Moby Dick (2010)

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This low budget production of Moby Dick stars William hurt as William hurt and Ethan Hawke as Ethan hawke, treating Ahab and Starbuck as anything but literary iconography. There are some half decent early scenes showcasing Ahab as a husband before setting off on the ill fated Pequod. The ship looks like a kid brother vessel to the massive version in John Huston's film with thirteen sails. Ahab wins over his crew promising a Spanish gold piece to whoever raises him Moby Dick. He plays this scene with an ill advised sense of good humour before leading his men in a tacky chant of "moby dick" as if they were Atlanta Braves fans doing the chop. As for a Moby Dick himself, I almost don't even remember him being in the movie. There are no memorable shots or screen appearances of the great White Whale. The movie even sidesteps the iconic sequence where Ahab leaps on the whale's back and takes harpoon to him. It is entirely possible that this was written out to avoid the expense of such a shot. This Moby Dick goes down with the Pequod.

Fine television rendition about Herman Neville novel with enjoyable interpretations from all-star-cast . In this extremely loose adaptation of Melville's classic novel, Ahab is revealed initially not as a bitter and revengeful madman . This oceans saga features the sole survivor of a lost whaling ship who relates the tale of a white whale and the captain Ahab's obsession with desires for vendetta upon the greatest animal . It starts in New Bedford , Massachussets, where arrives a novice named Ishmael (Charlie Cox) who signs aboard the whaling ship Pequod and befriends a Polynesian native , harpooner Queequeg (Raoul Trujillo). He meets Elijah (Billy Boyd) , Stubb (Eddie Marsan) , Starbuck (Ethan Hawke) and captain Ahab (Gregory Peck) who has a self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale , Moby Dick . Ahab consecrates his life to hunt it full of hating and vengeance . Soon enough Ishmael aware about the great white whale who claimed the captain's leg and Ahab's determination to seek avenge on the beast that crippled and scarred him , no matter what the cost to himself , his crew or ship .Yet another take on of Melville's classic battle of wills story . The picture is a fine television adaptation of the famous novel well scripted/adapted and ably realized . Moby Dick is an attractive tale of life on the high seas, and in particular on board a whale schooner named 'Pequod' . This impressive adaptation based on Herman Melville's 1851 classic novel is vividly brought to screen . The interactions between Ahab, Michigan & Stubb is reminiscent of captain Vere, Billy Budd & Master-at-arms John Claggart, the main characters of Billy Budd, another novel written by Moby-Dick's author, Herman Melville , and it results to be one of the most thrilling and moving see sagas ever written . Suspense and tension of the ocean is completely captured , including enduring images as the storm with the 'fire of Saint Telmo' . Climatic final battle is an overwhelming piece of cinema as you are likely to watch . Nigel Williams wrote a screenplay that was partially faith to the novel and filmmaker Mike Binder stamping this movie with epic images and thought-provoking dialogs . Enjoyable recounting , including quite a few moments that click make this top-of-the-range movie more than watchable . The FX experts created a great whale made by means of ordinary computer generator . Top-notch main and secondary cast realize extraordinary performances . William Hurt is nice as well as Ethan Hawke and Charlie Cox . Phenomenal support cast as Eddie Marsan as Stubb , Gillian Anderson as Elizabeth , Billy Boyd as Elijah , Raoul Trujillo as Queequeg and Stephen McHattie as Rachel Captain . Cameraman Richard Greatrex's appropriate color cinematography splendidly conveys the bleaker qualities of the chase . Exciting and thrilling musical score by Richard Mitchell. The motion picture was professionally directed by Mike Binder , though with no originality . He's a nice director working usually for television as ¨Moby Dick¨, ¨Sea wolf¨ ,¨Lorna Doone¨ and occasionally for cinema as ¨A good woman¨, ¨To kill a king¨ and o ¨Butterfly on a wheel¨ his best movie. Other renditions about this famous novel are the followings : 1930 rendition by Lloyd Bacon with John Barrymore, this is the first production of "Moby Dick" to have a leading female character , Joan Blondell . Moby Dick (1959) by John Huston , an over-the-top rendition of Herman Melville's high seas saga with a sensational Gregory Peck as unforgettable captain Ahab . It's remade in 1998 TV series by Franc Roddan with Patrick Stewart ,Henry Thomas , Bill Hunter and Gregory Peck who takes on the character of Jonah-and-the-whale sermonizing Father Mapple who in classic adaptation was vividly played by Orson Welles . Furthermore , recent lousy rendition full of computer generator FX starred by Barry Bostwick and Renee O'Connor .

