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A Disappointing Continuation

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I know this is a classic story, but the 1956 film adaptation was pretty awful. I never tried to watch another version, because I happen to be afraid of water, but I managed to sit through this one for the sake of Gregory Peck.Greg stars in this virtual one-man show, about a disgruntled, disfigured sea captain who seeks revenge on the whale who scarred him years ago. I don't know if it was the director's fault, or if Greg was just having a bad couple of months, but his performance was over-the-top, unconvincing, and downright silly. And the spirit gum that was supposed to serve as a scar was distracting, in a bad way as it held on for dear life the entire movie. If you're particularly attached to the story, read the book again, or try another version. This one will disappoint you.

MOBY DICK is a solid combination between human drama and sea adventure. This movie is probably the most faithful adaptation of the popular novel by Herman Melville. A sailor comes in a small fishing town in New England. He becomes one of the sailors on the whaling ship. Despite sailor stories that the captain is a freak whaling is successful. However, one day the captain starts to mention the mysterious white whale ...The story focuses on a man and his obsession. Motivation, which establishes very good and dramatic plots, is highly questionable. Despite the captain's consuming hatred and passion for revenge, I think that the motivation of the crew by the captain is the biggest flaw in this film. This is kind of a symbolic representation of the "profound" dialogue that only deepens human agony. Mr. Huston has filled dark atmosphere with a certain amount of mysticism that enhances the feeling of agony and emptiness during the sea wanderingHuman drama is the harmonious combination between effort, error, hope and despair. Sea adventure ends with an expected incident that in the final climax is not impressive. A lot of time and effort was spent on visual effects and it should be respected.Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab is tall, thin and a pretty unconvincing character as a notorious captain, who is torn between his own obsession and revenge. He poisoned the whole crew with his craziness. Characterization is average, due to the complex story. Richard Basehart as Ishmael is a young whale man, observer and storyteller. Leo Genn as Starbuck is the voice of reason. Friedrich von Ledebur as Queequeg is a grotesque phenomenon who is skilled with a harpoon and predicting the future. Orson Welles as Father Mapple got his 5 minutes in the movie. The friendship between the two great directors resulting in an unnecessary appearance.This is an ambitious project which resulted in a solid film about revenge, self-destructiveness and fight against one's own destiny.

This has long been a favorite of mine, but I have a question about the aspect ratio of this film. IMDb's "Technical Specs" page for Moby Dick lists *two* different aspect ratios: 1.37:1 (DVD release) and 1.66 : 1.Now - we all know that many films that were originally shot in widescreen (1.66:1) were then cropped to 1.37:1 for television. For many years, I searched for a widescreen version of "Moby Dick" on DVD or Blu-Ray. I had all but given up, when a user review of "Moby Dick" appeared on TCMDB which claimed that a widescreen DVD *had* been released in Europe (PAL & region 9). Another reviewer on the same page claimed to have seen the film in widescreen on TCM. A search of TCM's website turned up four clips from this film - and sure enough, they're in widescreen. At least one of these clips (Fr. Mapple's sermon) is also available on youtube - BUT - the youtube clip is *not* in widescreen; it appears to be have been copied from the DVD. If you compare them, you'll find something very strange. Normally, "pan-and-scan" DVDs are produced by cropping out the left and right sides of the original widescreen images. But in the case of Moby Dick, it appears that the opposite has been done - the widescreen images were produced by cropping out the top and bottom of the 1.37-1 images. In other words, it appears that Moby Dick was originally shot in 1.37:1, and then cropped to create a widescreen version which has never been released on DVD (at least not in the US). Can anybody shed any more light on the original aspect ratio for this movie? Is there really a widescreen version of this film? And if so, does it contain more information than the DVD version? Or less? (The TCM reviews that I referenced are here: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17660/Moby-Dick/user-reviews.html TCM's widescreen clips here here: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17660/Moby-Dick/videos.html and the youtube clip of Fr. Mapple's sermon is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rWV8sBZ9ho)-----------------------------Followup: Amazon is selling an imported Blu-Ray which claims to contain the widescreen version of the 1956 version of Moby Dick. There are a bunch of screen shots from the BluRay on "home theater forum.com" (see note below). I compared those screen shots with similar images from the DVD (which is in the old academy ratio). Sure enough, the widescreen images on the Blu-Ray appear to have been created by cropping the top-and-bottom off of the DVD images. ("Tilt-and-scan" instead of "Pan-and-Scan").For some reason, IMDb won't let me post the name of the website with the Blu-Ray screen shots. They say "it's a very long word, which is not allowed". If you want to see the screen shots, paste the link below into your browser, delete the spaces from "home theater forum" so that it's all one word - then hit "enter".www.home theater forum.com/topic/332782-moby-dick-1956/

Movies set in the age of sail used to be a Hollywood staple. Unfortunately the ships were often under the command of captains who revealed the inadequate screening procedures of their superiors. The moment they sailed, the captain's repressed mania and anger management issues came to the fore."The Sea wolf", "Two Years before the Mast", "Wake of the Red Witch" and the 1935 version of "Mutiny on the Bounty" all featured despotic if not actually deranged ship's masters. By the time "Moby Dick" came along in 1956, the genre was familiar to movie audiences that knew sea monsters were more likely to be found on a ship's bridge wearing gold braid on their caps. John Huston's "Moby Dick" is about the last voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, and its captain, Ahab, who obsessively hunts a huge white whale that had taken off his leg in a previous encounter. Ahab subverts the crew to his cause but the final confrontation between man and beast leaves only one survivor, Ishmael played by Richard Basehart who also serves as narrator of the tale."Moby Dick" is so full of weird characters that they would not seem out of place at a "Star Trek" convention. Apart from Ahab, there is Queequeg the tattooed Polynesian harpooner, wharfside prophet of doom Elijah, and Orson Welles as the ominous Father Mapple.Huston, who had struggled to make this movie for years, enlisted science fiction writer Ray Bradbury to help craft a screenplay from Melville's novel. They made many changes including a significant one to the ending with Ahab entangled in the ropes on the whale's back. In the novel this was the fate of a lesser character while Ahab's death was not as spectacular – the movie version works better."Moby Dick" had two obstacles to overcome; the first was the casting of Gregory Peck as Ahab and the second was the demand placed on the technical crew to deliver a believable, final confrontation with Moby Dick.Huston wanted his father, Walter Huston, to play Ahab, however, the studio wanted a more bankable name. Peck was a popular, romantic star of the 1950's, but critics questioned his suitability for the role. 60 years later, the baggage that Peck carried is gone. Now his performance can be evaluated on its own terms, and Peck has grown into the role.The other challenge was to make the White Whale convincing. Unfortunately most of the action had to be shot in studio tanks. Splashy and artificial, the tank scenes lack the scale of the real ocean. Despite this, many of the scenes with the whale still have power, especially Moby Dick cruising along with old harpoons sticking in his back with ropes trailing behind him.The result was a unique movie experience. Huston's "Moby Dick" breathed life into its strange story and unusual characters. The movie was inspired by a great work of literature, and was made by a great artist of the cinema. It is a flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless.