In the Heart of the Sea

Plot synopsis:
Herman Melville visits old Thomas Nickerson about the whaling ship Essex. The man refuses to speak but his wife insists otherwise, believing that Thomas has been tormenting himself by refusing to speak of his story, so he starts.Nantucket farmer and whaler Owen Chase convinces his wife all will be better as he gets his promised captaincy. But the executives have him as the first mate instead on his next whaling journey aboard the Essex, accommodating young Captain George Pollard, who is descended from a family of prestigious whalers. After they set out, Owen shows he's the de facto captain with his skills and initiative. One day the captain orders the crew to head into a squall despite Owen's warning. As the ship gets damaged the captain orders to turn around, but the waves wreak havoc to the ship. This starts open animosity between George and Owen, but they grudgingly remain allies for the sake of the ship's success.They capture a sperm whale, with Chase again displaying his expertise by correctly guessing the whale would not be able to dive deep enough to drag the harpoon boat under the water. Young Nickerson gets his first experience with whale oil when he is ordered to slip inside the head to scoop leftover oil. But no whale appears for the Essex for the next several months. After sailing far they meet a Spanish captain informing of them a large whale pack's location, but there's also a 'demon' whale. Both George and Owen agree to chase the pack, dismissing the 'demon' whale as a myth. They reach the place and soon find the 'demon', a 30-foot long white whale. It easily damages the Essex' hull, forcing the crew to abandon her. The whale oil the crew had gathered earlier catches fire, but the crew are able to save the three harpoon boats and some makeshift sails. The crew rations their supplies, but the supplies are very limited. The crew faces friction among them. Weeks pass and the men grow large beards and grow increasingly haggard. After days adrift, Owen spots the demon whale following them. The second mate Matthew Joy gets injured in a storm. Again Owen spots the demon whale; this time, it attacks the boats, killing some men. They get washed ashore to an island. But after some time, Owen finds a cave full of decomposing bodies and realizes that other crews that were stranded here waited in vain for someone to rescue them. Owen proposes to leave since no boats will come.They go, leaving the injured Matthew and three others. Some more days adrift, one of the men dies. As rations scarce over, Owen proposes they eat the remains to survive, and so they do. The men in George's boat even draw straws to determine who should sacrifice himself to be the next meal. Back in the present, the old Nickerson tearfully admits that the sheer atrocities of cannibalism and drawing lots to see who will be the next meal were the memories that he refused to share even with his wife. The crew again they spot the 'demon'. The crew cooperates and Owen gains a killing shot position, holding a makeshift trident that Captain Pollard had forged on the island. He and the whale exchange stares, canceling Owen's throw. The two remaining boats are separated by currents, but both eventually become rescued. Pollard's boat, containing Pollard and one other survivor, is found by another whaling vessel, and the vessels captain is horrified at the number of human bones in the boat. Owen's boat drifts near a harbor and is rescued by ships in the area. Arriving back in Nantucket, Owen and George are intimidated by the executives, who demand that Owen and George lie to preserve the industry's reputation. The executives do not want horror stories of monster whales and human cannibalism to spread among the sailors, who would inevitably quit from fear. But Owen refuses, claiming that it would be dishonorable to dismiss what the crew had gone through. George eventually tells the truth in the inquiry, and Owen moves from Nantucket. The young Nickerson meets Owen before Owen leaves, and Owen gives Nickerson a whale bone pin, a badge of whaling prowess that Nickerson had longingly looked at when he first boarded the Essex.The elderly Nickerson still has the pin in the present, and when he asks Melville what facts he will include in his story, Melville respectfully answers that he will "add some, and leave out others," and Nickerson is relieved that Melville will likely not include the atrocities in his story. Melville leaves and Nickerson closes the door.

Tags: tragedy, revenge

Review:
This is the same attribute "In the Heart of the Sea" has, and even though there are minor blemishes, it still produces a good human drama shown by impeccable visual atmosphere.This is a retelling of a particular ship's ordeal, also an inspiration for the novel Moby Dick.
Agreeable retelling , vividly played , in which a Captain called Pollard (Benjamin Walker , though other actors that were considered included Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, and Henry Cavill) and a tough first officer , Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) command a surly ship of whale hunters through sheer ruthlessness and ego .
He has a self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale , carrying out obstinately his revenge and determination to seek avenge on the beast that destroyed his crew and ship .Based on a true incident inspired Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" .
