Moby Dick [DVD] [2010] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

In truth, I wasn't expecting very much from this latest incarnation of Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick." The film premiered on the Encore network as a two part movie, and Encore is not an entity known for its original programming. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised. "Moby Dick" represents, for me, a novel almost impossible to adapt adequately. While you can attempt to convey the book's themes and catch its action, it is simply one of literature's most infuriatingly complex works. The screenplay of this version takes some fairly large liberties with the plot, and certainly the tone, but still manages to keep the general feeling intact. As a result, this is a solidly constructed work that succeeds for the most part. It may not satisfy the purists, but for those without preconceived notions--this is an entertaining and well made adventure.

Don't know the story? What's going on with the education system? Very concisely, the tale conveys a battle of wills between an obsessed sea captain and a great white whale. Captain Ahab is certainly one of fiction's most colorful characters, and here a gruff William Hurt sinks his teeth into the showy role. Having done battle with the whale previously (and losing his leg in the bargain), he sets off a new expedition expressly to track the beast. His crew and men become unwitting pawns and/or co-conspirators in this obsession. Told through the innocent eyes of newbie Ishmail (Charlie Cox), the voyage disintegrates until a final confrontation is inevitable. Most of the movie takes place on the water and I thought the sailing sequences were handled nicely from a technical standpoint. The effects are solid as are the sets, costume, and score. Really, it's quite well done.

The cast is impressive. Hurt does a terrific job with Ahab. Some of his insanity is filtered out in this version as are some of his speeches, but Hurt makes the most of what he's given. Ethan Hawke is somewhat less successful. As the voice of reason, he lacks a bit of power and fire. Cox is effective, but seems out of place and far too modern. Gillian Anderson is nice in a brief stint as Ahab's wife. Strangest casting--Donald Sutherland in a blink and you miss it role. Many of the smaller supporting roles are handled ably, but there are far too many people to single out.

If anything, this interpretation seems a bit too contemporary in attitude. The crew interactions are tempered with modern sensibilities that oftentimes don't fit the timeframe or the source material. But still, I enjoyed this film. It has plenty of action and once we're at sea, the pace is maintained at a nice clip. This will never stand as the definitive film version of "Moby Dick"--that still hasn't been made yet--but for those that enjoy seafaring adventure, you can certainly do worse. KGHarris, 8/11.

No, no, no. Calm down. I know what you're about to say. Just hear me out.

For the movie-maker, Moby-Dick is, like any other brick-sized tome, very problematic. There is just too much stuff, and unless one has the luxury of filming a five-hour movie and releasing it in installments (see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), material has to be cut, and the story amended accordingly so it will make sense with the cuts. This sort of boiling-down is fine for relatively simple books (such as, again, Harry Potter), but not with the likes of Moby-Dick. Not only is there a lot of stuff, but almost all of it is important! This is where the other movies fail. They try to be too literal and everything just ends up getting swamped by spectacle.

Consider the first three. The first, with John Barrymore (1930), misses the point with such a breathtaking completeness that it is only worth mentioning because it exists. The second, with Gregory Peck (1956), is ambitious, and does a few things well, but Ray Bradbury's lackluster screenplay, and his strained relationship to the director, bulldoze any chance of overall success. The third, with Patrick Stewart (1998), is a bizarre, half-assed, condescending, wishy-washy mess which isn't just a little boring.

So what did they do here? How did they juggle all the stuff in Moby-Dick? Simple. They didn't.

Instead, they stuck to the barest bones of the story, only those things absolutely essential--Elijah, the encounter with the Rachel, Ahab's first speech to the crew, and so on--and threw out everything else to focus on the characters. By doing this, Melville's fundamental themes, the very reasons Moby-Dick is as compelling as it is in the first place, are thrown into relief. Ahab becomes Jonah. The whale himself becomes the unattainable goal, the inability to escape fate. The questions of friendship, loyalty, equality among men, hubris, prophesy, the existance of God: it's all there.

One might be a little jarred, at first, when the movie begins and then almost immediately diverges, and drastically, at that, from Melville, but all one needs is to wait a few minutes to see William Hurt as Ahab to be hooked. He is excellent, charismatic, haunting, and blows Gregory Peck's frustratingly one-dimensional Ahab clear out of the water (hint: Peck himself wasn't satisfied with the movie). The acting is good in general, but William Hurt takes over the camera. This Moby-Dick is worth watching if only to see him as Ahab.

My overall impression: Impressive, sweeping, riveting, epic, and in all other ways superb. A few small pacing problems bog things down a bit after the halfway point, but they're manageable. My one regret is that the final showdown with the whale wasn't as colossal as it is in the book: Ahab grappling with his lower jaw, for instance. It would also be nice if there were a proper title sequence, but that's just an annoying trend in movies in general.

Otherwise, beautiful. If nothing, check it out just to see William Hurt and the gorgeous camerawork.

Huge fan of Moby Dick, although unlike most fans, I think, I am happy to see somebody butcher that book so it can be seen on the screen. You'd have to! Faithful literalism would be snoresville.

And this movie can boast some (mostly) impressive shots of the CGI whale. Certainly the best to be seen on screen since that hideous rubber inflatable that Gregory Peck contended with.

The beef I had with this one was how they treated the Ahab character. I'm skeptical William Hurt had many ideas for the role, and his performance is so gaseous that you don't actually believe they're on a ship for a minute.

The real problem, though, was the script: just a couple minutes into the movie we're getting an intimate scene with Ahab's wife and family, replete with close-ups! This was an unfortunate decision, I think. Much of the power of a mythic Ahab derives from his remoteness, and to shove him into the viewer's face, to so humanize him early in the movie, help to throw a wet blanket on the cosmic struggle that is supposed to conclude the film. Melville didn't means for a mere mortal to grapple with the whale. That is part of the reason Ahab remains hidden until a good third of the book has elapsed: he is a hero, he contends with Gods, he must be larger than life.

So big mistake in the way the script treated Ahab.