Just finished watching the William Hurt/Ethan Hawke Moby-Dick and may have more to say later. Go here to read my essay on previous film adaptations.
It has long been a question as to how Ishmael, a mere sailor on a crew and a limited first person narrator, knew what Captain Ahab was thinking alone in his cabin below decks. Thanks to the Encore Moby, we now know. Ishmael and Ahab are buddies, friends, sympaticos. Nigel Williams' take on Moby turns Ishmael into the Captain's fiscelle.
A silent era version of Melville's masterpiece had Ahab defeating the white whale, and I once throught there could be no more unfaithful adaptation of the novel. But this--this is worse. This changes everything.
This version looked great, and I was sometimes captivated by Hurt's Ahab.
But at the end of this new buddy film version of the greatest book ever written Ahab pushes Ishmael out of his boat as they pursue Moby. "AND I ONLY AM ESCAPED ALONE TO TELL THEE."--the line from The Book of Job Ishmael chooses as the epigraph to his story's epilogue. Now we know that it was Ahab who saved him. Good grief.