OK, I saw this on cable and only recorded the 2nd half. Considering the other reviewers' bashing of the 1st half, I should be thankful. I really liked Hurt's performance. I had a feeling that Ahab was vulnerable. Maybe that is not historically accurate, because ship's captains are often portrayed as being in absolute control. However, if you are leading your crew to certain doom and neglecting the easy money, then you are likely to have an insurrection. The CGI was fine, no complaints. Its just hard to capture the enormity of the whale, and how terrifying it must be in a small boat with an unpredictable giant toying with you. Its a giant you can only catch a glimpse of in real life, so how do you portray that on a screen ? I just with the there had been a slower ending. After that powerful conclusion, it should have drawn out the scene of Ishmael floating in a vast empty sea to let the audience digest the powerful and terrible tragedy that has just occurred. The sad singing at the end could have really set the tone, but instead they just rolled the credits. If only I could re-edit this film, this could be the one that is required viewing for all English students after reading the book.

Let me start by quoting Mad Magazine: Call me Fishmeal.As a confirmed middlebrow and devoted Melvillephile, I wish to thank everyone involved in this production for a great, worthy and exciting iteration. A welcome addition to the pantheon. Visually enthralling...and good score.I cant claim to deeply understand Melville -- but i can claim to love him and his work -- in my way. i have been to Arrowhead in Pittsfield MA 2x. I have read a lot of his writing. I love Billy Budd, novella and movie. And I was delighted to just watch my 3rd or 4th version of the majestic and elusive Moby Dick, which i have read 1.5 times and audio-listened once.So.....review? Well because I try not to be doctrinaire, I was fine to "suck up" the sometimes bold liberties taken by the screenwriter, i think mainly in the first hour or so. i got the chills when the camera first panned on the Nantucket dock. i enjoyed revisiting father mapple's ship-as-church. i loved Elijah, Queequeg, Stubb, Steelkilt, and others. Ahab and Ishmael were very good. Mrs Ahab was good, and Starbuck got better when things started to get really diceyi'm sorry but Ahab sometimes looks like a HS cheerleader revving up the team and the fans. i would have rather spent 90 seconds looking at puzzled faces of the crew as Ahab went more and more bonkers, than hear lots of the crew's pep-rally-like, anti-moby dick chanting. I thought of the koolaid distributed by Jim Jones in 1978 at suicidal Jonestown -- when I saw Ahab pass the drinks on the equally suicidal Pequod. i thought of Billy Budd (Melville), and the idea of the follower willing to die for the leaderI thought of billy (and Terrence Stamp) proclaiming 'god bless capain vere' I thought of Benito Cereno...and the amazing steps sometimes taken by the enslaved - in pathetic contrast to the steps not taken by members of the fatally cowed crew of the Pequod -- enabled by a pathetic and self-loathing StarbuckI thought of Jack and Rose when Starbuck last spoke w Pip-- It has many great visual effects, including moby's jaw-dropping rise from the sea at the end of Part 1, and the shattering moment in Part 2 when the great white whale wreaks its own revenge on one of the lowered boats of Ahab's Pequod. The look on the faces of the other crew members says it all I remain a middlebrow, but I do know enough to say that Herman Melville has much to teach us about leadership, sacrifice, power, subservience, rebellion, intercultural relations...And in Moby Dick, we also have a story about humans' unwinnable efforts to conquer nature -- about the emergence of industrial capitalism in the mid 19th c. US -- in any case, as i dip again and again into Melville and Moby Dick, my attention draws more and more...........toward the relationship between the crew and ahab (without minimizing other deep and essential plot elements)melville says: watch this crew get misled to its own death, dear reader - and don't let this happen to youto all involved in this production, i would again say thank you for helping your viewers lock arms with Herman Melville in the never-ending quest for mutual understanding