How sad is this?

A Major Disappointment

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I've just seen this movie for the first time (no easy trick to find a DVD version!);since I consider the Melville novel one of the most impressive novel I've ever read, I must say that it's an honorable cinematographic version, most admirable for the beautiful, original cinematography. The cast is quite good including, in my opinion, Gregory Peck,whose performance must not be underrated because of his position as a movie star. I guess that role of captain Ahab would be a terrible challenge for any actor(all the more so because of comparisons with John Barrymore); I do think Peck acquitted himself well.

I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. It's an honest attempt to bring the great novel to the screen, and there is no reworking or Hollywoodizing of it. The story progresses and the characters are believable.There is, however, a continuing flaw in many movies when an actor of the wrong age is cast for a particular part. This gives us things like a 22-year-old kid playing Superman and 70-year-old Robert Mitchum playing a World War Two Navy captain. (Captains are typically in their early 40s.) That happens here. Gregory Peck effectively conveys the obsessive madness of Ahab, but he is just plain WAY too young. Melville's Ahab is 58, which was considered old in the middle of the 19th century. Peck himself is said to have noted he was not right for the role and that it demanded more than he had in him at that age.Here's a thought.This happens in reverse in another superb seagoing film, "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). Humphrey Bogart, then over 50, plays a 30-something Navy LCDR. Again - Bogie nails the part, but he's just plain WAY too old.What if we go back in time and have Bogart play Ahab and Peck play Queeg? Bogie would be marvelous as the mad, obsessive Ahab, and Peck could bring off the dark, disturbed, unbalanced Queeg just right.Both are marvelous movies with terrific lead characters - but both stars are twenty years wrong in age.Get the DVDs and view both and see what you think.

The classic seafaring novel by Herman Melville gets adapted for the big screen by author Ray Bradbury and producer / director John Huston, and is just as entertaining as another big budget literary adaptation of two years previous, the Disney production of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". A likable Richard Basehart stars as the narrator Ishmael, who signs on as a crewman on a whaling ship, feeling an irresistible urge to go to sea. His captain is the stubborn Ahab, a man blinded by his need to get his vengeance on Moby Dick, the enormous snow white sperm whale who maimed him. As we will see, Ahab is willing to go to any lengths, and push all of his men to their limit, in the pursuit of his goal. His first mate Starbuck (Leo Genn) is dismayed, believing no good can come of such an obsession. Meanwhile, Ishmael comes to discover a good friend in the stolid cannibal Queequeg (Friedrich von Ledebur). Worth a mention is the fact that this dark, ultimately downbeat tale was initially a hard sell in Hollywood without any substantial female roles, and that Warner Bros. only agreed to make it on the condition that a big star like Peck should get the main role. Even Peck himself had felt that he was miscast, not having enough years on him (he was 38 at the time), yet he shows a real commitment to immersing himself in the role and reciting the prose from the novel. There's much to enjoy here, from an atmospheric recreation of New England in the 19th century, to the production values (the Pequod is vividly created for film, having previously been used in the Disney version of "Treasure Island" and gotten a makeover), to the quite good special effects (I was wondering how Moby Dick himself would look in this film, and came away satisfied) to Philip Saintons' thunderous score to a cast full of very talented actors. Basehart and Genn are excellent, as are James Robertson Justice (as Captain Boomer), Harry Andrews (as Stubb), Mervyn Johns (as Peleg), Seamus Kelly (as Flask), Royal Dano (as Elijah), and Orson Welles in a memorable, captivating cameo as Father Mapple, whose speech about Jonah and the whale sums up the themes of the story. The desaturated pastel colour effect of the movie is the work of cinematographer Oswald Morris, and it helps to give this movie a wonderful old fashioned feel. Hustons' insistence on shooting on an actual ship on the actual ocean would cause cost and time overruns, and while this would unfortunately result in a less than successful film in a financial way, it stands up pretty well today and does deserve some respect. Eight out of 10.

