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Moby Dick (1956)

Gregory Peck , Richard Basehart , John Huston  |  NR |  DVD
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (147 customer reviews)

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Product Details

  • Actors: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice, Harry Andrews
  • Directors: John Huston
  • Writers: John Huston, Herman Melville, Norman Corwin, Ray Bradbury
  • Producers: John Huston, Jack Clayton, Lee Katz
  • Format: Anamorphic, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), French (Unknown), Spanish (Unknown)
  • Subtitles: Spanish, French
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
  • DVD Release Date: June 19, 2001
  • Run Time: 116 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (147 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005AUKA
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,566 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "Moby Dick" on IMDb

Special Features

None.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There are so many things right about this 1956 production of Moby Dick, it's a shame it is remembered for the one (debatable) thing wrong with it. As Captain Ahab, the bearded, one-legged, insanely obsessed whaler, Gregory Peck has often been called miscast. The mild, level-headed Peck had many talents, but the volcanic eruptions of Ahab seemed beyond him--even Peck himself felt he was a bad fit for the part after he finished playing it. (Pauline Kael opined that Peck looked like "a stock-company Lincoln.") Yet Peck's quiet brooding works an intriguing variation on the fiery character. John Huston, a director with a taste for location shooting, had his hands full with the difficult open-water filming in Ireland and the Canary Islands ("The catalogue of misadventures was unbelievable," he later wrote). Since Ahab is chasing the rare white whale, three false whales had to be constructed, two of which were lost at sea. For all the miscues, the film is amazingly controlled, and especially beautiful to look at: Huston and cinematographer Oswald Morris developed an unusual color process meant to suggest old whaling engravings. The director wrote the script with the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, an inspired choice to adapt Herman Melville's epic novel. Richard Basehart plays the narrator, Ishmael, and Orson Welles provides a wonderful single-scene role as Father Mapple, declaiming the mysteries of the sailor's life in a thundering sermon. --Robert Horton

Product Description

A spectacular retelling of the Herman Melville classic, masterfully directed by John Huston, is unsurpassed in entertainment, imagination and high adventure. From the screenplayby Ray Bradberry and Huston, Moby Dick is a brilliant film (Time). Consumed by an insane rage, Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck) has but one purpose in liferevenge on Moby Dick, the great white whale who maimed and disfigured him. The obsessed skipper of a whaling boat, Ahab uses his command as an excuse to sail the seven seas in an unrelenting search of his prey. Battling a mutinous crew, tropical heat and violent storms, Ahab finally catches up to his quarry and begins a confrontation that culminatesin an epic struggle of non-stop fury...and inevitable doom.

Customer Reviews

A rare time when the movie is as good as the book. likes good books, music, movies  |  19 reviewers made a similar statement
Gregory Peck's performance..outstanding !! Burt  |  18 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
104 of 105 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Movie=5 Stars / DVD= 4 Stars May 12, 2004
By mackjay
Format:DVD
John Huston's film of MOBY DICK is perhaps a rare exception. It's a great film in its own right, apart from the great novel upon which it is based. The case can easily be made that this film does not 'do justice' to the book, if only for the reason that it does not cover every aspect of Melville's original. But this film proves that a slavish literary imitation is not necessary for a great film.

Huston also fought with Ray Bradbury over the screenplay. The great science fiction author was literally reduced to tears by the gruff director, and he wrote a book about the experience. There was also some conflict over the casting of Gregory Peck as Ahab. Some say Orson Welles or Leo Genn (Starbuck) would have been a better choice. This may well be, but it should be admitted that Peck rises to the occasion when it's called for. The great scene with the Spanish doubloon and the great scene with Starbuck on the bridge, where Ahab explains his obsession. Few other actors are likely to have surpassed these moments.

According to IMDb, MOBY DICK was shot in 1.66:1 aspect ratio. This DVD does not present the film in that ratio, yet it does not appear to be a pan & scan transfer. The film looks very good and and nothing appears to have been done to tamper with the color. This is most likely how it should look. The director fought with the studio over the color process used in MOBY DICK: it's intentional. He and the cinematographer were trying to capture a visual style that would be evocative of a period style of painting that would contribute to the mood of the story.

Anyone interested in background on this film should read THE HUSTONS by Lawrence Grobel. The harrowing production is detailed, with plenty of attention given to the above-mentioned conflicts and also to the shooting of the INCREDIBLE final sequence.

