The Buccaneer

The Buccaneer (1958) is a historical adventure you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Anthony Quinn. Yul Brynner plays Jean Lafitte — the last major pirate of the Gulf Coast, holding a fortified island near New Orleans at exactly the moment the War of 1812 reaches its crisis.

A British fleet of sixty ships and sixteen thousand men is sailing for Louisiana. General Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) has barely twelve hundred soldiers and one real option: bring Lafitte over to the American side. The problem is the governor despises the man, the British are offering him a pardon and a fortune, and his crew wants him to back the more likely winner. He raids no American ships, sells untaxed goods the locals love, and owes loyalty to no one — except his own instincts.

Cecil B. DeMille produced this remake of his own 1938 original, with Quinn directing for the first time. Brynner plays Lafitte as a man doing the math on where his conscience actually lands — and the film is at its best in the moment before he decides. Stream The Buccaneer (1958) online on iFILM.