THE FILM: One day, famed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury got a call out of the blue from John Huston. Huston asked Bradbury to help him write a film adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Bradbury confessed that he had never managed to finish reading the book, but Huston handed him a copy and told him to read what he could. Then Bradbury headed over to Ireland with his wife to write. Even after the screenplay was completed, it took Huston two years before financing could be arranged.Indeed the film lacked a female star, and was about a bunch of men hunting whales. As part of the film's financing arrangement, Huston was forced to cast a big name in the part of Captain Ahab. He chose Gregory Peck, who no one thought would work in the role, including Peck. The shoot was plagued by production issues and multiple "Moby Dick's" were lost. Indeed Peck almost drowned during a scene. On release the film made next to nothing, and critics were generally indifferent to the film. It has yet to make it's budget back.THE PLOT: Any English major could tell you the plot, Ishmael is a stranger who takes a need for the sea. He heads to the town of New Bedford, where he rooms for a night with a mysterious stranger with whom he later befriends, named Queequeg. Together they strike out on a whale-hunting voyage on the Pequod. The Pequod's captain, is the mysterious Captain Ahab whose leg was taken by the infamous white whale Moby Dick, and whose is rumored to have half a heart.It is Ahab who clarifies the Pequod's true mission. They are not to hunt whales, they are to hunt Moby Dick.THE CRITICISM: I have not read Moby Dick, although I have tried. The story was not as familiar to me as it is to many, so I will just clarify something. This is the definitive screen adaptation of Moby Dick. Huston gets everything right. Peck, who has been criticized as wooden in many things, is magnificent in this. His Ahab is an intensely foreboding portrait of evil. Richard Basehart may have been a little old, and his performance may be average, but he allows you to reflect your own feelings and opinion through the character of Ishmael.I hope I do not alienate literary fans who dismiss this as an inadequate adaptation when I say that the film does a great job of condensing the story into an enjoyable film experience. Ahab has been corrupted by the whale, and he has lost more than his leg. He has lost his soul. This is brilliantly conveyed in the performance by Peck, his foreboding glance and scars make him visually scary, but I never found myself to be afraid of him. He most certainly is not 'wooden', the dialog is old fashioned, and I am sure that part of it must have come from the novel.Baseheart does good work, but we never really focus on his character. His character is the lens through which we observe the tragic story of Ahab. The film can feel like an ensemble in parts, and we get time to explore some of Ishmael's shipmates. However, in one of the best scenes in the film, Orson Welles delivers an absolutely sterling monologue containing a parable. Welles dominates in that one scene, although apparently he was so nervous before delivering the monologue, that Huston had to hide a bottle of Brandy on set for Welles to sip from during nervous spells.The screenplay is terrific, melancholy and dark, while containing a mysterious edge that Bradbury and Huston exploit terrifically. Credit must go to Melville's novel, for giving us a beautiful story. However it is the screenplay that condenses the novel without losing it's edge. For some reason I found the film to be slightly satirical, although it is certainly very darkly satiric if this is the case.The cinematography is incredibly interesting. It looks and feels like no other Technicolor film. The colours are not garish as is the case with many films of that era. In fact, even the scenes at sea look like they are actually taking place at sea, and not in a tank or against some kind of backdrop. The film invokes a somber melancholy tone, through the muted pallet of colours. I have heard that the day for night (shooting in day, and darkening the image to make it look as if it takes place at night) technique was used, and it certainly makes sense.Finally to the direction. Huston once again delivers a great film. While the direction may not be as energetic as Wise Blood, or relaxed like The Dead. His direction is key to the success of the film. It's a good thing he does well, admirably. The tone is slow, though not nearly as slow as the novel. It certainly feels that by the end someone is winking at you. That someone may very well be John Huston.Moby Dick, 1956, Starring: Gregory Peck, Richard Baseheart and Leo Genn Directed by John Huston, 9.5/10 (A)(This is part of an ongoing project to watch and review every John Huston movie, you can view this and other reviews at http://everyjohnhustonmovie.blogspot.ca/)