Captain Ahab is a creepy guy. The Pequod is a creepy ship. Captain Ahab wants to wreak revenge on Moby-Dick, the white whale that severed his leg. But none of the crew--least of all Ishmael, the whaling newbie--none of them know this until they sign on to the job. Now that they're out at sea, they're doomed to follow Ahab to the edge of the world, or however far it takes for him to take revenge on Moby-Dick.
This is one instance where you don't need to read the 600-page book. This movie gets the spirit and essential plot right, with whole lines straight from the book ("I'd smite the sun if it insulted me."). Gregory Peck is worlds better than book!Ahab--his stricken youth is even more poignant, more horrifying. Leo Genn is, by contrast, older and grimmer than book!Starbuck, but he aces the part of a levelheaded family man and conscientious Christian. Ishmael is, well, Ishmael. The cinematography and special effects are pretty amazing for a 50s movie, and overall they've aged well, too.
What makes this movie worthwhile, besides the epic adventure, is its incredible, inscrutable depth. Is Ahab completely evil, completely mad, well-intentioned, or something else? What would you do if you were Starbuck, the second-in-command? What does "doing the right thing" mean when all the choices seem wrong?
When I read the book, I thought Ahab was pure evil, or at least deranged in a sick, sick way. Upon this umpteenth viewing of the movie, I was able to read between the lines more. Yes, Ahab is insane and wicked, but he is a tragic character as well. There are those figments of sanity and regret, which I saw on previous viewings, but then there are his enigmatic lines, in which he views his revenge as a noble cause:
Yet he is but a mask. 'Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung.Book!Ahab rebels bitterly against God, but this Ahab comes across with an additional (perhaps chief) objective: an attempt to crush sin/decay. Yet these two different motives somehow surface as the same actions, hatred, and madness. He hates himself, because he hates what the whale has done to him. His mistake is looking to his own strength for salvation. (Of course, this is only how I see movie!Ahab. Never could fully understand the book-character or what Melville intended him to be...certainly subject to interpretation.)
I'll never get tired of this story--already want to re-read the book! The history and adventure, the irony and contrasts (democratic Americans swearing loyalty to one man?!), and, of course, Ahab and the Whale and the psychology/mystery I can't unravel. Watch it now! :)
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