Moby Dick

1998
6.4| 3h0m| PG| en
Details

The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.

Director

Producted By

American Zoetrope

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Reviews

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Staci Frederick Blistering performances.
Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
bkoganbing Gregory Peck returned to Moby Dick, this time in the one scene role as Father Mapple to give a farewell performance in the same work he did 42 years earlier as Captain Ahab. It was a great part to cap his career with and he received much acclaim.Taking over the Ahab part is Patrick Stewart as the demon obsessed whaling ship captain who sees a giant albino sperm whale as the root of all evil. And why not since on a previous voyage trying to capture him it cost Stewart a leg. But the point of the whole story is how the charismatic Ahab infects the crew of his ship the Pequod with his own madness.First mate Starbuck is played by Ted Levine best known as Captain Stottlemyre on Monk. And the novel's teller of this tale is played by Henry Thomas all grown up now and best remembered as the young lad from E.T. Ishmael calls and the story has not slackened a bit.Some wonderful cinematography of the Tasmanian Sea where this story was filmed. Most of the cast in the supporting roles are Australian.In the recent biography of Gregory Peck author Lynn Hamey describes the screen legend's failing health. A chronic back ailment which made him a 4F during World War II and he was suffering emphysema and his memory was failing. Still he summoned up enough reserves to be unforgettable as Father Mapple delivering that sermon for the outbound sailors about Jonah and the whale. In Peck's own Moby Dick the part had been similarly unforgettably done by Orson Welles.A lot of the subtleties in Herman Melville's great novel had to be glossed over for the big screen. But in this fine TV mini-series they're all there. The cast is well up to the challenge in this epic done for the Hallmark Channel.
d-millhoff I rented this remake with high expectations.I was disappointed.In four hours, they failed to tell half the story Huston and Bradbury got so perfectly right in the 1956 classic.Huston's classic is a little dated, particularly in terms of special effects that look like the miniatures they in fact are. While the CGI whale in this remake is a refreshingly-convincing manifestation of a 60-foot sperm whale, it's not Moby Dick.This movie is bright and colorful, and the whale's just a whale. The cast doesn't come across as seasoned whalers, it feels like actors playing weekend yachtsmen, thanks in no small part to a script that can't seem to respect the intelligence of its audience.Moby Dick is a dark, slow story of building, brooding menace, which makes the moments of action all the more thrilling and terrifying.This remake captures none of the atmosphere or colorful character or menace of Melville's classic. At its best moments, it's simply re-hashing moments that were were perfected 42 years before.If you want to see Moby Dick, see John Huston's 1956 masterpiece.
KINGKONG3 SPOILERS!!!!!!I've never been sufficiently stirred to comment on a film on the IMDB before, but after watching this I was compelled to. Having recently finished reading the book for the first time (I'm 23 and British. I imagine it's a standard text at school in the US) I was impressed with the scale and sweep of the story, and eagerly hunted down the DVD to relieve my enjoyment of Moby Dick.Having just this second finished watching it, I'm stunned. This film embodies just about everything bad about made for TV films.So what went wrong? Well, the special effects aren't up to much - but it seems unfair to pillory a film for such things, the whale itself is fairly impressive...but the main problem is with the liberties taken with the story. It has been spliced up and messed about with in ways too numerous to mention here, and no-one else seems to have noticed this in the website reviews! Some examples : Moby dick appears half way through the film, where he occupies the last three chapters of the book. Ahab dies the death that Pharsee suffers in the book. Ezekiel at the beginning tells you exactly what will happen, rather than just giving vague warnings. Starbucks' role has been modified too, instead of thinking of shooting Ahab in his sleep he now nearly stabs him (why change that?) Moby Dick gets chased to the arctic....the list goes on... Patrick Stewart was obviously brought in as a name to lend the film some credibility, but is not an obvious choice for the role, and doesn't look particularly convincing, although at least he tries.If you haven't read the book, there is probably an interesting enough 3hrs for you here, if you have - save yourself the frustration and keep well away!
tangoviudo I was never a fan of John Huston's version of "Moby Dick," but it's a veritable masterpiece compared with this dreary TV movie. Everyone speaks in a booming falsetto, including poor Patrick Stewart, who needn't have. The CGI effects are supposedly an important part of the film, what with a computer-generated White Whale, among other things. But nothing meshes - a lesson to would-be CGI wannabes. And reducing Melville's novel to a mere yarn is sacrilege.