From my favorite movies..

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I watched this immediately after finishing the book, and all I can say is that I am a bit baffled.There were quite a lot of changes made in this version, compared to the book. Now, while this is a pretty normal thing, most adaptations require changes, I must say that all the changes made here were for the worse.All the ways this movie/mini-series differs from the original book are bad. I cannot understand why the makers of this film made the changes they made. It seems to me they cut out the very depth of the story.Most of the characters, for example, were more shallow, more over-the-top, like caricatures of the originals. This ruins the mood and the atmosphere of the story. Granted, the at times ridiculous language in the book does a bit of the same in the original, but not nearly as badly as the style of this adaptation.I feel that the whole core of the book Moby Dick is the character of Ahab, and his dual nature. He is hell bent on killing the whale, but also, deep down, a good man. Now, for some reason, the latter aspect of the character was much down-played in this version. The beauty of the original story is Ahab's own struggle with his obsession, and all the rest of the events in the story are just reflections of this internal struggle. This version does itself a disservice by not following the original on this.The book has it's problems, it's long and tedious, but the story within is a far better one than the one told by this adaptation.

Any one who has read the book or seen the 1956 version are if for a terrible disappointment. Obviously made for TV with all the required commercial breaks to keep the viewer glued to the set; this production not only reinvents the original plot, but also adds in it's own "dark philosophy" of Ahab. Queequeg jabbers like a magpie, Starbuck is a lilly-livered character, and the crew is a mishmash of Africans, crazies, American Indian (?) and what have you. In essence, a waste of time.The 1956 version, though there are some deviations from the book, still gives the depth that Melville intended to portray. True, Moby Dick may be snazzier in the recent version, but he is PURE white, and looks very plastic. The 1956 whale at least had some age about him, especially since Ahab remarked "when you smell land, and there be no land." The pure white whale would be scentless as opposed to the white/greenish/brownish one in the earlier version.

There has been some debate as to what precisely Melville meant by the story of Moby Dick. On one hand, it is a whaling story which is largely based on shipping legend and fact. On another level, there is a lot of reference to Moby Dick the whale being self-referential to the book itself (white beast with black blood, he describes the whale as being a large book at one point). Ultimately, though, most readers find a two pronged story which is search for God on one hand (Ahab's need for revenge and Ishmael's need for purpose and love, note that both names also refer to biblical characters) and is the passionate bonding between males on the other. Unfortuneately, it is in these two areas that the movie does not quite portray the book with due respect.Now, there is plenty of bonding and Ishmael does sort of get jostled around as per normal, but Melville did not want this to be the standard group of "older men ragging the new". These men, in the book, developed a passionate bond for one another. Ishmael's deep loneliness lead to his deep love for his fellow crew. As for the search for God, the movie has some of the key scenes to suggest Ahab wants to slay the greatest of God's creatures because he feels his life has been failed and to suggest needed to get away because his life had no meaning. Yet, for the most part, the scenes become much more "sea adventure" oriented and I am not sure that there is much hey could have done to fix it considering the media of choice. I think they could have at least given Father Mapple more passion in his scene and the painting at the beginning (which suggests both the three crosses of Christ and a whale killed by a the three masts of a ship at the same) which offers a great thematic moment could have done more besides show up briefly as it did. It is almost as though they expected one to have read the book and to know what they were talking about.Finally, as far as the movie's lacks go, they cut out most of the (usually tongue-in-cheek) humor of the book.Now, as a made for TV movie, it is good stuff. Some of the acting is pretty sketchy at times and there are a few places where the special effects flat out fail in their purpose, but overall the movie is worth watching. Stewart plays a different version of Ahab than what I pictured, but at the same time his version has a lot of life and passion which is good. The other acting had moments of perfect time and moments of almost the opposite, but no scene comes directly to mind where the movie "cracks".The pacing of the movie actually sort of improves upon the stop-go style of the book. I think some of the visuals were a little less gory than they should be (this is a violent tale with a good deal of blood and despair in the original) but most of the cues are there for those who have read the book.Because of such things as this, I almost feel as though one needs to read the book to fill in the gaps, or the story does not get the treatment it deserves. But, as long you know more of the depth of the story, the movie is a decent vessel for which to carry it in. 7/10

I didn't even know that this film even existed until one day I was at the check-out counter at my local Wal-Mart store and the had a shelf/table full of discounted videos(you know-the ones thay couldn't sell at full price,so they move them to the front of the store and mark the price way down) And being a lover of films, I took the liberty to sift through these to see if there was anything there that might peek my interest. ....and that is when I found Moby Dick. So,I purchased the film for only $3.99I remember reading Moby Dick in my 8th grade Jr.High class and I also remeber that I didn't like it, and I remeber wondering why this story had been so popular for so many years, and I remeber wondering why it had became such a timeless classic. Dispite the fact that I didn't like Moby Dick as a novel, for some reason I though I might Enjoy this film. Seeing how I only had $4 bucks invested in it - it seemed that I couldn't go wrong.I ended up liking everything about this film but the story.The Music is first rate, the costumes are great,The acting is very well done. In fact this is one of the best quality Made for TV films of the 1990's (exclunding epic mini-series which are always done much better than single Made for TV films like this one). My problem with Moby Dick was that the source material for this film(the Moby Dick novel itself)isn't good to start with. Once again just like when I was 14 and in the 8th grade (only now I'm 32) I must admit that my yunger 14 year old self was right. this story is pointless. Captain Ahab chases a Albino(White) whale all over the world because he is own a revenge quest to kill the great white whale nick-named Moby Dick. only to get him self and his entire crew killed in the process. leaving only the stories main charactor as the sole survivor.Once again at age 32(just like when I was 14)I found myself wondering why this story has managed to stand up to the test and time and still remain one of the worlds great literary classics. The story has always been pointless to me. However this movie did absoletly the best they could with the source material that had. I guess the best way to make a movie thats not very good is to base it on a classic novel that not very good to start with.I gave this film 6 out of 10 stars- only because the production,Music, cast and crew did a very fine job. it the story Moby Dick that stinks