Product: Moby Dick [VHS] (1998)
Rating: 2.0
Oh dear
One of the problems with Moby Dick as a novel is that it is more of a philosophical essay rather than a straight narative. Of the 133 chapters, only the last two chapters as well as the first few, tell the very famous story of the chasing of the white whale. Melville is less interested in character development than commentary making it a very difficult and complex read to truly absorb the entire message. The point is, this is NOT an easy book to make into a film.In this latest version, Patrick Stewart takes the helm, not as Captain Pickard of Star Trek, but the famous Captain Ahab. Unfortunately, the producers obviously told Mr. Stewart that Captain Ahab is chasing after a great white ham and he must play it accordingly. Stewart the loyal actor, takes the advice, and hams it up so badly that the film is almost unwatchable. On top of that, nothing new is added to this version but you may not notice that since Stewart's performance gets so much in the way of everything else, that he makes William Shatner seem like an understated actor.About the only highlight is Gregory Peck (who makes a great cameo in this version as the minister) appears. Peck more properly captured the bitter, somber obsession of Ahab in the 1956 version as compared to Stewart who never seems to really know how to play this part. It's unfortunate because Stewart really can act, but I suspect ego may have gotten in the way of this one!Finally let me not put the entire blaim on Stewart. The reality is that this version just doesn't work and I can't blaim the production team too much as Moby Dick is a brutally hard novel to bring to the screen.