Whaling sucks. And I don’t just mean for the whale. Personally, I thought energy concerns were the challenge for our generation, but look at what lengths folks went to in the early 19th century: you pile into some sort of splintery schooner of seagoing scurvy with thirty men (only men) you may or may not give a crap about for a couple of years. You sail out thousands of miles, but you call them “leagues” because that’s why they pay ya the big bucks. When you finally hit upon a pod of whales – the largest animals on the planet, mind you – you take out a rowboat and a harpoon and play the world’s worst game of “pin the tail on the donkey” with your roped javelin. With any luck, the giant beast will give in to force and it will only take several hours to get it back to the big ship. You then carve a slightly larger hole into this blubber pit and fetch a pail of oil about six hundred times. And all this so Ebenezer Scrooge can make Bob Cratchit work by lamplight after dark.
God help you if the creature fights back. And that’s our story for today: In the Heart of the Sea, the inspiration for Moby Dick as told to Herman Melville (Ben Wishaw) by Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson). Herman visited Tom in 1850. Tom’s tale is from 1820; he’s reluctant to tell it and thank goodness he is — otherwise we might have had to endure Moby Dick, Moby Jimmy, Moby Ronnie, Moby W and Moby Barack among others.
In the Heart of the Sea is mostly about aspiring whaler captain Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth). The sausage fest (harpoon fest?) takes a small break so that we can meet and dismiss Owen’s wife in about two minutes of screen time. Chase has been promised a captaincy, but has to endure first mate duties instead because nepotism never dies. Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) isn’t presented as incompetent, but Ron Howard sure wasn’t kind to him, either. Under the guise of testing his crew just hours into the trip (this is really just about asserting authority for authority’s sake), Cap’n Crunch here manages to break the boat in several places, then whines they need to return home and insists Chase both take the blame and resign. Best trip ever!
Finding the Atlantic waters whale-poor, these good ol’ boys head to the Pacific where everything is bigger and wetter. And following a rumor, well … you ever hear that phrase “be careful what you ask for?” Yeah, that. Big ass white whale
takes their attempt to kill and drain him personally. And, believe me, if you didn’t get the idea that whales were the biggest creatures on earth before, you sure will now.
BTW, does anybody else get a little sad when Ron Howard makes a film and his brother Clint isn’t in it? Must be me.
I don’t quite know what you call films like this – there ought to be a name for them – but the genre is whenever the thing you’ve been waiting for (in this case, a whale) is on screen, the movie is riveting. And every scene without the headline act is simply one in which you’re waiting to get to the good stuff. In the Heart of the Sea is an acceptable recreation of the 1820s on sea, but there really needs to be more whale in this tale. Without the mammalian nemesis, it’s first a pissing contest between Thor and not-Thor (gee, who’s gonna win?) and then it’s simply a survival picture. The Man v. Sea theme has been explored a great deal lately (Life of Pi, All Is Lost, Unbroken, etc.); this picture is set apart by the actual beast, not the metaphorical one.
♪Well it’s not far down to the docks, at least it’s not for me
And if the spear is right you can claim a bull and collect all oil you see
Oh, the swabbing can do miracles, nauseation-free
Believe me
It’s not far until a pod, assuming you’ve got years
And if your captain isn’t too far gone, lay to rest your fears
Oh, the hard tack can do miracles, speaking digestively
Believe me
Whaling takes me away to where I can slaughter with glee
Just a ‘poon and a scow to carry me
And soon I will kill three♫
Rated PG-13, 122 Minutes
D: Ron Howard
W: Charles Leavitt
Genre: Oil exploration 1.0
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Captain Ahab
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: PETA
