Based on a book by the first mate and a journal of the cabin-boy, a harrowing account of the early nineteenth century New England whaling ship The Essex, which was attacked and sunk by a whale in the Pacific. Working with the former account, Melville used this story as a basis for his novel Moby Dick. The importance of whale oil, the profit-driven Quaker background of the Nantucket ship owners, the straitened conditions of those aboard a whaling ship, the problematic manner of hunting and killing the whales, the disgustingly nauseous manner of extracting the whale oil, the economic exploitation of the crew by the ship owners, the mating habits of male sperm whales (yes, they supposedly get their name from the similarity of their colour to you-know-what), the difficulties of a rookie captain and a headstrong first mate in deciding what to do initially when whaling boats are lost in the Atlantic and then when the crew find themselves in three small boats thousands of miles from land with minimal supplies of food and water in the Pacific, the bleak necessity of the cannibalism to which at least two of the boat's crews descended (the third boat was never recovered) and the sad end of the principal players - Pollard and Owen, are all dramatically re-enacted and told with a minimum of 'learned authority' talking heads. Very good show. Should accompany any viewing of In the Heart of the Sea which, judging from this documentary, did a very good job of telling the actual story of these poor sailors.
2 Reviews
Underwhelming
grantss17 February 2021
The true story upon which Herman Melville's classic novel 'Moby Dick' was based. This is the story of the whaler Essex.
I was intrigued by the summary of this documentary and the documentary should have been interesting enough. However, it doesn't really hit the mark.
Part of the problem is that it labours its point re the whaler vs whale war that was occurring. I agreed with the general tone of the documentary regarding the killing of whales, that it was sad and unnecessary, but the film seemed to overdo this, using every opportunity to shoehorn this in. It also didn't help that the expert they got to talk about whales, a marine biologist, seemed like a spaced out hippy.
The survival story was reasonably interesting, as was the background on whales, but everything in between seemed like padding.
For a better, more engaging, more dramatic, covering of the story, watch the feature film 'In the Heart of the Sea' instead.
I was intrigued by the summary of this documentary and the documentary should have been interesting enough. However, it doesn't really hit the mark.
Part of the problem is that it labours its point re the whaler vs whale war that was occurring. I agreed with the general tone of the documentary regarding the killing of whales, that it was sad and unnecessary, but the film seemed to overdo this, using every opportunity to shoehorn this in. It also didn't help that the expert they got to talk about whales, a marine biologist, seemed like a spaced out hippy.
The survival story was reasonably interesting, as was the background on whales, but everything in between seemed like padding.
For a better, more engaging, more dramatic, covering of the story, watch the feature film 'In the Heart of the Sea' instead.
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