Classic Movie Monday: Moby Dick

Welcome to Classic Movie Monday. Every Monday, I watch a film at least 25 years old that I have never seen before. I will then write my comments on the film, telling you what I thought of it. This is an attempt to beef up my classic film knowledge as well as highlight some forgotten gems of Hollywood's heyday. So without further ado...

Moby Dick
Released: June 27, 1956
Directed by: John Huston
Starring: Gregory Peck

Plot in a Nutshell:
A Captain of a whaling ship stops at nothing in pursuit of the mythic white whale that took his leg.

What I thought:
There is one word to describe this film, stuffy. This is not so much an adaptation as it is a telling of the book. I know that sounds nearly identicle but let me explain. An adaptation will stretch and bend to fit a story to the medium it is trying to fill. An adaptation of a book will never contain everything. It has to be adapted to the screen. This film doen't feel as though it were changed to fit the medium of film, rather it is a strict telling of the tale of the obsessed captain and his crew in their relentless search for the whale Moby Dick.

Gregory Peck commands this role. With every word, every breath, you feel this captain's driven insanity, and that is largely due to his performance. It is simply magnificent when he is bellowing and thrusting his spear into the whale that haunts him. Tremendous.

The effects are not great, but that is to be expected (this is a 50 year old film after all). I don't dock it for trying. Utilizing models and scale replicas, the film manages to create a realistic illusion of terror at sea without becoming too hokey.

I really enjoyed this flick. I am discovering that I have a real affinity for classic sailing naval movies. I find it fascinating to look at the hundred of ropes in the rigging and realize that to somebody, that made sense. This film captures the look of a vessel at sea very well.

The thing I did not enjoy, or rather the thing I found distracting was the whole point I made about a telling of the tale. There are whole passages in the film that feel as though they were lifted straight out of the novel. It isn't a bad thing until the dialogue gets in the way of the story's comprehension. It is heavy. And it only gets heavier as the film wears on. But in the end I found it to be a small matter, and in some ways it helps elevate the piece out of being merely another monster movie.

Bottom Line:
With a fascinating central character, portrayed flawlessly by Peck, this classic story gets a just retelling in this fantastic if not heavy film.

A-

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