The most sombre of Errol Flynn's 3 great adventure films (the others are Captain Blood and Robin Hood), this dark movie has none of the sexy romping or witty banter that enliven the other two. It has, however, plenty of passion, if not the romantic kind. The Sea Hawk dramatises the need for the US to enter World War II, with sixteenth-century Spain standing in for Nazi Germany, and analogies to wartime Europe every few minutes.
At the beginning, Flynn's privateers board and sink a Spanish ship, freeing its galley slaves (ie, victims of Nazism). The Spanish heroine is horrified when she sets eyes on them for the first time, and Flynn later tells her he realised, when he saw her expression, that she was not as cold as he thought (ie, decent people should sympathise with the conquered nations, not act as if the suffering doesn't exist because they don't see it). There are forceful speeches by Flynn, Queen Elizabeth, and her ministers about England's policy toward Spain, whose king we have heard saying that he wants to conquer the whole world to satisfy his own ambitions. The Queen says that King Philip may not be planning to attack England and she doesn't want to make him angry. Flynn says why would he be building up a navy if he didn't intend to use it. The Spanish ambassador rebukes Flynn for freeing the galley slaves, who he says were properly tried and sentenced under Spanish law. Flynn replies that an Inquisition court and slavery are not what any Englishman would recognise as proper--he seems to stop just short of saying "cruel and unusual punishment"! The Queen is warned that England may find herself all alone in a world of enemies. The courtiers who oppose antagonising Spain are shown as doing so because they are profiteering traitors, not because they have different ideas. So the Queen can be regarded as a stand-in not only for Churchill but for Roosevelt.
When Flynn and his men are betrayed, and then captured by the Spaniards and made into galley slaves, they manage to slip their chains and then silently wait below decks for the Spanish to pass by, one at a time, and then pull each one down below and overpower him--in other words, they literally become underground fighters.
The film ends with a fiery speech from Queen Liz, who says who the hell is King Philip to tell us what to do, and promises to turn all the trees in England into ships to fight those Spanish bastards, with everyone cheering her on. For an utterly persuasive combination of argument and emotion, this was a pitch for the US entering the war that should have won all the Warner Brothers honorary knighthoods.
At the beginning, Flynn's privateers board and sink a Spanish ship, freeing its galley slaves (ie, victims of Nazism). The Spanish heroine is horrified when she sets eyes on them for the first time, and Flynn later tells her he realised, when he saw her expression, that she was not as cold as he thought (ie, decent people should sympathise with the conquered nations, not act as if the suffering doesn't exist because they don't see it). There are forceful speeches by Flynn, Queen Elizabeth, and her ministers about England's policy toward Spain, whose king we have heard saying that he wants to conquer the whole world to satisfy his own ambitions. The Queen says that King Philip may not be planning to attack England and she doesn't want to make him angry. Flynn says why would he be building up a navy if he didn't intend to use it. The Spanish ambassador rebukes Flynn for freeing the galley slaves, who he says were properly tried and sentenced under Spanish law. Flynn replies that an Inquisition court and slavery are not what any Englishman would recognise as proper--he seems to stop just short of saying "cruel and unusual punishment"! The Queen is warned that England may find herself all alone in a world of enemies. The courtiers who oppose antagonising Spain are shown as doing so because they are profiteering traitors, not because they have different ideas. So the Queen can be regarded as a stand-in not only for Churchill but for Roosevelt.
When Flynn and his men are betrayed, and then captured by the Spaniards and made into galley slaves, they manage to slip their chains and then silently wait below decks for the Spanish to pass by, one at a time, and then pull each one down below and overpower him--in other words, they literally become underground fighters.
The film ends with a fiery speech from Queen Liz, who says who the hell is King Philip to tell us what to do, and promises to turn all the trees in England into ships to fight those Spanish bastards, with everyone cheering her on. For an utterly persuasive combination of argument and emotion, this was a pitch for the US entering the war that should have won all the Warner Brothers honorary knighthoods.