norden-tha-man Many who knows a thing or two about the great pirate era will know doubt get annoyed of this television movie on how it isn't historically accurate according to the legend of Blackbeard. To Them I have two things to say:1: Remember that history is always written by the winners. The Brits for one do not like the rest of the world to know the origin of the privateers and how they became the first pirates in America. All records of that time was written to make them seem as villainous as possible (which many of them were) and make the empire seem as noble in opposite. I'm not defending the action of most pirates of that era, I'm just saying it is impossible to know the true and full story.2: So what? This wasn't a true documentary in the stile that it was suppose to inform us, but it is meant to intrigue us and make people interested about the era and this fascinated man. It is much in the same genre of some other BBC production that was made at the same time, like ''Hannibal'' and ''Genghis Khan'', which I also highly recommend. It is meant to be a movie with a documentary style narrative, with good actors and some excellent cinematography. And sense why can't know the true history behind Blackbeard, I can't see how ''lost facts'' should stop you from enjoying this piece.Now, why do I like this movie so much? Well, just like vikings so have pirates always fascinated me. And Blackbeard is the most fascinating pirate of all time (but not the most successful... that honor goes to Bartholomew Roberts). I saw this movie for the first time about 8 years ago, and it's one of those movies I can go back to over and over again.There aren't much in terms of characters in this movie. The the actors playing the crew are not bad by any means, but they are really just there to help portray the man of the title. But that is not really needed, because James Purefoy as Blackbeard could hold up a movie by himself ten times over. Be (sadly) put Ian McShane on his place, perhaps being the best portray of the character since Robert Newton. That he didn't get to play the character in the cinema is a really big lost for us all.The scenery and costumes are also great, and the ships looks amazing. And despite the historical ''missteps'', the movie also makes a great work to learn us some other trivial from the era, like how big the ships really were, instead of the monsters from the PoC- movies.Is it a great movie?... not really, BUT is it a enjoyable one? If you like me love pirates, then HELL YEAH!

mr-insane I watched it on National Geographic it it was great. I was amused how Teach wanted to fight with music and loved it when he joked with Tom about the whole " Isn't the point of a joke to make people laugh?" thing. It was a pretty accurate telling of Teach. I never figured out what happened to Frenchy though and that really would've been nice to know. This movie shows that pirates were not the loving, funny, comedic "Pirates of the Caribbean" nor the stereotypic pirate that both movies displayed. Though close I'm pretty sure Blackbeard was decapitated during the fight instead of it being removed after though. Still no matter how much you prefer comedies or romances(which you will certainly not find here!) you have to love this movie.

grey-37 With the disclaimer that it was the most accurate portrayal on television, I thought I would do a little lookup. I couldn't find much online, I'm assuming most of the backup documentation is in museum or offline locations.A couple of tidbits I did find online conflict with the narrative, but then again, a great deal of stories conflict. It would be interesting to see how the determination of "most accurate" was made.However... The wife and I have a thing for the age of pirates, and looked forward to this eagerly. We weren't disappointed.My only complaint was the backtracking after commercial breaks. It was kind of like we had to be reminded of what we'd just seen not 60-90 seconds ago.Now that this is no longer in production, I think the database should be updated! I also think that a listing of the rest of the cast would be nice. I'm curious about the actors portraying the prominently displayed members of the crew.

tnhelliott When the show started I have to say that it wasn't at all what I expected it to be. I thought there would be documentary and explanation, however it was produced in story form. After I got over the initial shock of changed expectation, the film was quite good. I felt the narrative was a little clunky and jilted, however, the action was exciting and the acting was superb. The Art direction for the film was well researched and the special effects were very believable. It was refreshing to see the beauty and majesty of the ships at sail balanced with the hardship and disease. After the romanticism of Pirates of the Caribean, the reality of this film was nice. I would have liked to have more back story of the men and the reasons for their piracy than was given, but over all I will say that I enjoyed this program.