Moby Dick [Blu-ray] [Import]

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.

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.

'Call me Ishmael' are the first words of the sole survivor of a lost whaling ship as he relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick. They are words that have become often quoted by many authors and poets and for any number of reasons, yet they open the mysteries and beauties of one of the greatest American novels every written. There have been many cinematic productions of MOBY DICK, Herman Melville's 1851 supreme novel - 1956 with Gregory Peck as Ahab and 1998 with Patrick Stewart in the Ahab role - and each has its strong and weak points. There are many detractors of this current version who rightfully state that too few of Ahab's great speeches and lines have been omitted and that this version is too influenced by contemporary reasoning. But the tale is a great one and the splendid extended reveries and 'speeches' of Captain Ahab rest beautifully on the written page, a factor that allows mulling over the words and the meaning and the drama that may just fall a bit heavy when incorporated into a screenplay. Better the flavor of the story be conveyed by what cinema allows - imagery - that books can't mimic. This current version does just that - it finds the core of the obsession of a man driven by a struggle with his past, with nature, and with the personal vendetta against the great white whale, Moby Dick, who claimed Ahab's leg in the past. Nigel Williams is responsible for the screenplay, Mike Barker directs.

Ishmael (Charlie Cox) sees his dream of a whaling voyage come true when he and his Hapoonist friend Queequeeg (Raoul Trujillo) join the crew of the Pequod, a sailing vessel leaving port in Nantucket. What Ishmael and the mates don't initially appreciate is that the Pequod's monomaniacal Captain Ahab (William Hurt) is taking them all on a mad and personal mission to slay the great whale Moby Dick, an obsession that will open their eyes to the wonder and spectacle of man, of beast, and the inescapable nature of both. The flavor of the crew is well captured by a solid cast, including Ethan Hawke as a rather weak Starbuck, Eddie Marsan as Stubb, Billy Boyd as Elijah, Billy Merasty as Tashtego, Onyekachi Ejim as Dagoo, Matthew as Flask, James Gilbert as Steelkit, Gary Levert as Perth, and Daniyah Ysrayl as the cabin boy Pip. The special effects offer vivid and credible underwater activity of Moby Dick and the clashes with nature both within the crew and on the ocean are very well represented. The final underwater scene with Ahab strapped dead to the still alive and swimming Moby Dick is unforgettably realistic and a fine balance with the ever-innocent Ishmael grasping the empty coffin as the sole survivor of the voyage.

William Hurt gives us a different Ahab in Nigel Williams' script adaptation - less mad but more obsessed, less cruel and more vulnerable than we are used to seeing - but he is strong and takes us with him as he meets his end in his struggle with Nature. It is a moving adventure and despite the omissions that seem to bother most viewers, the movie does cast a spell over the entire 3 hours. Grady Harp, August 11