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Moby Dick | Year: 1956 Classification: Action/Adventure Directed: - John Huston Actors/Actresses: - Gregory Peck - Richard Basehart Epic film of American Masterpiece....a wicked great film The collaboration of Director Houston, script writer Ray Bradbury and Gregory Peck heading a superb cast, make this production of Melville's masterpiece marvelous. It's said that John Houston "drove"...with flattery, fear and abject insult... now justly reputed master of American fantasy/allegory, Ray Bradbury like Ahab himself to create the script that makes MOBY DICK exciting adventure...without diluting its dark, Apocalyptic symbolism and portents. MOBY DICK is regarded by many as THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL. No one will disagree its demands and reward are comparable to...for example...Dostoyevsky or Conrad's work. AHAB is one of the great figures of world literature; perhaps,the most powerful ANTI-HERO yet written. Gregory Peck is...in my estimate...uniquely succesful in his cinamatic incarnation of this "godly, ungodly man." The symbolic depths that Moby Dick essays are manifest. Bradbury's pierces "cardboard masks" of the human conditon, ultimately tested, with sure insight and genius comparable to Melville. John Houston's control of his material is equally deft. Pacing is swift. From the moment Royal Dano delivers his "warning"...as Prophet Elijah...the Pequod's foreshadowed doom is pursued with recklessness that hypnotically enthralls the viewer as Ahab intended to beguile his crew. Against Peck's Ahab is Leo Genn's Mr. Starbuck. Genn plays this stalwart Quaker as tragic antagonist but ironic disciple whose fatal conversion to Ahab's defiance/obsession("I'd strke the sun if it insulted me!") seals the fate of his comrades. Richard Basehart plays guileless Ishamel without hint of the cynicism he brings to his most famour role as Ivan in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. Comparison with the recent HALLMARK Patrick Stewart hinges on what you surmise MOBY DICK to be about, therefore, expect from a film. Patrick Stewart is magnificent as Ahab. But, in my mind's eye, GREGORY PECK IS AHAB. Moby Dick is about...like Apocalypse Now!...courage confronting radical evil tragically becoming that which it beholds. This is Ray Bradbury's craft above all else. His script focuses on the mankind's combat with Evil. Houston has filmed Melville's ultimate metaphor for such an impossibly malign force of Nature: THE GREAT WHITE WHALE. Ray Bradbury has written many parables about such battles (Fahrenheit 451; Tales "Quicker than the Eye"; Something Wicked This Way Comes) and Herman Melville seems soul-mate blood brother. John Houston's MOBY DICK, and Gregory Peck's Ahab epitomize the grandeur of what Melville called his "wicked book." In my estimate, this is the definitive rendering, the epic film of the American masterpiece. It is a wicked, great film...... Classic for Peck, but not his best role... Gregory Peck is wonderfully cast in Melville's epic Moby Dick. He takes the role of Captain Ahab and makes it his own. He proves that you don't have to be a raving lunitic to portray a crazed and obsessed man. Maybe that's the Peck fan in me speaking (so what if he does look like Abe Lincoln here). Peck has a long list of classic films, most noted being "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Roman Holiday" (lets not forget "The Guns Of Navarone", "The Omen" or "The Big Country" either)... and Moby Dick is among them. Great supporting cast including Richard Basehart (as Ishmael), Leo Genn (as 1st mate Starbuck), Fred Ledebur (as the tatooed harpooner Queequeg) and the mighty Orson Welles (as Father Mapple). The film moves along at a fairly slow pace in the beginning... setting up the story and it's characters. You don't even see Ahab until 30 minutes into the picture. You don't actually see Moby Dick until after the 100 minute mark. For 1956, this movie was well done... I still haven't figured out how Peck walked around on that peg... just where is his foot? The only knock on director Huston's movie is in a few of the repetitive whale chasing scenes you can tell the boats (with men in them) are small models. Classic movie... classic Peck. Boring!!!!!!!! This movie is very boring and is not very good. While watching this shameless movie, I fell asleep. It is about Ahab and his obsession with a white whale (Moby Dick). If you are looking for action this is not for you. It gets somewhat suspenseful in the last half-hour. However, I do not recommend it to anyone!! Buy Moby Dick at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Moby Dick Search with the Priority Search Engine on Moby Dick This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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