I was strolling through my Prime app when I came across the Bluff, and reading the narrations under it, I thought it would be like those pirate movies I had seen in the past. But seeing Priyanka Chopra in The Bluff, I became more focused to see how it would play out. The thing I left with was not the stories surrounding the pirates or what they were searching for but what Ercell did.
I watched the idea of a woman who had left her past life, a life of violence, and moved to a quiet island with her family, but she was forced to become that dangerous woman again. It was very interesting for me when I saw the the had everything planned ahead, like she knew she was going to be hunted. Though she enjoyed the quiet life she had built for herself and her life, it came at a cost that came looking for her anyway.
Without a doubt, Ercell was easily my favourite in this movie. She was being referred to as the Blood Mary by the pirates because they feared her. But at some point, she got fed up with that lifestyle.
In this movie, they didn't make her transformation a sudden one, and she didn't suddenly see herself as a fighter. She already knew how to survive. She has simply opted out of those in her past life. But when the threat came to her front door, she had no other choice than to put on the old lifestyle just to keep herself safe and her family. I like that a lot about the movie, how everything was put....
That step and action she took was how I saw her to be different from the unusual action heroine. She had already settled for a new peaceful life, and she wasn't fighting because she wanted revenge or she wanted to act as if she had the strongest skills. She had to defend herself because she had a lot to lose.
Karl Urban's Connor, who happened to be the boss of the pirates, has a very close history with Ercell, and he was also a good character to watch for me because he wasn't just a casual villain, his impact was felt. She was her superior in the pirates' game; in fact, her mentor, I'll put it that way. And he already knows a lot about her when she was still under his leadership. So, he definitely knew how desperate she could get.
The part that got my attention more was when she returned to her old life slowly. How she tricked the other pirates and how she used everything she had learnt against them, most especially in the cave; safely, she had most of the things planned out.
Those scenes were very brutal; it was a woman against groups of pirates with weapons, which I wasn't expecting. Some fights were calm and smooth, but some were very bloody, but they complemented the storyline, I must say, because she wasn't fighting like a superhero. She was fighting to keep the people she loved safe, like someone who had seen worse and survived dangerous people in her past life.
And I also like where the movie was done, the places they used, the Iceland, water and cave and the settings plus the odd dressing styles they used. These things contributed to why I like the movie, because they also made the violence feel even harsher. It's been a while since I watched a movie like The Bluff, so all the effects they used were hitting harder. I also like the final fight where she has no other choice than to kill Karl, with the help of her daughter, for peace to reign and to regain her freedom.
My issue with this movie was that I wanted to see more of Ercell's past, not just the small storyline that Karl mentioned. Because for her to be calm after securing those golds they were looking for, that means her past must be more captivating. But I didn't see that like I wanted to see. I only imagined it.
But still, I enjoyed the watching. No dull moment because it was much darker, bloodier and much more personal than those pirate movies I have seen in the past few years. And it also reflects how the past life that she was trying to keep and let go was what made her survive.
For me, The Bluff gets 8.9/10 because I came to watch another pirate movie, but what stayed with me was the woman who was trying very hard not to become a pirate again.
imdb images
Other images are screenshots from my movie player
Rating: 89/100