MOBY DICK (1998) **1/2 This is a good point of entry to Moby Dick, I think. I say "I think" because I've never quite gained the momentum to read a book that thick about catching a whale. I say this is good because it makes me more likely to do so. I read Billy Budd and some of Melville's shorter stuff, preparing for Moby Dick at one point, but Melville didn't do as much for me as for others, apparently, and so that ship sailed. This has me nosing around the docks again. It has me nosing around the docks because it's a very cool looking movie, very dramatic, very poetic, and mainly because of Patrick Stewart's stunning turn as Captain Ahab. Again, I don't yet know what Melville wrote, but Ahab is aggressive, incensed, possessed but of himself to the point of losing even sight of his soul, spurilous, focused, dedicated...he's on a very elevated beam, the kind that tends to rally troops no matter what it's directed towards. Yeah, yeah we've read the Cliff's Notes, so if Stewart's so great, why isn't the film even better? Ted Levine fails to deliver a single line convincingly, and as Starbuck he's in damn near every big scene. Whining, yes, so he's supposed to be irritating or at least distracting, but it's the character who's supposed to be these things, not the actor. Yeah, alright, he's not in the book so maybe I'll go read it. Great sermon by Gregory Peck.
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