Some extras would have been welcome, but this DVD is more than worth owning by any fan of Melville, Huston or American film.
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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful and complex takeoff on Melville August 29, 1999
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
One of John Huston's very best films has also been by far his most overlooked and underrated. Preceded by a hilariously bad version with John Barrymore (in which Ahab has a love interest and succeeds in killing Moby Dick, who resembles a floating mattress) and later redone as a TV-movie with Patrick Stewart, Huston's version remains by far the best film of what may be the greatest American story ever told. The fact that it is still well-remembered proves its lasting power; many other films-from-novels sink right out of sight. Ray Bradbury's script captures the essence of Melville's novel, using his words (and some words so good you'd swear they were his) and keeping true to the vision and the atmosphere, but is never confined to being anything like a mere "adaption". The best films-from-books transcend their sources and stand as independently great works. Melville's novel is great because it's unfilmable - messy, rambling, convulted, something you need to spend a while digging into; something rich and endlessly rewarding. Any smart adapter of such material won't waste any time trying to copy those elements onto the screen; he'll go right for the essence of the story, what drives it: Ishmael's curious search for the unknown and Ahab's all-consuming quest to confront the unknown - to prove that God cannot treat him like the Jonah of Orson Welles' unforgettable sermon, to "strike through the mask" of the God that torments man. It's a "wicked book," as Melville said, and the blasphemous edge survives to the screen; Huston and Bradbury never dull the point but if anything sharpen it. Best of all, they remove Fedallah, a character who really is, as Bradbury said, "a bore"; just something to suggest that Ahab is cursed like Macbeth - even the ironic prophecies are practically a knock-off of the three witches'. Bradbury instead uses a more subtle, mysterious prophecy spoken through Elijah, a more subtly frightening and eerie character than Fedallah who is just used as a throwaway in Melville, but here takes on a great importance. The prophecy is fulfilled stunningly in a final scene that, for me, stands as one of the greatest in film history. It begins with the strange melancholy and calm of the "Symphony" scene, and then progresses quickly to the final chase. Ahab's destruction seems even more powerfully done here than in the original; isn't it so profoundly right that he and the whale should be lashed together forever and ever? The sight of him drowned and chillingly 'beckoning' to his crew to follow him is the most haunting moment in the film. There are very few misfires in this film; I would call it one of the best examples of how fine a movie can be made of an 'untouchable' classic. By contrast, the recent TV-remake was a ghastly misfire. The script was haphazardly faithful to Melville, with some bizarre changes (the Pequod stuck in Antarctic ice?), a total lack of the atmosphere Huston drenches his film in, and rather anemic performances, with the exception of Patrick Stewart's fiery version of Ahab. Stewart treated Ahab as a mighty Shakespearean tragic figure, the way he always should have been done. Still, Gregory Peck's interpretation shows that he was far from miscast, just cast unusually. He holds Ahab's madness down under a brooding darkness and does indeed keep a "deranged dignity," never lets the story turn merely absurd. The film ends holding on the floating coffin that saved Ishmael - a typical Huston gesture. But this film is not typical, far from it. If you are new to Melville, see it; if you are a Melville purist, open your mind to something that is very far from a watered-down rewrite of a great but dramatically flawed book, something mighty and inspiring in its own right.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Adaptation August 3, 2004
Format:DVD
This 1956 production of Herman Melville's Moby Dick was written and directed by John Huston (Treasure of the Sierra Madre; The Man Who Would Be King) along with Ray Bradbury. This version is superior to the more recent release with Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab with great cinematography and good acting.

Although some have complained about Gregory Peck's performance as Captain Ahab, I feel that his cold reserved expressions in the film work just as well in showing a man consumed by hatred and a lust for revenge. In line with Melville's extremely religious themes, the character of Ahab is a man who feels he's been cheated by nature and God and so seeks his revenge. Taking his doomed men with him around the world, he seeks to exact his vengeance on the great white whale who took his leg, Moby Dick. The sailor Ishmael (Richard Basehart) is the voice of innocence and redemption.

The direction and cinematography is superb. Huston was a master of his craft and had directed many timeless classics by the time he did Moby Dick. I recommend this film as the best adaptation of the story with the strongest cast as well as the best directed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Not playable
This dvd can not play in my region(it shipped from Great Britain).I did not notice Region 2 and I did not know what Region 2 was at the time anyway. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Ronald V Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars gift
i didn't buy for myself but the person I gifted it to has always wanted it and loves it .
Published 13 days ago by barblee
5.0 out of 5 stars Moby Dick (Gregory Peck)
A classic that I wanted to add as a DVD version to my collection. Love Gregory Peck as captain Ahab.
Published 14 days ago by Mary M. Smith
1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of Version 2 dvd's
The dvd was Version 2!!! Until the dvd wouldn't play, I'd never heard of dvd "versions." The ad did not say Version 2, but I admit the order form did. Read more
Published 14 days ago by ahab
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick service
As usual the movie was great. Gave it to a friend that hadn't seen it. Nice to be able to still get it.
Published 16 days ago by Pat Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars great sea yarn
as far as im concerned this is the best moby dick movie, i have seen all the remakes and im not impressed with any of them, i think gregory peck does an awesome job as captain ahab... Read more
Published 19 days ago by jerry
5.0 out of 5 stars Moby Dick
Loved it, wat more can You say about an movie that is a classic it was a classic when it was released so it remains a classic.....
Published 1 month ago by Gary Bautch
5.0 out of 5 stars call me ishmael
Director John Huston was often handed excellent crews to turn his films into masterpieces, such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The Asphalt Jungle, The African... Read more
Published 1 month ago by likes good books, music, movies
5.0 out of 5 stars A movie classic that never gets too old to watch .
Arrived on time .We bought it for our grandson who is 13 years and he loved watching it . We had a great movie night watching it with him .
Published 1 month ago by robert gaglio
1.0 out of 5 stars I was sent a Region 2 movie so I never saw it.
I was sent a region 2 movie so I never got to look at it. maybe if I lived in Ireland with John Wayne and Maureen O'hare we could all watch it together.
Published 2 months ago by Douglas Johnson
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