Don't have time to read the book?
I just watched Moby Dick for the first time. I've read the book a couple of times, it is one of my very favourite novels. Moby Dick is not an easy book especially for contemporary readers accustomed to novels published today that generally clock in around 230 pages. Mister Anchovy and his book club hated it, if I recall. Oops, and I had recommended the novel as a must read.
A couple weeks ago, I tripped over Moby Dick in the tv listings. It was a quiet Sunday morning. I'd never seen any movie version, I think there are three or four film produced. Gregory Peck stars in the 1956 John Huston directed Ray Bradbury script. Every bit as good as the book. The hunting and ship action scenes were jarring and exciting. Peck is amazing and grim as Ahab. It took me a few minutes to get my head around the shiny pomade Richard Basehart as Ishamel but all the casting turned out to be wonderful. You can find several reviews that nitpick about the mechanical whales, but overall, once you let go to the adventure, both emotionally and philosophically, it is a delightful way to spend a Sunday morning. Definitely a lot more accessible than ten days of reading.There is also plenty of real whale footage to commpensate for any special effects flaws. Really though, I just got right into the whole chase and pathos. Moby Dick is a story that has always made me strain at understanding the human condition, about what is the right thing to do and how to live. I love it. And I'm very happy to finally find out that I can wholely recommend the movie instead of the book.
Starbuck, first mate: To be enraged with a dumb brute that acted out of blind instinct is blasphemous.
Captain Ahab: Speak not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. Look ye, Starbuck, all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet reasoning thing puts forth the molding of their features. The white whale tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask. 'Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung.
On a morning talk show a new Broadway musical was being promoted that was based on a documentary about a reclusive mother and daughter. Something about the talk show chit chat grabbed my attention, and the hosts pointed out that this documentary was going to be airing on televison. I set my DVR. The movie was Grey Gardens. The directors are most famous for stumbling into the Rolling Stones dressing room and ending up following them on tour the year Altamont murder in their concert occured giving us a definitive rock and roll concert movie Gimme Shelter. The Mayles brothers heard about two relatives of Jackie Kennedy who were about to be evicted form the East hapmton mansion because they were in such squalor the neighbours called the health board inspectors. This 1976 documentary spends several weeks inside the house and world of two of the most fascinating people ever to be filmed. I can not believe I had not only not seen this movie before, but had never heard of it either! Turns out, it is a hugely popular cult movie. Every gay friend of mine has to give back their card for not telling me or knowing about this movie.
Watch Grey Gardens. It has been described as a love story and anarchy unleashed. One of the best movies I've seen in years.
Stagg really likes Salvador Dali. He is pretty well read about a lot of artists but he didn't know that Dali had made a film set for Alfred Hitchcock. I was very excited to find Spellbound on the movie channels recently and to watch it with him.I have seen Spellbound a couple times before, but I hadn't really noticed how good looking Gregory Peck is in this movie. He is gorgeous! Especially against his playing Captain Ahab. I couldn't believe it could be the same actor and Peck might just be my new favourite actor. I am going to go out of my way to watch for his movies. Like so many of Hitchcocks movies it is about the redemption of love. The main characters are both too old to be still single, another Hitchcock trait, and their instant love for each other is both comical and sexy. Stagg was thrilled by the dream sequence created by Dali and it really adds to the charm and mystery of this film.
South Park has just gotten better and better. Is that possible? How could one of the most rigid and static animations in art history continue to be not only relelvant but insanely funny and entertaining. The animation has always been a kind of collage and anti-cartoon and technical statement, yet, the artists are very innovative especially as years go by. The last few episodes have been part of a continuing story of atheism versus faith. South Park has really nailed the issues and made me fall down laughing at the same time. Long live South Park!
Starbuck, first mate: It is our task in life to kill whales, to furnish oil for the lamps of the world. If we perform that task well and faithfully, we do a service to mankind that pleases Almighty God. Ahab would deny all that. He has taken us from the rich harvest we were reaping to satisfy his lust for vengeance. He is twisting that which is holy into something dark and purposeless. He is a Champion of Darkness. Ahab's red flag challenges the heavens.
Stubb: Well, sir, if it's like that, I don't wonder that you, a religious man, might be a bit downcast. But I don't much see what you can do about it.
Starbuck, first mate: Listen to this.
[He goes over to a bookshelf, picks up a heavy book, opens it, and reads aloud from it]
Starbuck, first mate: "A captain who, from private motives, employs his vessel for another purpose from that intended by the owners, is answerable to the charge of usurpation, and his crew is morally and legally entitled to employ forceful means in wresting his command from him.
