Moby Dick

Released by: Vivendi
Released on: October 10, 2011.
Director: by Mike Barker
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Donald Sutherland
Year: 2010
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The Movie:

Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick has a strong tradition as a lengthy, heady symbolist tome in Western literature and it's well-earned a reputation of being very difficult to film. John Huston took a shot at it in 1956 with Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab. It was attempted again in 1998 as a 3-part miniseries with Patrick Stewart in the role of Ahab. This time around director Mike Barker tells the tale as a 2-part miniseries made for Encore (a Starz channel) with William Hurt in the role of captain. So I suppose the best question to ask of this film is, “Why bother?”

The story remains the same but the focus here is on Ahab's obsession with the great white whale and showing how he gets his crew to follow him on his destructive mission. The film lays out Ahab's drive and commitment from an early point, as he's home in Nantucket, recuperating from losing his leg and command of his ship at the time. His wife (Gillian Anderson) is fearful for him and tries to get him to remain but knows that nothing will hold Ahab back at this point. She just asks his ship's first mate, Starbuck (Ethan Hawke), to look after him as best he can.

This version spends a good amount of time on the shore as newcomer Ishmael (Charlie Cox) is enthusiastic about sailing on a whaling vessel. This version of Ishmael seems like he'd be more comfortable on the streets of Newberry as he comes off as playful and goofy rather than any kind of student. He soon meets the Maori harpooner named Queequeeg (Raoul Trojillo) and they are picked to board the Ahab's ship, the Pequod.

At sea, Ahab takes a quick liking to Ishmael as he feels they can both sense Moby Dick and will have a better shot of finding him together. Ahab is clearly focused on getting the white whale but appeals to his crew's sense of bravura and adventure to get them to commit themselves to this trip. The only person not buying in completely is Starbuck who has concerns but can't overwhelm Ahab's sheer force of will.

Now, in Melville's book, this battle between captain and first-mate becomes nearly epic as a symbolic fight between the Christian notion of predeterminism and the post-Enlightenment ideal of man's free will. And the destructiveness of this struggle and its casualties is used to demonstrate man's ultimate fatality in this world. But apart from engaging in some freshman college-level brief discussions about destiny versus free will this film has nothing of that level of introspection. Indeed, it's as if the filmmakers wanted to strip out every single bit of symbolism from the original story and make it solely a revenge story.

And that's what causes this adaptation to fall flat - as revenge stories go, it's pretty cliched to now show that revenge is bad for business. The actors have really nothing much else to rely on here then and are all free to apply their own goofy takes on all the characters. It's a contest of one-upsmanship going on here, with Hurt leading the way in almost literally chewing the scenery as he tries way too hard to show how crazy Ahab is. The only actor who comes across as mannered is Ethan Hawke, due mostly to his character's lack of conviction more than anything else. But everyone else is trying to cram as much of themselves into their screen time as possible and it just leaves the film noisy and muddled. The bad CGI effects don't help, either, as many shots of Moby Dick hunting the Pequod come into play, culminating in a very silly-looking final effect of Ahab dragged to his death by the great whale.

Many of the story points remain intact but, again, without the rich symbolism of the text included - which is why it's very difficult to even make a film of this novel - it all just becomes rote and bloated. At a 3-hour+ running time, that's not a good thing, either.

Video/Audio/Extras:

This DVD from Vivendi has both Dolby Digital 5.0 and Dolby Surround 2.0 soundtracks available. The DD 5.0 thunders amazingly well and the surround elements really serve the mood of the film well. This is easily the best part of the entire production and the DVD delivers it nicely. Otherwise, the only other item included is a scene-selection area of stills from the film.

Summary:

While remaining true to the plot of Melville's great work this version of Moby Dick ignores the story and pays the price for it in an uninspired, unmotivated, flat piece of filmmaking.