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a fine interpretation of melville's classic, albeit with some liberties taken.
thats fine by me. actually people's biggest beef about this film is that gregory peck as captain ahab couldn't pull off a decent anger. in his maddest fits hes rather soft and controlled. it is a problem for the film but to say its just him that caused that is not true. in fact there is not much character development but ahab's and we have little emotional connection to these people.
what i recall about the book the intro describing how ishmael came to be on the whaling ship and the end when they actually chase the whale are about the only part of the book worth reading. 3/4ths of the middle of the book are about different whales and terminology that is excruciating to make it through. so the movie not surprisingly is almost entirely exactly that. follows drama of the story pretty well.
ray bradbury, who is mostly credited for the script, is no hack writer, but the filming does little to envelope us other than to present a story. its more theater than experience. typical of the time this was filmed; 1950's.
i guess i was hoping to be washed away in a developing madness and instead found this movie to be much more about the telling of a story book. oh well.
nothing gets overdramatic. everything is quite mid-paced. giant storms beat the men who go about their work. madness comes to ahab in a cool drive to continue on about hunting one whale rather than the others. and all this ho hum drudgery is not boring but it makes one scene seem way out of place. the st. elmo's fire scene with its sci-fi effects and religious awe is weirdly dramatic.
peck's ahab has been discribed as lincoln-esque and it deserves the connection. he does his best to stand erect and stone like throughout the film and is mostly shown wearing a somewhat tall stove-pipe like hat.
for me the worst character was queequeg who is barely used in the film and when he is he's extremely one-dimensional and bordering on racist.
good drama. well worth watching. despite all its flaws there is plenty to enjoy about the film. every mistake is relatively minor and the overall effect is a cut above most films strangely enough. if you've read the book, you'll see the movie (i was actually thinking this was the film with captain piccard...i mean patrick stewart....when i put it in. i can't say if that one is better or worse but i still want to see it as well)
8/10
8/10
