"The Bluff: pirate movie with a variation." Topic

I went to the cast & crew premiere of this Amazon Prime pirate movie tonight.

Disclaimer: my daughter was involved in the production. I still maintain it is well worth seeing.

I'd recommend leaving historical knowledge at the door & enjoying it as a pirate fantasy piece. Great production values, pretty good acting, a reasonably compelling plot & very entertaining.

It is also not your usual pirate movie – there's a variation which gives it added zest.

Watched it today. It was entertaining, bit he's right not historical at all. Still a good romp

There are echoes of history in it – the second in command being the Quartermaster, female pirates etc.

One thing that struck me was the pirates' secret language that was a manufactured composite of Malay / Malay trade pidgin, Arabic loan-words (common among sailors and traders), Portuguese maritime terms and a bit of gibberish / phonetic invention for cinematic effect.

Given "Bloody Mary" was played by an actor from south Asia & the historical reality of the very bloody Malay pirates, it struck a chord with me. My girl was unable to tell me if this was deliberate or not.

But, yes, not a very historical movie – just fun.

Actually, outside of two woman who disguised themselves as men, there were no women pirates during the Golden Age of Pirates. It is a Hollywood myth and one I am getting quite sick of. Taught a course on piracy for many years and had this come up time and again. Absolutely there were no woman captains.

I appreciate your knowledge Grattan. I do believe it was not unusual for Dyak & Malay pirates to include women as a part, even leading.

Among the various Dyak groups of Borneo, women were part of a strongly martial culture. Women did take part in warfare, including head-hunting raids, especially in defence of longhouses. Some women held ritual or spiritual authority (shamans, omen-readers) that could influence when raids occurred.

However, although direct command of raiding parties & pirate ventures was overwhelmingly male on occasion it seemed women sometimes led. Older Malay women, often widows, were also known to lead.

European observers in the 18th–19th centuries did record women giving orders, directing logistics and occasionally being acknowledged as leaders of raiding groups.

This was rare, but not unheard of. BTW Patrick O'Brian has a Dyak woman pirate in one of his great novels.

Now "The Bluff" cannot be accused of being historically accurate in any meaningful sense, but as the lead was of Indian origin, I think she was meant to follow in this tradition rather than the European one. It was not implicitly spoken of in the movie but as I indicated above about the movie's 'pirate patois', it seems some one did some research.