Product: Moby Dick [VHS] (1998)
Rating: 3.0
Boo. Strange version of Moby Dick
This is one strange version of Moby Dick. Patrick Stewart's Ahab is not a man thirsting for revenge to the point of obsession. Instead, Stewart plays Ahab straight out of the insane asylum. The dialogs between Ahab and Starbucks must have been an attempt to create a play-like, stylized dialog, but instead, it came across as a lot of mad ravings. I've read the book many times, and I viewed Ahab as a man with an obsession, not a man who is a street lunatic who just happens to command a whaling ship (when he is not being abducted by aliens.)Sorry to have to slam Stewart, who I love as an actor. He did indicate in press interviews that he was very insecure about playing Captain Ahab. I guess it shows. I can however, wholeheartedly compliment the Maori actor Piripi Waretini who plays Queequeg (my favorite character in the book) and Ted Levine was very fine as Starbuck. This film, though interesting and a bold attempt, just doesn't capture the real sense of Moby Dick.