Excellent but underrated film

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Oh, I like Charlton Heston a lot, in fact. He was a really great actor and with his impeccable sense of artistry and an array of emotions. And his part in this film as that of General Andrew Jackson, yes, a future President, is probably the best of all. The rest is simply mediocre. Yul Brinner as the titular pirate is at best even and absolutely bland. And then, of my, all those naive pavilion shots, directed by the very Anthony Quinn, who failed at all levels, and even all mighty Cecil DeMille was unable to mend this awful mess of romantic drama, pirates fairy tale, slightly kiddish take on morals...Any better moment? yeah, the best one is a probably the most famous - The Battle Of New Orleans - that Highlanders Charge is the high point of the whole film, but these 20 minutes cannot save 2 hours of yawn and plod and drag and terrible naivety. Yes, such films must be watched for the sake of knowledge that there were truly abominable pseudo historic efforts. My rating - 1 out of 10 - awful

This was the last film that Cecil B. DeMille had anything to do with. He originally planned to direct this remake of his 1938 film The Buccaneer, but ill health prevented him from doing so. So apart from a brief prologue and a production credit saying the film was presented by him, DeMille left the producing to good friend Henry Wilcoxon and the directing to his son-in-law Anthony Quinn.This version has the added attractions of great technicolor photography and Paramount's new wide screen Vistavision process. I saw in the theater when I was 11 years old and it is quite an eyeful. Yul Brynner makes as dashing a Jean Lafitte as Fredric March did in the 1938 film. Charlton Heston repeats his Andrew Jackson role from The President's Lady which he made earlier in the Fifties. Heston though was not satisfied because he realized that he was made up to look like the Andrew Jackson we know from the double sawbuck when he was in the White House. At New Orleans he was a bit younger. But like Moses and the circus boss from The Greatest Show on Earth, you follow him to Hades and back.The best role in the film for me though was Charles Boyer as Dominic You, Lafitte's cynical second in command. A former artillery officer in Napoleon's army, he left there and took up piracy out of disillusionment with how the French Revolution turned out. Boyer has some good and wise lines in his counsel to Lafitte even if he's drunk while delivering some of them.After The Ten Commandments, DeMille had plans to make a film about Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts and was in negotiations with David Niven to play Baden-Powell. He got sidetracked with this film and then he died in early 1959. Of course the Boy Scout film never did get made by anyone.Although DeMille eliminated one element of the plot from 1938 the traitorous Senator played by Ian Keith the rest of the film is pretty much the same. This is hardly the real story of Jean Lafitte. When not on the action, the film does drag in spots. Maybe that's why Anthony Quinn never directed another film.This version of The Buccaneer had one additional thing going for it. Country singer Johnny Horton had a mega hit record of The Battle of New Orleans at the same time the film came out. Both must have fed off each other in profit making. I well remember you couldn't go a day without hearing The Battle of New Orleans playing some time on the radio.It's not history, it's DeMille at his gaudiest.

Yul Brynner is Louisiana's greatest folk Hero/Pirate/Privateer/Patriot/Gentleman and the most condemned and pardoned man in American History. Charlton Heston is Old Hickory himself Andrew Jackson the wild and crazy Tennessee General who would go on to be President of The United States. The storyline is simple ! The British fresh from the battles with Napoleon are coming and have already got a hold of Washington D.C.. It is up to General Andrew Jackson and his fresh raw inexperienced troops to stop them from coming into New Orleans. Lafitte the pirate is running an illegal buying and selling operation in the Bayou but no one really seems to care except Louisiana Governor Claibourne who would rather see Lafitte hanged. I won't spoil all of the Buccaneer for you so go and get a copy on video. And if Paramount Pictures reads this posting please do me a favor and get this movie digitally remastered and remixed onto DVD where it belongs. Use all the amenities of DVD with picture and sound and make this movie look and sound better than it ever has been please !

Sure, the history in this movie was "Hollywoodized"--but it's far from being the only bit of history rewritten for the masses. Lafitte sided with the Americans because he considered himself a Frenchman and therefore hated the British, not because of any sense of patriotism for a nation that had taken over New Orleans only a short time ago; he broke his agreement and returned to smuggling, which caused his sailing to Galveston; he was more of a petty criminal and scoundrel than a hero *or* a swashbuckler. But who cares? This is one movie that's sheer entertainment--and face it, we all wanted Jean to go for the feisty wench rather than the prudish daughter of the governor. Brynner once again rises over mediocre writing to give a fascinating performance.