MikeK
Gold Member
This extremely well-made HBO presentation is about the sinking of the whaling ship, Essex. It is the true story upon which Herman Melville based his fictional classic, Moby Dick.
There is no Pequod, no Captain Ahab, no Ishmael, no Queequog and no "white" whale. Instead it tells about a huge sperm whale which did in fact set about in apparent vindictive rage to repeatedly ram holes into the bulkheads of the Essex, effectively sinking her and setting her surviving crew adrift in three lifeboats.
The tale of Moby Dick concludes with Ishmael being rescued while clinging to his friend Queequog's floating coffin. But this historically accurate dramatization deals at length with the survivors' 92 day lifeboat ordeal which includes starvation, tortuous thirst and, ultimately, cannibalism.
Considering the absence of the usual fanfare, this is an unusually good movie.
There is no Pequod, no Captain Ahab, no Ishmael, no Queequog and no "white" whale. Instead it tells about a huge sperm whale which did in fact set about in apparent vindictive rage to repeatedly ram holes into the bulkheads of the Essex, effectively sinking her and setting her surviving crew adrift in three lifeboats.
The tale of Moby Dick concludes with Ishmael being rescued while clinging to his friend Queequog's floating coffin. But this historically accurate dramatization deals at length with the survivors' 92 day lifeboat ordeal which includes starvation, tortuous thirst and, ultimately, cannibalism.
Considering the absence of the usual fanfare, this is an unusually good movie.
