What a great movie. Shatner does a great job of finding out who these actors are and what impact it had on their lives. He gets to the heart of what it means to be an actor and also what it means to be a part of Star Trek. I really enjoyed hearing from the Actors (Brooks, Mulgrew, Stewart, Bakula, Pine and Shatner) about their experience as actors and as Captains on Star Trek. We really see what love these actors had for the show and how it effected them.
The movie was shot and edited wonderfully. Great production quality. I was really pleasantly surprised. I wish there were extended interviews on the DVD since I wanted to see even more. It was a really interesting and fun movie and I really enjoyed it!
The Captains
2011
Action / Biography / Documentary / Sci-Fi
The Captains
2011
Action / Biography / Documentary / Sci-Fi
Keywords: space opera
Plot summary
The Captains takes the audience on a voyage of discovery as pop culture phenom William Shatner interviews Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard Star Trek: The Next Generation),Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko Star Trek: Deep Space Nine),Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager),Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer, Star Trek: Enterprise),and Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek 2009). With each of these celebrated actors Shatner explores the pressures and pitfalls that came along with donning the Starfleet uniform and reveals for the first time his own embarrassment over the role which made him a household name. With the help of his fellow captains Shatner learns to respect his work on the original Star Trek and finishes the film with a new perspective on life, death, and the legacy he will leave behind. The Captains also delves into each of the actors' lives and careers leading up to their landmark television performances. The film pays special attention to Shatner's own acting roots, tracking his journey from humble beginnings at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and CBC Radio, to headlining Broadway shows, and eventually getting his big break in Hollywood at the helm of Gene Roddenberry's ambitious brainchild. As an extra treat, whilst in Stratford, Ontario, Shatner sits down with his dear friend Christopher Plummer. The Canadian legend of the stage and screen was instrumental in Shatner's young career and was rewarded by the original captain years later with the role of bloodthirsty Klingon General Chang in Star Trek VI. The Captains is a unique documentary which examines much more than mere acting and the shows these people worked on. The film tells deep emotional tales of human beings struggling to do what they love most and perform to a high enough standard as to make all their sacrifices worth while. The Captains is also boundless fun as personified by its gregarious, charming, and surprisingly soulful host.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Great movie!
Most fascinating with the personal stuff
William Shatner interviews Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard Star Trek: The Next Generation),Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko Star Trek: Deep Space Nine),Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager),Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer, Star Trek: Enterprise),and Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek 2009).
There are some fan stuff, some acting stuff, but it's the personal problems that's the most fascinating. I wish there was even more on-set stuff. I understand it's tough to get into the personal stuff. But everybody loves to dish on the on-set stuff. And Shatner talking to Nimoy would have been mind blowing. I'm sure they have some great stuff to get off their chests.
Not Exactly What I Was Expecting
There are definitely some things you learn from this documentary about the various actors who have played "The Captain" on all the various incarnations of Star Trek. They all worked hard. There were lots of references to 12 or 14 or 18 hour days, or being at the studio until 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning. So being the star of a TV show (I assume the same would hold true for any TV show) is hard and demanding work. I get that. And we learn that the gruelling demands on their time lead to a lot of family problems. William Shatner and Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula were open about the divorces they experienced (Stewart especially expressing great regret about them) and Kate Mulgrew was very candid about the challenges of being a single mother to two children while she was shooting Voyager. (Apparently both of her children still resent the show and won't watch it.) So there are some interesting things here, and I think Shatner did a pretty decent job as an interviewer, drawing some of that material out of the various "captains." Overall, though, I wasn't entirely sure what this documentary was trying to accomplish.
It's basically Shatner interviewing all of those who have played "The Captain" on the various incarnations of Star Trek. So you have Stewart (Picard on TNG) and Bakula (Archer on Enterprise) and Mulgrew (Janeway on Voyager),along with Avery Brooks (Sisko on DS9) and even Chris Pine (Kirk in the Star Trek reboot) talking about their experiences in the captain's chair. But it's more personal than professional. A lot of their chats are more about their lives and Star Trek's impact than on Star Trek itself. You don't learn much "behind the scenes" stuff, for example. In that sense it was a wee bit of a let down. Especially disappointing, I thought, was Shatner's interviews with Brooks. I got very little out of Brooks comments. He spent most of his time playing the piano and singing jazz with Shatner. And even Bakula's focus seemed less on "Star Trek" than it was on "Quantum Leap."
There is some interesting material about the actors respective backgrounds. Most started out on stage, Bakula and Brooks have music backgrounds, and Brooks is a professor of Theatre Arts at Rutgers University. It seemed to me as if most of these actors have had to "come to terms" with their Trek background. It was only Stewart of all of them (who probably has the most accomplished acting background) who was actually able to say that he will be very happy to be remembered mostly as Captain Picard rather than as any of the Shakespearean or other characters he's played.
As might be expected, the documentary centres on Shatner, and I was unconvinced about the need to repeatedly cut back to Shatner at Star Trek conventions being greeted by adoring crowds. It was good to see him working the crowds and interacting with fans (especially the young man in the wheelchair) but the number of times the film cut back to Shatner at the conventions made it seem a little bit self- serving.
Parts of this were interesting. It wasn't exactly what I expected. I was thinking there would be a lot more background, behind the scenes Star Trek material as opposed to the personal stories (often the non-Trek stories) of the actors. Not bad, but to me it fell a little bit short. (6/10)