MOBY DICK (1956) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: JOHN HUSTON / SCREENPLAY: JOHN HJSTON, RAY BRADBURY / STARRING: GREGORY PECK, RICHARD BASEHART, LEO GENN, JAMES ROEBRTSON JUSTICE, ORSON WELLES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Herman Melville’s 1851 novel is one of the great rousing stories of human obsession, one man’s determination to gain revenge at any cost against an implacable force of Nature. Underappreciated at the time of its release, the book has gone on to be acclaimed as ‘a Great American novel’ and it finally reached the screen in 1956 is this powerful and majestic feature film directed by the great John Huston who co-wrote the script with sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury. It arrives now on Blu-ray (a format which does its very specific tone and colour palette few favours, in all honesty) and it’s pleasing to report that it remains a big, bold, expansive film with a massive cinematic sweep and scenes of genuine power and awe.
Call me Ishmael. In the nineteenth century, Ishamel (Basehart) joins the crew of the whaling vessel Pequod in search of adventure. The ship’s Captain Ahab (Peck) is a virtual recluse who spends most of his time in his cabin. When he finally ventures on deck we discover that he was almost killed in a previous encounter with Moby Dick, a huge white whale which took off his left leg beneath the knee. Bitter and twisted by his desire for revenge, Ahab will stop at nothing to hunt down and best the beast which crippled him… even if it means putting his life, his crew, and his vessel at risk of total destruction.
A hugely ambitious film and a troubled production, Moby Dick retains its visceral power over five decades later, its open seas location filming still massively impressive and its rather obvious model effects sequences rather charming and surprisingly effective. Apparently Peck never felt at ease in the role of Ahab – he was certainly cast against type at the time – yet he delivers a performance full of quiet rage and power and he cuts a formidable physical presence whose force of will utterly subjugates and dominates the entire crew of the Pequod. Huston directs the entire thing with stateliness and aplomb, capturing the strange majesty of the whaling ship and counterpointing it with the casual cruelty of its business and building up the sense of impending finality as Ahab comes face to face with his nemesis and his obsession becomes total and absolute and, ultimately, fatal.
Moby Dick is a gripping, intelligent picture from a long-gone era of filmmaking and visually it resembles few films made before or since. Huston was very specific that the film was graded in the style of classic old whaling prints and this Blu-ray has been restored to accentuate that very specific visual style – don’t expect the sharpness and clarity typical of the format. Moby Dick looks cold and distant and even unrestored in places – there are flickers and lines across the image occasionally and yet they merely add to the disorientating sense of unreality which inevitably permeates the whole film. Moby Dick perhaps doesn’t quite capture the intensity of the source material yet remains a powerful, striking production which has informed and influenced generations of filmmakers, none less than Steven Spielberg in the making of Jaws in 1975. An engrossing commentary and a fascinating interview with the film’s continuity supervisor make for a respectable supporting package for an often forgotten classic.
