This is a marvelously made adaptation of one of the most famous stories ever written that, while having a few dull stretches that impacted my overall enjoyment, wowed me in so many ways and gave me an experience that I already know I’ll want to give another chance to down the line. Something I find very interesting about this is the adapted screenplay, it’s very well written and brought what I remember about the book to the screen pretty well (it’s been a long time since i read it so don’t trust me on that) but seeing it was co-written by Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, is a connection I can’t even begin to explain or rationalize but the final product worked so well that I don’t really need to. Huston’s visual eye once again impressed me as it did in The Red Badge of Courage, the beautifully colored ocean horizons stick with me most in terms of single shots but basically everything in the final half hour looked incredible, especially for the time this was released. As far as the acting goes Gregory Peck may be overdoing it a bit at points but he’s playing a dramatized caricature of a character so I don’t have a real issue with it, if anything his outrageousness only adds to the novel-y feeling Huston was clearly going for with the narration and other choices, either way, if it hurts the film or not, Peck is very entertaining to watch as Captain Ahab and gave me a good portion of the enjoyment I got out of this. It was also fun seeing Orson Welles for that one scene especially since he gave such a great performance, it gave me the urge to see another one of his movies which I could very well be feeding in the near future because of this watch. Philip Sainton’s score was another part of this I had a great time with, the way these old Hollywood scores sound is endlessly charming to me and this is an embodiment of that at points while also doing a lot for the tense scenes. In the end I’m most shocked and impressed by how well this has held up with this year marking the 70th anniversary of its release, John Huston’s Moby Dick may drag at points but the experience was more than worth the time I put into it and having watched it I now have an itch to see more from everyone involved.
This is a marvelously made adaptation of one of the most famous stories ever written that, while having a few dull stretches that impacted my overall enjoyment, wowed me in so many ways and gave me an experience that I already know I’ll want to give another chance to down the line. Something I find very interesting about this is the adapted screenplay, it’s very well written and brought what I remember about the book to the screen pretty well (it’s been a long time since i read it so don’t trust me on that) but seeing it was co-written by Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, is a connection I can’t even begin to explain or rationalize but the final product worked so well that I don’t really need to. Huston’s visual eye once again impressed me as it did in The Red Badge of Courage, the beautifully colored ocean horizons stick with me most in terms of single shots but basically everything in the final half hour looked incredible, especially for the time this was released. As far as the acting goes Gregory Peck may be overdoing it a bit at points but he’s playing a dramatized caricature of a character so I don’t have a real issue with it, if anything his outrageousness only adds to the novel-y feeling Huston was clearly going for with the narration and other choices, either way, if it hurts the film or not, Peck is very entertaining to watch as Captain Ahab and gave me a good portion of the enjoyment I got out of this. It was also fun seeing Orson Welles for that one scene especially since he gave such a great performance, it gave me the urge to see another one of his movies which I could very well be feeding in the near future because of this watch. Philip Sainton’s score was another part of this I had a great time with, the way these old Hollywood scores sound is endlessly charming to me and this is an embodiment of that at points while also doing a lot for the tense scenes. In the end I’m most shocked and impressed by how well this has held up with this year marking the 70th anniversary of its release, John Huston’s Moby Dick may drag at points but the experience was more than worth the time I put into it and having watched it I now have an itch to see more from everyone involved.