6 comments:
My father used to refer to Gregory Peck as Gregory Spellbound (same guy who used to say things like Murphy was an optimist, and You've buttered your bread not lie in it).
It is true. I suggested to my bookclub at work (that no longer exists) we read Moby Dick on Candy's recommendation. After all, Candy has recommended so many good books to me......ex. Blood Meridian, The Mulching of America, Yonder Stands your Orphan, One River, and on and on. Everyone pretty much hated it, us being said contemporary readers and all. In fact, I was pretty much barred from recommending any more book to the club.
Fascinating.
I remember that movie from watching as a younster. It had a huge impression on me.
Josiah saw Laurie Anderson's concert "Moby Dick" when he lived in LA.
Have you heard anything about that?
I love Gregory Peck.
I own the movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Healing Room, Hey I've seen To Kill A Mockingbird a million times, but I guess I just never noticed Gregory Peck before. Like as a hottie. My god he is gorgeous in Spellbound, breathtaking! Bergman wasn't too shabby either. I didn't know Laurie anderson ahd a record named Moby Dick, but apparently the musician Moby is a great great grand relative of Melvilles.
Mister Anchovy, I do feel bad yur book club didn't like the novel. I should have known better. It really is for geeks and I'm quite a fast reader and I've read it two or three times, and the last tie, it took me about ten days. Part grinding thorough some of the book part needing a break. A novel usually can be read in about 6-9 hours. (after all a novel being read aloud for audio books averages 6 hours to listen to a novel on cd or tape)
But when I saw this movie last week, I was so pleased that in many ways a lot of the action suits a movie plus the dialogue was very well preserved. Of course, the long passages on whale research, whaling, the colour of white well, not condusive to a movie heh heh. The novel is really an exercise in meditation I believe.
The movie rocked though!
Mister Anchovy, Bob Dylan has a lyric about Gregory Peck, no?
I loved Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird. He was amazing.
As for Moby Dick, it's one of those books that I've always wanted to read - it's supposed to be amazing. I've purchased 3 or 4 copies over the past 10 years. I've never made it past about page 20 or so. It seems as though the story would be great if I could just get into it but alas...like the great whale himself, it eludes me. Sure, there's the option of renting a movie version but it's just not the same as reading the book itself. Know what I mean? Perhaps someday I'll try again.
I read Moby Dick when I was at uni, and I must admit, I didn't get it. Maybe having only a week in which to get to grips with it (and another three novels) took the shine off it a bit. I wouldn't mind having a go at the film, though.
I am a big Gregory Peck fan. Roman Holiday, anyone? To Kill a Mockingbird? What a star. And, of course, Spellbound is great. I remember discussing it with a friend of my Mum's on the beach in Italy. I couldn't remember the title -- either in Italian or English -- and I ended up describing the scene on the ski slopes and the rest. And the guy nailed it straightaway with the Italian title (which I think is great): Io ti salvero' (I shall rescue you). Gregory Peck was a giant among men.
"Well, there was this movie I seen one time,
About a man riding 'cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck.
He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself.
The townspeople wanted to crush that kid down and string him up by the neck.
Well, the marshal, now he beat that kid to a bloody pulp
as the dying gunfighter lay in the sun and gasped for his last breath.
Turn him loose, let him go, let him say he outdrew me fair and square,
I want him to feel what it's like to every moment face his death."
....and a later in the song....."How far are y'all going?" Ruby asked us with a sigh.
"We're going all the way 'til the wheels fall off and burn,
'Til the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasin dies."
Ruby just smiled and said, "Ah, you know some babies never learn."
Something about that movie though, well I just can't get it out of my head
But I can't remember why I was in it or what part I was supposed to play.
All I remember about it was Gregory Peck and the way people moved
And a lot of them seemed to be lookin' my way."
...and later again...."Well, I'm standin' in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory Peck,
Yeah, but you know it's not the one that I had in mind.
He's got a new one out now, I don't even know what it's about
But I'll see him in anything so I'll stand in line."
...and...."There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.
I don't remember who I was or where I was bound.
All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back.
Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down.
Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls, teeth like pearls shining like the moon above
Brownsville girl, show me all around the world, Brownsville girl, you're my honey love".
I had had to dig deep in my memory to recall that song, from 1986. It was and is a tremendously good song on an album by Bob Dylan that, let's just say it's not on my top 10 list. I'm surprised you remembered it.
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