Pirate Expert Reviews Famous Pirates in Hollywood Movies

Iszi Lawrence, comedian, podcaster and history presenter rates more portrayals of famous pirates in Hollywood historical movies. Iszi has worked on the Netflix documentary 'The Lost Pirate Kingdom' and is the author of Blackbeard's Treasure, a tale set in the eighteenth century during the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean.

Iszi first reviews scenes from 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' (2007), where she talks about the legend of the 'Pirate Code' and how much truth there is behind it.

She then moves onto the next film in the franchise 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' (2011) where she takes slight issue with Ian McShane's depiction of Edward Teach aka 'Blackbeard', who would have been 35 years old when he died, despite the actor in question being almost 70 at the time of filming.

The next film Iszi reviews is 'The Black Swan' (1942) in which Laird Cregar depicts infamous pirate captain and later Governor of Jamaica, Henry Morgan.

Finally, Iszi rates the classic film 'Sea Hawk' (1940) starring Errol Flynn as an English privateer, loosely based on Sir Francis Drake, who defends his nation's interests on the eve of the launch of the Spanish Armada. How accurate is Flora Robson's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I?

Watch the video to find out!

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00:00 Introduction
00:34 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
09:18 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
15:50 The Black Swan (1942)
19:44 The Sea Hawk (1940)
26:46 More History Hit Movie Reviews!

[DrRipper]

They introduced her as the author of a children's book and I was like "hm, does that really make her a 'pirate expert'?" And then the first thing she pointed out was how the nooses were wrong lol she's great

[christianmandeville]

Love Iszi, because she understands that fictional movies are fictional and mostly just points out the areas where historical accuracy is possible rater than complaining about the magic

[spencerthomas]

"He could've also been mad because of the syphilis"...can't argue with that one 😂

[anonnymousperson]

Iszi has to be one of the most fun presenters in this sort of format. Bring her back!

[Altmetalpunk]

It's funny to me that Ponce De Leon believed he had found the fountain of youth because the natives looked so much healthier than his crew. When really it was just mineral water from the florida aquifers

[richardwaring]

Always reminds me of a History teacher who always used the mantra 'Meat is hung, People are hanged!' His pupils acted as the pedant police correcting anyone who said 'He was hung.'

[Adrienne]

"The hacking is great!" "The hitting of the back of the pistol is great" "Falling to the bottom of the sea...obviously...but a bit slow" Iszi is the perfect combination of charming and historically accurate!

[jordanc]

Iszi has David Tennant energy and I think that’s one of the reasons I love to watch her pirate breakdowns

[sharonkaczorowski]

I’m 73. When I was a teen I spent many an afternoon ironing while watching old pirate movies. Fortunately, my father balanced them with some home truths about not just piracy but the brutality of the navies at that time. He did tell me how democratic pirates were. I have no idea how he knew all that. He and my mother were history buffs and he had been a TBM bomber pilot in the Pacific in WWII. He raised me to loathe the romanticizing of human history. And yes Flynn was absolutely stunning. My mother had a huge crush on him and I admit to the occasional teen heart flutter.

[moreartthantime]

We need more videos with Iszi! There's so much material still! Black Sails, Our Flag Means Death, video games like Sea of Thieves and the Assassins Creed: Black Flag, older movies like Pirates of Penzance and stuff with Errol Flynn, and the infamous YellowBeard! There;s also Cutthroat Island (How did a movie with so much potential end up so terrible?) and movies that are not pirate-centric but have pirates like Hook or the Goonies.

[Chtulhu]

"It's really hard to sail a ship with your crew filled splinters, or dead" Well said mam, well said!

[Billious]

A bit of context for Blackbeard in the movie, it is stated that this Blackbeard shouldn’t be alive, Jack himself mentions the story of Blackbeard’s death and in the movie we know most of his knew crew are new implying the reason why is because his old crew were either imprisoned or executed.

So that seals up the age plot hole but it creates a new plot hole in that the Queen Anne’s Revenge was washed up on a sandbar and lost long before his death.

[chuchulainn]

The thought of anyone seeing Blackbeard's flag and saying, "Oh it's alright, it's only Blackbeard. We'll be fine!" made me laugh so hard! 😅😂🤣

[RhinoBarbarian]

I love the sarcasm when she's talking about the fantasy aspects of 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' I've seen so many of these with such uptight people that are just so dismissive of the fantasy elements of films. This is refreshing!

[dramaskrgrl]

I would LOVE to hear Iszi's opinions on the series Black Sails, considering it is incorporating pirate history with the story of Treasure Island.

[Wolfintery]

Love that she acknowledges that certain things make great filmmaking while still teaching us the factual. Love her!

[Maazzzo]

My favourite genre of video is academics/experts against movies. Really enjoy Iszi Lawrence, please bring her back for another one.

[Miroslava_Ivanova]

I am once again hoping for an episode where Iszi is shown Our flag means death clips, would love to hear the same type of analysis of that show!

[RoyalCod]

Another important fact (in my opinion) about Blackbeard that was missed was his height. It was reported that he was around 6’6”, which was incredibly taller than average at the time, adding to his frightening image. In the movie he seems so small

[paulv]

Pirate history is undoubtedly fascinating in and of itself, but she is great at presenting and explaining!