I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. It's an honest attempt to bring the great novel to the screen, and there is no reworking or Hollywoodizing of it. The story progresses and the characters are believable.
There is, however, a continuing flaw in many movies when an actor of the wrong age is cast for a particular part. This gives us things like a 22-year-old kid playing Superman and 70-year-old Robert Mitchum playing a World War Two Navy captain. (Captains are typically in their early 40s.) That happens here. Gregory Peck effectively conveys the obsessive madness of Ahab, but he is just plain WAY too young. Melville's Ahab is 58, which was considered old in the middle of the 19th century. Peck himself is said to have noted he was not right for the role and that it demanded more than he had in him at that age.
Here's a thought.
This happens in reverse in another superb seagoing film, "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). Humphrey Bogart, then over 50, plays a 30-something Navy LCDR. Again - Bogie nails the part, but he's just plain WAY too old.
What if we go back in time and have Bogart play Ahab and Peck play Queeg? Bogie would be marvelous as the mad, obsessive Ahab, and Peck could bring off the dark, disturbed, unbalanced Queeg just right.
Both are marvelous movies with terrific lead characters - but both stars are twenty years wrong in age.
Get the DVDs and view both and see what you think.
There is, however, a continuing flaw in many movies when an actor of the wrong age is cast for a particular part. This gives us things like a 22-year-old kid playing Superman and 70-year-old Robert Mitchum playing a World War Two Navy captain. (Captains are typically in their early 40s.) That happens here. Gregory Peck effectively conveys the obsessive madness of Ahab, but he is just plain WAY too young. Melville's Ahab is 58, which was considered old in the middle of the 19th century. Peck himself is said to have noted he was not right for the role and that it demanded more than he had in him at that age.
Here's a thought.
This happens in reverse in another superb seagoing film, "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). Humphrey Bogart, then over 50, plays a 30-something Navy LCDR. Again - Bogie nails the part, but he's just plain WAY too old.
What if we go back in time and have Bogart play Ahab and Peck play Queeg? Bogie would be marvelous as the mad, obsessive Ahab, and Peck could bring off the dark, disturbed, unbalanced Queeg just right.
Both are marvelous movies with terrific lead characters - but both stars are twenty years wrong in age.
Get the DVDs and view both and see what you think.