Product: Moby Dick [VHS] (1998)
Rating: 1.0
Hideous
Wow. I love Patrick Stewart, I love Moby Dick. I think this movie does an incredible disservice to the book. If you have read the book, It's hard to stomach, if not, you may very well enjoy this as a movie. The problem is that the movie is dishonest to the book not only in plot, but in character, symbolism, and basically all major themes. Passages from the book are borrowed with no surrounding context, becoming meaningless but impressive-sounding speeches. Meaningful characters, events, and symbols are changed into shallow plot devices. It's not the chinese boat crew, it's not Queequeg's hair, it's not even the curious sidetrip to antarctica (???), it's that important elements of the book are mercilessly twisted into interesting screen shots or one liners that look or sound deep, but are either meaningless in the context of the movie or, worse yet, entirely change the meaning into something other than Melville's. The main problem with this movie is the title - for it is a false Moby Dick. It's an entertaining film in its own right, although certainly with many problems (like said line which are impressive but without context) but it is Moby dick in neither plot nor theme. I will admit that this is not a novel that can easily be done justice on screen (it just doesn't translate well), but what this film does is inexcusable.