral, agricultural and human. Opposition was crushed without mercy. Britain and the other offending European colonial powers are still in public denial about this long and bloody history yet glimpses of the truth keep forcing their way into the public domain. As for Africa, so it was across the Indian sub-continent, East Asia, Australasia and the Americas. Genocide, slavery and punitive economic servitude.

But that was then, and this is now. Has the political and economic relations between the developed economies of Europe and America, and the impoverish periphery changed for the better? I suspect not. A neo liberalism dressed up as enlightened free trade continues to scour the planet for cheap labour and cheap resources. Captain Phillips tells his Somalian captors that his ship is carrying food for starving Africans. Even if this were true in this instance, one would have to ask oneself why in the 21st century an entire continent is still prone to bouts of famine and starvation. The answers are not pretty. Clearly the imbalances built into the world trading system under the diktat of the IMF, and World Bank has skewered world trade once again to the advantage of the wealthy economies. And for every pound or dollar that goes into Africa in the form of aid, ten times that amount is extracted in the form of debt repayments and cheap resources. International piracy by any other name. All this is well documented for those who care to know how our little world really works.

So, the Somalians, battered, beaten and destitute from centuries of European colonialism and modern day imperialism have little option but to kick back in any way they can. The odds are stacked against them but still they refuse to meekly lay down and die. With the temporary collapse of the world socialist movement, militant Islam, however reactionary it may be, holds out a flicker of hope for a better, more equitable world. This film could have been a real opportunity to explore these complex and interlocking historical and socio-economic factors but the chance was cheaply squandered. Instead we are offered a Holly wood script of infantile dimensions. But it was nail-biting.