Product: Moby Dick [VHS] (1998)
Rating: 1.0
IT'S A BIG PEG LEG TO FILL!
It's always interesting to watch actors in their attempts to overcome the stigma of being typecast. I suppose it is a serious problem. After all, apocryphal accounts abound about actors who, having played a too memorable part in a movie, such as the woman who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, end up unemployed because no one can see them as anything else.Enter Patrick Stewart. Of late he has thrown himself at such improbable and botched roles as Henry II in a remake of THE LION IN WINTER and Ebenezer Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL. As bad as these two mistakes were, neither comes remotely close to his misguided decision to assume the role of Ahab in the new MOBY DICK. What emerges is failure before the opening credits have even run their course. I've said it before; you just cannot remake or replace perfection. Gregory Peck's masterful portrayal of Ahab in the 1956 production of MOBY DICK set a standard that has become a generic when discussing or considering the character of Ahab. Period! As good an actor as Stewart can be, as evidenced by his character-defining work in STAR TREK and his portrayal of a Western King Lear in KING OF TEXAS, he just doesn't even come close to pulling it off here. Instead his performance is totally laughable if not consummately pathetic!I hope that this is the last attempt to supplant the original. Mr. Stewart needs to take a deep breath and accept that he just isn't fit to remake every classic role under the sun. And when it comes to this story, and there's certainly no shame in admitting it, it's a big peg leg to fill!THE HORSEMAN