How To Grow Your Geek: Parenting and More!

A pirate named Tommy

Hi Guys,
I got a rare one for you this time. It is out on dvd, just not sure how easy it to get anymore. It is one dad had on the shelf I pulled down.
Way back before Indy, and long before Captain Jack. There was a Pirate by the name of Bully Hayes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_Hayes

A real life pirate, that roamed the South Sea. This is his story.

Nate and Hayes – A dvd review by Darcy Low.

“Nate and Hayes. After wiping out half a village of native South Pacific tribesmen, Captain Bully Hayes (Tommy Lee Jones) is eventually captured, put in prison, and the rest of this swashbuckling action film is told in a series of flashbacks as he remembers the recent past. The lead-in scene may be off-putting, but its larger context is soon revealed. Hayes had just left a young couple, Nate (Michael O’Keefe) and Sophie (Jennie Seagrove) on an island so they could set up housekeeping and follow in the missionary footsteps of an uncle, when the villain Ben Pease (Max Phipps) shows up, kidnaps Sophie and leaves her husband for dead. Pease runs into a German naval officer who feels it would be advantageous to join up with him — so when Captain Hayes saves Nate and, the two go looking for Sophie, their enemies are formidable villains indeed. Laced with humor and acting in the grand pirate-movie tradition.”  – From the All Movie Guide.

I really liked this one. Dad said when it first came out, it was a flop at the box office. Which is weird to me, because it is really good. It has action, a great plot and Tommy Lee Jones as a pirate with a beard! I mean what more could you want?

When the movie starts, we see Captain Hayes (Played by a very young, long haired and bearded Tommy Lee Jones) with his crew carrying boxes of guns though a jungle. They come upon a native village where a woman is the chieftain. They are selling the guns to them for gold, but the woman refuses to give them money and attacks the crew instead. They flee back though the jungle with the natives hot on their trail! In what will remind you a lot of Indy in Raiders, including a fight scene on a rope bridge far over a river. (Think Temple of Doom.) In A  fight on the same bridge, we learn Captain Bully does not shy away from hitting women, well crazy women with spears trying to kill him that is. : )

After the fight, having made it across the gorge and having cut the rope bridge; Bully thinks he is safe and sound. But the evil pirate Captain Pease, who is working with the Spanish army. They find out that Bully has been selling guns to the natives. They throw him in jail, getting ready to hang him for treason the next morning.

He is sitting in the jail cell with a man who is taking down his confession. Bully, while being nice and answering the man’s question. The man describes how others see Bully, as a cold blooded killer, a rapist and a pillager. Bully tells him, yes he kills when he has to; but as for the other he has never done any such thing. He asked the man if he wants to know the full story of how he wound up here.  And this is where our story begins.

Long before, Bully and his crew were in a sea port; taking on supplies. He is approached by a young couple. The man is a young priest who is going to his parents home, where they have a parish. Teaching the natives Christianity and helping them. They both ask if they can book passage aboard the ship. Bully, always liking money; and who is taken by the girl. Readily agrees. During the voyage, the young man becomes more and more jealous. But Bully is a real gentleman and really gives no reason for him to be worried.

After they drop them off, wishing them both well. Bully and his crew go into town. Meanwhile the couple go to his parents home. They are all excited about the wedding and agree to be married the next day. All during the dinner, the young priest is grumbling about the crew and Captain. When the parents learn he was Bully, they are shocked and tell them both they are lucky to be alive. Further advancing the wild pirate story.

The next day, right as the wedding is starting. The wedding party is attacked by pirates and slavers, who kill both parents, take some of the natives; and leave the young priest for dead. Taking his wife! When he awakens hours later, he is helped by the only surviving native who tells him all that happened. He feels it is Captain Bully that has done this, and the young priest sets to work to find him to take out his revenge. He takes off in a home made raft, but winds up wrecking it and is left stranded on a rock sticking out in the middle of the ocean. (A funny scene after happens when he is spotted standing on it.)
He is finally rescued and picked up by…….yeah you got it, Bully and his crew. (didn’t see that coming did you? hehe.) The young priest, (Nate from the title; I should have said earlier.) attacks Bully blaming him for everything that has happened. Shouting it was him and his “Blackbirds that did this!”
Bully and his crew clam him down and explains to him that it wasn’t them at all. And Blackbird is what Captain Pease calls his crew, often leaving the sign of a crow behind to scare people. They return to his parent’s home, pointing out the signs and saying this looks like the evil Captains work. The crew and Bully all agree to help find the girl and bring Pease to justice.

Meanwhile……

Aboard Pease’s ship, the young bride is locked up in a cabin; trying everything to escape. She manages to get one of the crews knife from him and when Pease busts in, holds the blade to the frightened man;s throat; saying she will kill him if she is not let go. Pease smiles evily, pulls out a dagger and kills the crew member himself! He then explains that she can never escape and that he has plains for her.

Later, he and his crew land in a port and Pease meets with a German office, who agrees to buy the captured slaves. He is down in the islands looking for some where to set up a naval base for the Germans. He says thy have a secret weapon that has to be hidden somewhere down here. Pease agrees to help and takes him to head hunter’s camp. They offer the FAT chief various shrunken heads, (gross) but the chief only says, “Not enough!” At a lost, and wanting the hide out badly, the German turns to Pease asking what can we give him? Pease smiles evilly and replies,    “Oh we have something else, it really depends on how bad you really want this.” They return to the ship and bring to the chief the young girl. The chief readily agrees then. And calls for the girl to be sacrificed to their god!

Now it is a race against time! Can Nate and Bully find her? Will they arrive in time? What about Pease, can they stop him and his evil ways? And what of the German officer? Just what is this “Secret weapon” and why does it have to be so well hidden? As the young girl is slowly lowered into waiting flames, time is running out for our heroes!

Wow guys, this is really a great movie. It is full of action, sword play and also some humor. The chemistry between the two main characters is really good and gets pretty funny as they both get drunk at one point and moan over the lost girl. The acting is pretty good for this type of film, wasn’t really any over acting. And seeing Tommy Lee Jones as a full on action hero is really cool.

This one might be hard to find. We have a copy from a old laser disk, so we don’t even have a case I could take a quote from. (And yes, dad had bought the disk, so nothing illegal in making his own copy.) I would try to find this on Netflix first, then maybe amazon and ebay. Dad thinks it did come out on dvd at some point.

Anyway here is a trailer I found for you, plus a bit of trivia as well.

First is the scene in the jail cell as Bully begins his story. It is on Amazon, so I am think this is your best bet to find this great movie.

http://www.amazon.com/Nate-And-Hayes/dp/B001KLZ6YI/ref=pd_vodsm_B001KLZ6YI

This is the only you video I could find. It is of various scenes in the movie. Still you can get an idea bout it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm7fW3I0jkc

So seek this one out guys, and if you have seen it, please feel free to add comments. That’s why I do these. To get parents to remember, and new people to seek out good movies.

And here is a couple things to look for in the movies. A couple funny goofs.

As Hayes and his crew stop Ben Pease in the streets of Samoa we see he is clearly surrounded. In fact people and Hayes’ remaining crew cut off the escape route. However when Pease makes his escape away from Hayes, the crew and everyone that cut him off are standing to the sides of the road giving him a clear path.

When Nate is sailing away on the raft, the surviving native is shown topless as he waves goodbye. No injuries can be seen from either the front or behind, despite the character recently having been shot in the shoulder when the island was attacked.

Darcy