Pirates

SYNOPSIS

This would-be swashbuckling adventure from Roman Polanski is one of the biggest flops in cinema history. It began taking shape in 1974, immediately after Chinatown. Polanski wanted Jack Nicholson to play the lead in what would be a lark, a send-up of Errol Flynn movies and their ilk, but Hollywood wouldn't underwrite it. A dozen years later Polanski found Tunisian backers and shot the picture in the Seychelles with Walter Matthau hiding behind a forest of face-fur, walking on a wooden leg and talking Hollywood-cockney. The waste of money and talent, together with the sub-Python japes, make this a uniquely depressing experience that should serve as a warning to producers with grandiose ideas and no script.