This film is the sequel to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film - The Curse of the Black Pearl.
 

Much of the film was shot on location on the small, English speaking, East Caribbean island of Dominica (not to be confused with the Spanish speaking Dominican Republic), along with some shooting of the 3rd film in the series, At World's End,  released on 2nd May, 2007.

Below is a review of Dead Man's Chest,  written by Polly Pattullo for  publication in the Saturday, 8th July, 2006 edition of the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper. 
 
 

Dominica's untamed rainforests and secret coves made it the perfect pirate's lair for Disney's latest blockbuster

Polly Pattullo
Saturday July 8, 2006
The Guardian (U.K.)

Last year, on the south-west coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica,  the Disney Corporation built a "cannibal village" scattered across two  hillsides, linked together by an 80ft-high rope bridge and overlooking the  sea. Elaborate, two-headed teepees, covered in twisted tree roots and  adorned with skull motifs and bones, were to provide a very temporary  refuge for Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow at the start of Pirates Of  The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Depp appears gloriously enthroned -  before escaping from a roasting. Now, just an island memory, the crazy  tepees, along with an accompanying spit, have disappeared under swathes  of lemon grass. The bush reclaims even Disney's fantastical footprint.

Lying between Guadeloupe and Martinique, Dominica, with its volcanic mountains clothed in rainforest and veined with rivers and waterfalls, is, in fact, not unlike Depp's Sparrow: charismatic, beguiling, unknowable. And for just those reasons, it was chosen as a location for both Pirates 2, which opened this week, and, coming next year, Pirates 3. "We selected Dominica because it's beautiful and virtually untouched - and totally undiscovered by film-makers," said producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Which is not quite true. In 1990, it featured in Channel 4's drama, The Orchid House, and in 1949, was seen in Frederick Marsh's Columbus, when Woodford Hill Bay, a narrow strip of white sand beach in the north of the island, became Columbus' first footfall in the new world. No matter that Columbus never landed on Dominica on his second voyage in 1493 - although he saw it, and gave it a name.

In Columbus, the "natives" were played by Caribs (or Kalinago) people, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and the descendants of those who might have encountered Columbus himself. Unlike in most of the rest of the region, the Caribs of Dominica have survived, and now have their own Territory in the north-east of the island. They are proud of their identity and while, in 1949, the only controversy was that two versions were filmed - one with topless women (for Europe), the other with tops on (for the US market) - in 2005, things were rather different. Many Caribs participated in Pirates 2 but their chief, Charles Williams, criticised Disney for what he saw as perpetuating the myth that the Carib people were cannibals. Disney retorted by saying that both locations and peoples in the film were fictitious.

Woodford Hill, which remains almost the same today - empty, except for a few fishing boats pulled up on the sand - played no part in Pirates but on nearby Hampstead beach, Depp engages in a sword fight (inside a runaway water wheel), which, in fact, begins elsewhere - on an isolated peninsula below the village of Veille Case where the film-makers built an extraordinary ruined church.

Another location was the Indian River. Visitors have rowed up this gorgeous, silent waterway edged with mangroves since pre-Columbian times, for it was once the gateway to a large Amerindian village, whose carbet (communal longhouse) had room for 150 hammocks. For Pirates 2, the river was lit with candles and edged with tree houses for the film's final eerie sequences.

At the mouth of the Indian River lies Portsmouth, Dominica's second town. From the 16th century, this provided a key stop-over point (the Atlantic trade winds blow through the channel north of Dominica): for the Spanish on their way to and from their plunders in the Americas, for English adventurers such as Francis Drake, slavers such as John Hawkins, missionaries, and, of course, pirates. Indeed, Portsmouth still retains something of a raffish air.

Further north on this spectacular coast is where Captain Sparrow's very own - and newly decked out - Black Pearl, ventured in 2005, sailing under the Capuchin cliffs. One Dominican extra who spent time on the Black Pearl was Lennox Honychurch, anthropologist and historian. He and the other extras learned how to tie ropes, climb rigging and hoist sails for a scene in Pirates 3. "Then for filming we spent time criss-crossing the deck with Johnny Depp," said Honychurch. "The weather was perfect. We sailed very close to the cliffs and it was spectacular." But dangerous. In 1567, six Spanish vessels were wrecked there in a hurricane. It was said that the Caribs stripped the boats of treasure - and buried it. One witness, questioned later, claimed that "the silver was so high that a man on a horse could not be seen from the other side."

Disney brought a bit of its own treasure to Dominica, an island struggling in the wake of globalisation and the collapse of its banana industry: at least some of the film's US$300m budget - three times more than the government's annual expenditure - went on the logistics of housing, feeding and servicing an army of actors and technicians. Depp, meanwhile, stayed on his yacht. Yet gossip has it that he was seen as an affable figure among the locals. For example, he chilled out at Indigo Cottages, perched on a steep slope three miles from Portsmouth - and did the washing up. Owned by Clem Frederick, a Rastafarian, and his French-born artist wife, Marie, its buildings, including an open-sided art gallery with furniture made of driftwood, are set in a glittering fairy glade of tropical plants. Depp was generous with his time; and many a home can boast a photograph of Depp shoulder to shoulder with a Dominican extra, both grinning like old mates at the camera.

Disney's stay in Dominica forged its own stories, not least the man whose job it was to harvest coconuts lest they should fall on a Hollywood head: he earned enough money to build a small house. And then there was a make-up artist who asked where the malls were and was told there were none. Desolate she was; delighted should we be.

And even if Keith Richards never made it to Dominica - although he is said to be playing a cameo part, as Sparrow's father, in Pirates 3 - Mick Jagger did. Some years ago, he hiked to the Boiling Lake, a steaming volcanic crater in the island's great green interior. At the end of Pirates 2, Depp's disciples swear that they will go to the ends of the earth to resurrect Sparrow and the Black Pearl. Perhaps they will all turn up at the Boiling Lake. Meanwhile, it's there for the rest of us.

· British Airways, Virgin and BWIA fly to Antigua; then take Caribbean Star or Liat for a 40-minute onward flight. Trips Worldwide (tripsworldwide.co.uk) puts together tailor-made tours to Dominica. piratesdominica.com provides general information about Dominica, including accommodation and its piratical history.

· The Ethical Travel Guide: Your Passport To Alternative Holidays by Polly Pattullo with Orely Minelli is published by Tourism Concern/Earthscan at £12.99.

Polly Pattullo is also author of 'Last Resorts', a study of the impact of  tourism on the Caribbean. This well written and extensively researched  work takes a look at the history of tourism in the region and weighs the  the economic benefits of modern day tourism against the cost to the  environment and the effects upon the local populations, their politics,  cultures and traditions.  Of particular significance is the 'Cruise Ship' phenomena,  a booming  industry which began life providing an alternative vacation style for the  wealthy, but which now caters almost exclusively to a massive economy  class market. The 'All Inclusive'  packages now bring hoards of visitors  to our shores, most with full stomachs and empty pockets. First published in the mid 90's,  it has been comprehensively updated and revised for a Second Edition,  published in 2005 in the U.K. by  Latin America Bureau.