Heart of the Sea

rgranger · Dec 20, 2015

shemandr said:
"Jaws on quaaludes"

Quaalude....

You just dated yourself....

25yearslater · Dec 20, 2015

I haven't seen it yet but I will be watching it when it comes out on DVD. I think you have hit the nail on the head Shemandr. The emotion I am coming to understand from all the various reviews is abject boredom which is exactly what all of us who sail will experience when becalmed. If Ron Howard was attempting to capture this mind numbing scenario he may have succeeded superbly. Being held on the brink of insanity as the hours and days elapse is something we can empathize with. If bored to tears for one hour consider the men who endured weeks. The object seems to be hidden in plain sight. Can't wait to see it now.

Ilanortho · Dec 20, 2015

Saw it today in 3D with my wife and we enjoyed it. Having watched whales dive under my boat in San Diego (mega scary), built wooden ship model of whaling ship and toured the Charles Morgan several times in Mystic Conn., I guess I just enjoyed watching something that came a bit closer to the actual experience rather than always having to leave it to my imagination. I also read the book years ago and still didn't feel short changed by the movie like some people felt.

Kings Gambit · Dec 20, 2015

shemandr said:
"If Ron Howard was attempting to capture this mind numbing scenario he may have succeeded superbly."
I hadn't thought about it from that prospective. I hope to hear from others who may have something to add.

As I mention in the other thread, I thought the movie enjoyable. The section of drifting in the whale boats after Essex was sunk wasn't all that long. Several sub-themes were running through the movie. The sub-plot on how Melville came to write one of the greatest sea stories of all time in spite of his insecurity in the shadow of Nathaniel Hawthorne (probably fiction, however). The timeless sub-theme of the barely competent blueblood captain with family history (Pollard) versus the self-made man as first-mate (Chase) who chose higher-paying fishing over farming and could swing one-handed from the t'gallant yard, knife in teeth, to cut a fouled buntline so the boat could get underway. Studdingsails set (captain) or not (mate); run off in the squall (mate) or not (captain); shorten sail in the squall (mate) or not (captain), etc. The extended hunt for diminishing whale oil on the eve of the discovery of oil patches in Penn which took the ships very far from shore (nearly a thousand leagues) to find the few remaining whale pods of sufficient numbers to fill the ship's hold with whale oil. The attempt to make company men out of the surviving officers to hush up the incident (bad for insurance purposes). And finally, the guilt felt by the survivors for having resorted to cannibalism to survive. So, I was not bored; but yeah, maybe nothing "new." But what is new in a sequel as in Star Wars #7? It was another fine example of Howard's presentation of historical themes in his movies. The worst part was what had to be thrown in there to satisfy the special effects addicts who love disaster movies--a preposterously monstrous sperm whale that sunk the ship and then hounded the survivors for several weeks with boogie-man-like cameos, etc. Maybe that was in there to ease the "boredom" and jolt people awake to make it to the finish of the move.

Scott T-Bird · Dec 21, 2015

I was disappointed in the movie. Having read the book, I was pretty excited. The book had so much more depth with regard to all the themes that KG talks about. Perhaps it's just not possible to adequately capture those themes in a short movie. I really don't know what it would take to improve the movie, but the themes were just too shallow. Perhaps the fact that I knew the outcome made the movie boring. Perhaps the acting & directing simply wasn't very good. The appearances of the whale after the ship sank actually ruined the movie for me because it made the movie unreliable with respect to history. I could accept the movie better as a rather dry accounting of the real event. Instead, it became just a boring semi-fictional disaster flick. Surprisingly, thumbs down from me. But I'm sure I'll watch the DVD when it comes out just to be sure I didn't like it.

It's funny, I can watch Bounty (the one with Anthony Hopkins & Mel Gibson) numerous times and enjoy it immensely. This version of Mutiny on the Bounty is supposed to be a pretty accurate accounting & far more interesting. Perhaps it was the acting that was far superior.

Ilanortho · Dec 21, 2015

Sitting here in Wisconsin in the middle of drab winter I guess I am easily pleased by just watching movies set on sailing ships on the ocean. I have to agree about the Bounty.
Only one I hated was the Redford movie which actually made me angry with what I felt was stupidity in action.

Ron20324 · Jan 4, 2016

It's only showing once a day here in Annapolis, at noon-thirty, so I guess this is the last week in the thears?. (I saw it right after breakfast.) A good movie, my lady and I thought.
On the subject of cannibalism, I saw on the History Channel a show about the Jamestown, VA, settlement. This was around 1607-ish. The diggers found a skeleton of a teenage girl that they had documentation when she arrived (in October?). Months later she was dead (I forget the reason) and was apparently "served up" during that winter's stavation going on. .

25yearslater · Jan 5, 2016

Ron20324 said:
It's only showing once a day here in Annapolis, at noon-thirty, so I guess this is the last week in the thears?. (I saw it right after breakfast.) A good movie, my lady and I thought.
On the subject of cannibalism, I saw on the History Channel a show about the Jamestown, VA, settlement. This was around 1607-ish. The diggers found a skeleton of a teenage girl that they had documentation when she arrived (in October?). Months later she was dead (I forget the reason) and was apparently "served up" during that winter's stavation going on. .

Saw that same one on PBS.