Search - Moby Dick on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1956 DVD Release: 06/19/2001 Format: DVD - Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 55 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Adventure, Adventure Drama, Sea Adventure See Also: Moby Dick [O-Ring]

Previous film versions of Moby Dick insisted upon including such imbecilities as romantic subplots and happy endings. John Huston's 1956 Moby Dick remains admirably faithful to its source. "Call me Ishmael" declares itinerant whaler Richard Basehart as the opening credits fade. Though slightly intimidated by the sermon delivered by Father Mapple (Orson Welles in a brilliant one-take cameo), who warns that those who challenge the sea are in danger of losing their souls, Ishmael nonetheless signs on to the Pequod, a whaling ship captained by the brooding, one-legged Ahab (Gregory Peck). For lo these many years, Ahab has been engaged in an obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab's dementia spreads throughout the crew members, who maniacally join their captain in his final, fatal attack upon the elusive, enigmatic Moby Dick. Screenwriter Ray Bradbury masterfully captures the allegorical elements in the Herman Melville original without sacrificing any of the film's entertainment value (Bradbury suffered his own "great white whale" in the form of director Huston, who sadistically ran roughshod over the sensitive author throughout the film).Cinematographer Oswald Morris' washed-out color scheme brilliantly underlines the foredoomed bleakness of the story. Moby Dick's one major shortcoming is its obviously artificial whale-but try telling a real whale to stay within camera range and hit its marks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gregory Peck - Capt. Ahab
Richard Basehart - Ishmael
Leo Genn - Starbuck
Harry Andrews - Stubb
Seamus Kelly - Flask
Orson Welles - Father Mapple

John Huston's Moby Dick is about as fine a film as the director ever made, and the most watchable, thoroughly cinematic treatment of a 19th century novel ever made. It was a good laserdisc from MGM/UA and has become an even better DVD, though it could have been treated better still without a lot more effort. The film-to-video transfer is sharp and beautifully detailed, and the film has a nicely muted color scheme (it is close to being a black-and-white film shot in color) which is captured perfectly here; it is presented full-frame, which is a puzzlement, since MGM usually letterboxes even its non-CinemaScope, post-1953 movies. The audio is also not as robust as one might hope, though it pumps up well enough through speakers.
The movie is better than the $20-list "Vintage Classics" series into which it has been placed; that is, the price is right, but there's a lot more that could have been done and would have been justified. As it is, the only extra is the original trailer. One wishes that Gregory Peck and screenwriter Ray Bradbury could have been approached about doing an audio commentary track, and the disc should, at least, have come with a booklet going into the production and its history. The 20 chapters are more than adequate, though an insert with the chapters listed would have been helpful. The disc opens automatically to the menu, which is simple to use as far as it goes. As a representation of the movie itself, this disc is as good as anything seen since 1956, but it still manages to insult the movie in all kinds of little ways. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide