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Moby Dick (1956)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
27 June 1956 (USA)
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Tagline:
The most eagerly awaited motion picture of the year! more
Plot:
The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
4 wins
&
2 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(42 articles)
Standing Eight Count
(From t5m.com. 2 November 2009, 4:38 AM, PST)
tMF Perspectives: Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Roger Ebert and Dogville's 'Poetic effect'!
(From The Movie Fanatic. 25 October 2009, 6:26 PM, PDT)
(From t5m.com. 2 November 2009, 4:38 AM, PST)
tMF Perspectives: Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Roger Ebert and Dogville's 'Poetic effect'!
(From The Movie Fanatic. 25 October 2009, 6:26 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Better and better each time you see it
more (78 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Gregory Peck | ... | Captain Ahab | |
| Richard Basehart | ... | Ishmael | |
| Leo Genn | ... | Starbuck | |
| James Robertson Justice | ... | Captain Boomer | |
| Harry Andrews | ... | Stubb | |
| Bernard Miles | ... | The Manxman | |
| Noel Purcell | ... | Ship's Carpenter | |
| Edric Connor | ... | Daggoo | |
| Mervyn Johns | ... | Peleg | |
| Joseph Tomelty | ... | Peter Coffin | |
| Francis De Wolff | ... | Captain Gardiner | |
| Philip Stainton | ... | Bildad | |
| Royal Dano | ... | 'Elijah' | |
| Seamus Kelly | ... | Flask | |
| Friedrich von Ledebur | ... | Queequeg (as Friedrich Ledebur) |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Herman Melville's Moby Dick (USA) (complete title)
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Parents Guide:
Runtime:
116 min | 115 min (TCM print)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound Recording)
Certification:
Finland:K-12 (1986) |
Finland:K-16 (1956) |
Iceland:L |
South Korea:15 |
USA:Approved (PCA #17465) |
Australia:G |
West Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Gregory Peck's few attempts to play a villain were considered unsuccessful, perhaps because the public could not accept Peck as anything other than good. He was considered too young at 38 to play Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1956), especially since the character was described in Herman Melville's novel as an old man.
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Goofs:
Anachronisms: Jet contrails visible in the background when Starbuck plans to shoot Ahab.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "The A-Team: Bad Time on the Border (#2.4)" (1983)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (78 total)
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Some critics panned this pic when it came out - Peck too wooden, the script too cliched, etc, etc. Don't believe a word of it. I saw this one when I was 8 or 9, and for years I watched it every time it came on TV - even in B&W! Peck isn't wooden, he's intense and fascinating (my favorite scene: in his cabin, saying to Starbuck, "That bed is a coffin"). The language may sound stilted, but it's MELVILLE'S, and the cast sink into it with conviction.
Some critic (I don't know which) has said that Moby Dick (the book) is an "uncomfortable masterpiece" - or something like that - meaning that it's a hard pill to swallow. The movie is bound to be a hard pill for many viewers as well. But that's their loss. Huston's movie is a great big powerful thing - you believe in Peck's crazy passion, in Starbuck's gentleness, in Ishmael and Quequeg's bond, in the evil of the whale, even.
Another favorite sequence: the Pequot becalmed, the crew lying about under the intense sun, slowly going crazy. The climactic chase is superb and thrilling, of course; what it all adds up to is a film about the elements, and our relationship to them. The whale is just the biggest of a whole slew that constantly threaten to destroy us. Nature, our natures - all the things we fight against with our intelligence, that threaten to engulf us.
Beautiful film, one of Huston's best. I find the analogy with Hitler/Nazis in an earlier comment very interesting. Another would be with an earlier Huston film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - another film about people taking terrible chances for reasons that don't stand up to a lot of examination, whose biggest obstacle turns out to be themselves. By the way, will someone please rerelease Moby Dick in a restored version so we can get a really good look at all that glorious Technicolor?