In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

Some things I liked some I did not.

Awesome Movie

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Not a good movie. But the story of the young impressed me deeply: the young Thomas Nickerson, who survived to tell the story; and Henry Coffin, the faithful relative of Captain Pollard. Two strong characters, genuine, vulnerable, emotional. One fearful and humble; the other, an arrogant climber. The rest of the characters are stereotypes, buried under macho posing, cheap melodrama by courtesy of the female characters (how unfair, with all those weeping, boring hunks), gallons of unbearable music and tons of special effects.Apart from Nickerson and Coffin, I have to give credit to the powerful sinking sequence of the Essex, an effective evocation of people aboard a boat being hit by a giant sea creature.

A prequel to a work of fiction. The conflict between the captain and first mate, mentioned near the beginning of the movie is not borne out by the rest of the movie. In fact, all the characters are secondary to the whale whose presence dominates the story. It's all about the whale that refuses to die and trashes an entire ship. The movie does a good job in depicting the challenges associated with whaling and why it was such an important industry. Chris Hemsworth offers an excellent portrayal of the first mate, Chase, who is at odds with the captain, Pollard, who got the job through nepotism. The movie tries to play up the class differences separating the two men, but the captain isn't arrogant enough nor the first mate resentful enough to generate any intense drama. Whether all the crew will survive is another question, and it is that aspect of the story that gives the movie its dramatic power. These men risked their lives to fuel the country and were the heroes of their time. The movie shows that and for that reason is worth watching.

After watching the marvellous 1976 film Bartleby,I started looking for other Herman Melville-related projects. Trying to sail in a different direction to the famous productions of Moby Dick,I was intrigued to find a flick about the inspiration behind Melville's book,which led to me meeting the real Captain Ahab.The plot-1850:Wanting to build on the outline for his next set-at sea novel, author Herman Melville tracks down Thomas Nickerson,a former cabin boy who is the only living survivor of the sinking of the Essex. Pushed with money by Melville,Nickerson begins telling his tale.1820:Cashing in on the whale oil gold rush, whaling company includes some quick additions to the Essex so it can go whale hunting. Hiring Nickerson as a cabin boy,the company get Owen Chase as First Mate and George Pollard as Captain. Going deep into the Offshore Grounds,the crew try to catch a white whale,but fail to,and are left with a broken ship. Stranded in the middle of the sea,the crew enter the heart of darkness of the ocean.View on the film:Racing down from the race tracks of Rush with the same lead actor and cameraman,director Ron Howard & cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle ride the wave of "Golden Age" Hollywood epics, where sweeping crane shots over the beautiful Canary Islands and very well done earthy CGI make the ocean go as far across the screen as the eye can see.Harpooning the crew into the depths of the sea,Howard washes the bright blockbuster blue away for over saturated burning yellows and blood reds dehydrating any memory of adventure from the crew.Altering the fascinating real story behind Nickerson's autobiography (he wrote it in 1876,and it remained lost until 1960!) the screenplay by Charles Leavitt/ Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver brings to shore the friction Chase and Pollard over who should be the captain,whilst the crew keep their eyes on the task at hand. Carving out the boys own Adventure into incredibly dark themes that include suicide,the writers give the months lost at sea a real weight,where the dialogue,and the life drain out of the survivors.Reuniting with Howard, Chris Hemsworth gives Chase a salty gravitas,which Hemsworth uses as a uniting glue among the others. Following orders from Benjamin Walker's slick Pollard, Tom Holland wonderfully grinds down the wide-eyed innocence of young Nickerson,as he enters the belly of the beast.

I am a huge fan of Moby Dick. I've taught it as a novel; I've read it several times. Its artistry is beyond measure. Herman Melville certainly knew his stuff when it came to whaling and the sea. Apparently, Melville gained his inspiration from a particular whaling voyage that produced fodder for his imagination. This film takes the fictional Melville back to the time where he heard the story of the white whale. If one looks at the book as the allegory it is, we put the stamp of whiteness and all the implications of the color (or lack of it) that it implies. This movie takes any artistry out of the story. Ahab lost his leg and pursues the elusive cetacean in the ultimate act of revenge. Here, a bunch of guys get in over their heads. They had an overzealous captain who simply was out for the commercial value of the animal. When the whale destroys the ship (they do give him supernatural powers) part of the crew is in whaleboats, trying to get someplace safe. Terrible things happen, including cannablism, and some manage to hold off their fates till they are rescued. But there is something dull about the pacing of the story. We aren't made privy to much of what goes on among them. There are the obligatory sacrifices that are not new to this genre. It's a decent movie, but a better script and some more personal depth would have helped.