I mentioned last time how Jack Sparrow begins to behave as puppet master. That is certainly holds true. Jack has 2 maguffins he's chasing, Davey Jones's key, and Davey Jones's chest. Of course, that's just to get what's inside the chest, but he spends the bulk of the movie trying to get both these elements. He sends Will off to get the key, and incidentally temporarily settle his debt. He has no intention of leaving Will on Jones's boat, but he needs to get the chest in order to get him off. That opportunity presents itself when Elizabeth finds him on Tortuga. He uses her desire to save Will to find the chest.
Now, in each case Jack uses Will and Elizabeth's love for each other to get what he wants. They don't give him the full story either, but Jack is clearly manipulating those around him for his own ends. However, on board Davey Jones's ship, the Flying Dutchman, Will finds his father and makes a promise to free him from Davey Jones, by stabbing Jones's heart. This is where the story of parts 2 and 3 start to get complicated. So now we have 2 characters, both of whom we're rooting for, both after the same goal, with completely different intentions. It gets more complicated, as Norrington comes back into the picture, another character we're sympathetic with, who wants the chest for himself to regain his old life back. It's around this point when the two pirate we've been following since the first movie, the bald one and one eyed one, have to spell out exactly who wants what. The first time I saw this I couldn't help but laugh. It seemed to be a joke on the part of the screenwriters. They're acknowledging the complexity of the story, and are giving us a simplified version of what's going on.
Now, the longer that these characters spend with Jack Sparrow, the more they begin to behave like him. It's spelled out when Elizabeth in on the Black Pearl with Jack, complaining that she isn't married but is ready to be. Jack tells Elizabeth she'll behave selfishly, out of curiosity, and Elizabeth tells Jack he'll behave honorably, again out of curiosity. Will doesn't spend as much time with Jack in this movie, so his intentions tend to stay much more open and obvious. Norrington spends more screen time with him, so we tend to see him behave more like Jack, hiding his true intentions and goals until the very last minute.
Let's look, for a moment, at a little symbolism in the movie. This is a Disney movie, so we're not going to see outright sexual or violently gory action, but we are going to get plenty of symbols for it. The violent symbols are first. There's plenty of swordplay, plenty of stunts, and a fantastic three way fight scene on a runaway water wheel, but never any blood. This is a payoff for all the complexity that the audience has to absorb. Giving us too much plot, or too much action tends to wear out an audience. Dead Man's Chest seems to resolve this problem by stepping up action when the plot gets too complex, then plot when the action gets overwhelming. The sexual symbols are slightly more subtle and pervasive. Jack and Elizabeth share some very pointed dialogue. The whole conversation about marriage has little to do with holy matrimony, and everything to do with penetrative sex. When she holds the compass she keeps finding it pointing to Jack at unexpected times, often while he's playing with a phallic symbol. This is most noted on the ship, after their conversation. Jack is staring out his telescoping telescope, and Elizabeth surprises herself by her true wants changing. We'll see it again later when she's sitting cross-legged on the beach, and Jack mentions that she's sitting on what she really wants. Her, "Beg pardon?" is classic here. It is not much of a stretch to bring this back to sex, how she wants to be penetrated, pure and simple. The problem is another symbol, this time Jack's. His compass doesn't work. Not only does it not point north, but since he has no idea what he wants it doesn't work at all for him. Again, not to harp on the obvious, but this is a phallic symbol. Jack's penis doesn't work, and the movie is as much about his saving his own neck from Davey Jones as it is to regain his own sexuality. Why did he lose it in the first place? We'll come back to that question.
I bring up the symbols not out of a sense of shock value, but to get a better understanding of all the layers going on in this movie. There are no less than 5 major characters in this movie, all of whom have different motivations, techniques, and are distinct characterwise. They all have stories that have a beginning, rising action, a climax, and falling action. Beneath those layers are the symbols that expand the surface plots. And all these elements come to a head in the dramatic end of the film, which is also the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End.
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