Moby Dick [Blu-ray]

A White Whale Of A Tale--A Surprisingly Solid Adaptation Of A Classic That Might Upset Purists
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...

The most faithful adaptation to date!
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...

"Call me Ishmael"
'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...

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