Instead of just filming Moby Dick itself or just the story of real-life Owen Chase, they opt for a messy mash-up, constantly cutting away from the Essex's voyage to a recounting of the story to Melville; like bad narration taken to the nth degree.
I went for the movie more for nature, graphics and 3D of Whale, but as a sweet surprise, the director took more time in depicting characters and their feelings rather than spending time on Whale or graphics, which is a welcome change, considering we having lots of movies with CG now a days.as i said in the summary, it is a movie at the right pace, brooding, dark and desolate at times but nevertheless beautiful.beautiful how the bickering relationship between captain and his first mate changes into a influencing r.ship in the end is lovely.
Based on the story that inspired Moby Dick, its novelist, Herman Melville seeks out the survivor of the Whaling ship Essex to have him tell the tale of the white whale they encountered.I heard In the heart of the Sea was not action packed enough.
The survivor telling the tale, Thomas Nickerson (played by Brendan Gleeson as an old man and Tom Holland as a Young one) began his story by telling us it was about the Captain and his first officer (played by Chris Hemsworth), and for the most part the movie was about how these two different men, from different social classes operate a ship.
I think I learned far too much about the political process and corruption of the whaling industry, back in the day, which is interesting, but does have the story lingering longer than you would expect.Overall, I'm impressed with the second effort Ron Howard and Chris Hemmisworth team up for after Rush..
Sadly, In the Heart of the Sea is closer to The Perfect Storm in terms of its sheer corn-fed hokiness.This is a 2015 film based on a 2000 non-fiction novel, about the sinking of the Nantucket whaling ship the Essex in 1820, which inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick, published in 1851.
Whilst it isn't a worthy follow up to "Rush", which I deem one of the best pictures in recent years, "In the Heart of the Sea" had many elements that remind us why we love Ron Howard's direction in his best movies so much, yet it also reminds us of his faults in his lesser films.First off and most notably: can we please, please stop having useless narration of people remembering events of their youth in true story pictures?
Hemsworth as always shines as the leading man and he is supported by a well chosen cast.Coming from a true Ron Howard fanatic I must admit I was disappointed with the film, there was a lot of buzz surrounding it and I expected to get another "Rush", that is probably why I focused so much on the negatives, yet still "In the Heart of the Sea" is a good movie and definitely something positive to add to Howard's already amazing resume.
The mission goes awry when the ship comes across a "demon" of a whale whose idea of an afterlife doesn't include lighting a schoolboy's homework.Chris Hemsworth, the lead of the movie--who seems to have been patched together from the remains of past movie stars--plays a dull character dully; he loves his wife, he's good at his job and his always tries to do the right thing.
Watching a two hour film showing a static shot Herman Melville slaving over a typewriter, mumbling under his breath, and sweating profusely while writing "Moby Dick" would be more interesting and insightful than Ron Howard's "In the Heart of the Sea," a film about the story that inspired the classic novel.
The film revolves around Herman Melville (played by Ben Whishaw) obtaining the story from Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson in his later years), who survived a shipwreck in 1820 that left him and his crew stranded on a life-boat in the middle of the ocean for three months, more than a thousand miles from land.
Rather than focusing on a minimalist premise and making a film in the vein of "All is Lost," "Life of Pi," or "Open Water," "In the Heart of the Sea" resorts to lingering on cold, robotic characters, an unsubtle score that emphasizes how you should feel and when you should feel that way, and a narrative that lacks any compelling human interest.While recognizable faces like Chris Hemsworth, Brendan Gleeson, and Benjamin Walker may prolifically grace the screen, they may as well be up-and-coming actors with how little personality Howard and Leavitt have given them.
Not a single line of dialog in this film resonates, and when you have four characters stranded at sea and made even more helpless by the presence of a dangerous behemoth of a whale, nearly every word should have some sort of resonation or, at the very least, carry some weight.But "In the Heart of the Sea" never really finds itself focusing on the story's vast setting of the ocean, due to the fact we have to keep cutting back to Melville talking to Nickerson in his old age.
Nothing else.The only reason to see this is for Chris Hemsworth good looks and the fact that currently there is no other ol' seaman movie around - so this soulless 'Heart of the Sea" is both the best and worst there is at Dec 2015..
