Moby Dick with Gregory Peck: DVD Cover

    Moby Dick Director: John Huston Cast: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, Harry Andrews

    DVD - Pan & Scan / Dolby 5.1 / Mono Learn more

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    • DVD Release Date: 06/19/2001
    • Original Release: 1956
    • Rating: Not Rated
    • Sales Rank: 6,849

    Viewer Rating: (2 ratings)

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    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
    • Full Product Details

    Scenes

    Features

    Original theatrical trailer; English: mono; French: mono; Spanish: mono; French & Spanish subtitles

    Full Product Details

    Scene Index

    Side #1 --
    0. Scene Selection
    1. Logo/Title/Credits [1:48]
    2. A Whale Of A Tale [8:45]
    3. Jonah's Lesson [6:54]
    4. Picking The Pequod [5:52]
    5. All, Save One [6:09]
    6. The Crew [3:24]
    7. Capt. Ahab's Mission [6:48]
    8. The First Kill [5:57]
    9. Starbuck's Opposition [7:35]
    10. God's And Ahab's Law [5:14]
    11. Queequeg's Vision [7:28]
    12. "He's Very Near!" [13:27]
    13. Ahab's Blood Oath [2:52]
    14. St. Elmo's Fires [6:29]
    15. Foretold Doom [7:41]
    16. Moby's Fury [6:29]

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    Previous film versions of Moby Dick insisted upon including such imbecilities as romantic subplots and happy endings. John Huston's 1956 Moby Dick remains admirably faithful to its source. "Call me Ishmael" declares itinerant whaler Richard Basehart as the opening credits fade. Though slightly intimidated by the sermon delivered by Father Mapple (Orson Welles in a brilliant one-take cameo), who warns that those who challenge the sea are in danger of losing their souls, Ishmael nonetheless signs on to the Pequod, a whaling ship captained by the brooding, one-legged Ahab (Gregory Peck). For lo these many years, Ahab has been engaged in an obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab's dementia spreads throughout the crew members, who maniacally join their captain in his final, fatal attack upon the elusive, enigmatic Moby Dick. Screenwriter Ray Bradbury masterfully captures the allegorical elements in the Herman Melville original without sacrificing any of the film's entertainment value (Bradbury suffered his own "great white whale" in the form of director Huston, who sadistically ran roughshod over the sensitive author throughout the film).Cinematographer Oswald Morris' washed-out color scheme brilliantly underlines the foredoomed bleakness of the story. Moby Dick's one major shortcoming is its obviously artificial whale-but try telling a real whale to stay within camera range and hit its marks. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

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    • Ratings: 2Reviews: 2

    Moby Dickby Anonymous

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    October 17, 2005: We all know the basic story. Captain Ahab blames a whale for his failures and seeks to kill the whale. Ahab wastes his life along with the lives of the crew who should have thrown him overboard. The sinking of the ship by Moby Dick is based on a real incident. The whaling ship Essex was sunk when an enraged sperm whale rammed it. Surviving crew members, already in launched whale hunting boats had to make for land in their small boats, a terrible ordeal. A book was written and a movie made about this incident. Gregory Peck is great as Ahab. Notice he speaks in iambic pantameter like Shakespeare's play. Melville did this deliverately. The motorized rubber whale used in the movie looks like a real whale. You cannot tell from the movie it's not real. To make this happen, the producers allow sea spray to get in the view's way exactly as the scene would appear to the men in the whaleboats. The result is true authenticity. The scene is chaos incarnate and that is what we see. Modern computer generated scenes just wouldn't do the job as well. The action in the movie's ending is riveting because it is such an authentic exhibit of raw danger. This is not a boring James Bond film with gadgets, car, plane and boat chases. This is not men shooting at each other from a distance. In Moby Dick, men are completely unprotected and throwing little harpoons a few feet from an enraged monster too huge to kill. Melville's action scene beats anything contrived today. As a ten year old boy I saw this movie in a theater. I liked it so much I went back to see it again two more times. If you saw the 1998 made for TV movie starring Patrick Stewart as Ahab, try to forget it. It was terrible. Everybody turns thumbs down at it. Get the original 1958 Gregory Peck version, and watch your kids' eyes open wide.

    Moby Dickby Anonymous

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    April 04, 2004: I first saw this movie in 1956 when I was nine years old. I was mesmerized by the dramatic performances of the actors and over the years, I never miss a chance to catch this movie when it shows on TV.