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Flashback: Moby Dick (1956)
Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 6:00 PM
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Admission Senior - $11.00
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Ticket Availability
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Event Date Passed
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, Rovi
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