Let's deal with the elephant in the room or in this particular case the great white whale in the boat, old ginger top Ron Howard's impressive looking new high seas adventure is not one of the year's best (or awards player as many thought) but it's an often mightily enjoyable time out at the cinema thanks to its visual spectacle.
Delayed from an early year release at years start and set a new opening timeslot in the awards friendly period of December, hype started building for this adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's well-loved novel (or simply the "real Moby Dick" story) that had many calling out the film as both a likely box office hot shot and a real wild card at this year's awards circuits.
From all reports investing in the characters in Philbrick's book is not an issue but with Chris Hemsworth's Owen Chase here leading the charge as second mate of the Essex and its captain George Pollard (played to boorish effect by Benjamin Walker) the crew of this wailing vessel fail to engage us on their high stakes journey and as "big white" makes his debut and the crew start to be whittled down in number, a realisation dawns that Howard and his screenwriter Charles Leavitt haven't done enough for us to invest our emotions in their increasingly doomed plight against one huge freak of nature.
Side players like Cillian Murphy's Matthew Joy and Brendan Gleeson's aged Thomas Nickerson end up making more of an impression but as like most of the ensemble they are underused and slightly underdeveloped.This real life Moby Dick is directed with enough assurance and visual flair by the professional and proficient Ron Howard that throughout its two hour run time there's enough to warrant a cinema screen viewing but you can't help escape the feeling that in the end we were never hooked the way we should be to this almost unbelievably huge adventure.
After a bit of nagging from his wife (Michelle Fairley) and the promise of whiskey, Nickerson soon begins spilling the tale he has kept bottled up for years, and reveals that it is not just a story of a giant, extremely peeved-off whale, but that of two men - first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) and captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker).The men sitting behind the desks at the Nantucket whaling company view Chase, despite his impressive record at collecting whale oil, as a 'landsman' - someone born outside of the vast whaling family.
Most is viewed through the eyes of the young Nickerson (played by Tom Holland, the new Spider-Man), and just when the two potential father figures reach a mutual understanding and finally discover whales after months at sea, they are rammed by a giant sperm whale and left hundreds of miles from shore with limited food, water and supplies.You would think that a story so packed with sea-faring adventure and the promise of an unknown monster lurking beneath the surface would be effortlessly thrilling, but sadly In the Heart of the Sea is not.
In the heart of the Sea: With the Impeccable Performance of Chris Hemsworth & Laudable direction by Ron Howard, here comes a tale about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, where the whale seize the day.In 1820, when the men used to, kill whale for getting, oil from their body, (disgusting) things turn upside down when they are attacked by the sperm whale which destroys their ship and they are left stranded In the heart of the sea, having no idea, of their position, and with limited amount of food.The plot & story seems propitious, and it is, but it lacked a bit pace especially in the end, & couldn't deliver a proper climax, still a worth, watch, because survival movies always lacks pace Direction: It was Flawless , Howard, he has been an Oscar recipient, this time let's see, he might bag golden globe at least for this, as this movie, practically used green screens ONLY, it was a very tough job, for the director and cinematographer, to make this movie unrivaledPerformance: It was Chris, who made this movie marvelous and a must watch, his performance to this movie, was phenomenal, if compared.
Throughout the story, the film blends elements of films like "The Life of Pi", "Jaws", "Cast Away", "Alive" and "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"."In the Heart of the Sea" has much going for it – and a few things big working against it.
Some of the best "true story" movies of the last 20 years have taken some liberties with history, including some by Ron Howard, who directs this film, but in this case, he goes too far.
The film is told from the point of view of a cabin boy (Holland), 30-years later (Gleeson).The movie has a great classic cinema feel to it; it might be a little boring (at times), but it always looks great.
In my mind I think even an aggressive whale would still exhibit actions in a normal whale way.The ship, costumes, boats, and other period components were great.I felt some of the acting lacked quality, not enough to ruin the film though.It's easy to see that putting this movie together required a huge effort.The overall story was fine, but I felt there was too much time spent on building up to the ship actually leaving to find whales.
Lacks Both The Heart Of A Great Story And The Depth Of The Sea It Ventures In. From the director of Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind & Rush, In the Heart of the Sea arrives as a thrilling voyage that attempts to bring on screen the epic real-life story of disaster & survival that inspired the myth Moby Dick and while the tale benefits from kinetic direction, dynamic camera-work, frenzied editing & sincere performances, it still finds its heart somewhat lost at sea.The story of In the Heart of the Sea is set in 1820 and recounts the sinking of the American whaling ship, Essex.
The plot follows the the vessel's Captain & its first mate, who are very much at odds with each other but that growing animosity goes for a toss when their ship is brought down by an enormous & enraged whale, thus stranding its crew at sea with limited supplies.Directed by Ron Howard, there are a lot of elements the film gets right under his supervision but due to the shortcomings in the script, it fails to make a lasting impression.
Ron Howard is a director of better than average caliber and here he excels himself with a study of the factual incident, that inspired the great Herman Melville to pen his classic novel Moby Dick.The visuals and effects are nothing short of breathtaking - this is as close as you'll get to the experience of being on board an 18th century deep water sail vessel.
I'm not sure if one needs to be a student of Melville but it helps to be very familiar with Moby Dick ...I read it constantly, it is very profound...Shakespearian in depth and breadth...I saw this listed on HBO, I hadn't heard of it prior...The film is very accurate to the time and how a whaling vessel operates...If you have read Moby Dick, you know this to be true...The early part of the 19th century is well captured by Ron Howard, his, as always, brilliant directing makes the story exciting and interesting.
If you enjoy watching decently accurate portrayals of men in difficult circumstances and overcoming adversity films, you should enjoy this one...If you love Melville, despite the lack of his poetic metaphors, you'll have a better understanding of the man...If you know nothing of early 19th century whaling, you may learn a thing or three...:) "Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure.
Chris Hemsworth (Owen Chase) was perfect for the lead and Brendan Gleeson (Tom Nickerson) brought emotion to the project, as he shares his experience on the boat with Owen, to writer Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw), who finally writes the all time classic, Moby Dick.
The true story was the inspiration for Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby Dick.So I've just seen In the Heart of the Sea and it very disappointing.
From the brilliant director Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) comes a fantastic, if noticeably flawed retelling of the real-life events set in the 1820s that inspired the writing of Herman Melville's classic novel 'Moby Dick'.
Set in the early 19th century, Chris Hemsworth plays Owen Chase, a husband and soon-to-be father living in New England, who along with Captain Pollard (played by Benjamen Walker), leads a crew of sailors on a ship known as the 'Essex' on an expedition to acquire whale across the Atlantic ocean.
With Ron Howard as its director, this film has been one of my most anticipated movies of the year although the only background that I know is that there was this acclaimed novel entitled "Moby-Dick" by H.
There really was an Essex, and it really was attacked by a whale, and the crew really did struggle for survival as they drifted, and the story of the Essex really was the inspiration for Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick." All that is true enough.
Most importantly, the survivors of the Essex weren't stalked by one particular whale, as the movie suggests (although they were apparently later attacked by an orca.) But that aside (and I'm never too hard on movies "based on a true story" straying from the true story) "In The Heart Of The Sea" is an exciting, sea-faring adventure..Directed by Ron Howard, and starring Chris Hemwsorth as First Officer Chase and Benjamin Walker as Captain Pollard, this is really a movie that's more about human survival in desperate times.
Meanwhile, Cillian Murphy as Matthew Joy and Tom Holland as the young version of Nickerson provide able support among Pollard's crew.Set to a beautiful score by Roque Baños, the film features exciting whale-hunting scenes, a fierce storm at sea, and a harrowing tale of survival.
Sure, it gives the film a more genuine feel, but also provides us with a bit of a snoozer before the action actually starts happening.For those of you who don't know, In the Heart of the Sea is about the real-life story that inspired Herman Melville's famed novel Moby Dick.
Much to Nickerson's protest, he tells the story to Melville about how he was a 14-year-old orphan on this boat, lead by Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth)--the true protagonist of this film.
In the Heart of the Sea is based on the whaling story that inspired the tale of Moby Dick.
-In the Heart of the Sea is a 2015 American biographical adventure thriller film based on Nathaniel Philbrick's 2000 non-fiction book of the same name about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that inspired the tale of Moby-Dick.
And so, in the Heart of the Sea, a Ron Howard film, inspired by the preying on the Essex in 1829 by a sperm whale, falls into cliché too easily.But then how do you compete with Melville, who was inspired by the same story to write his great novel?
My verdict; In The Heart Of The Sea finally tells us the story of survival in the aftermath of the great sperm whale's attack on the Essex, a whaling ship that inspired Moby-Dick, and does so in full-force.