Rating: 
Summary: Masterful and complex takeoff on Melville
Review: One of John Huston's very best films has also been by far his most overlooked and underrated. Preceded by a hilariously bad version with John Barrymore (in which Ahab has a love interest and succeeds in killing Moby Dick, who resembles a floating mattress) and later redone as a TV-movie with Patrick Stewart, Huston's version remains by far the best film of what may be the greatest American story ever told. The fact that it is still well-remembered proves its lasting power; many other films-from-novels sink right out of sight. Ray Bradbury's script captures the essence of Melville's novel, using his words (and some words so good you'd swear they were his) and keeping true to the vision and the atmosphere, but is never confined to being anything like a mere "adaption". The best films-from-books transcend their sources and stand as independently great works. Melville's novel is great because it's unfilmable - messy, rambling, convulted, something you need to spend a while digging into; something rich and endlessly rewarding. Any smart adapter of such material won't waste any time trying to copy those elements onto the screen; he'll go right for the essence of the story, what drives it: Ishmael's curious search for the unknown and Ahab's all-consuming quest to confront the unknown - to prove that God cannot treat him like the Jonah of Orson Welles' unforgettable sermon, to "strike through the mask" of the God that torments man. It's a "wicked book," as Melville said, and the blasphemous edge survives to the screen; Huston and Bradbury never dull the point but if anything sharpen it. Best of all, they remove Fedallah, a character who really is, as Bradbury said, "a bore"; just something to suggest that Ahab is cursed like Macbeth - even the ironic prophecies are practically a knock-off of the three witches'. Bradbury instead uses a more subtle, mysterious prophecy spoken through Elijah, a more subtly frightening and eerie character than Fedallah who is just used as a throwaway in Melville, but here takes on a great importance. The prophecy is fulfilled stunningly in a final scene that, for me, stands as one of the greatest in film history. It begins with the strange melancholy and calm of the "Symphony" scene, and then progresses quickly to the final chase. Ahab's destruction seems even more powerfully done here than in the original; isn't it so profoundly right that he and the whale should be lashed together forever and ever? The sight of him drowned and chillingly 'beckoning' to his crew to follow him is the most haunting moment in the film. There are very few misfires in this film; I would call it one of the best examples of how fine a movie can be made of an 'untouchable' classic. By contrast, the recent TV-remake was a ghastly misfire. The script was haphazardly faithful to Melville, with some bizarre changes (the Pequod stuck in Antarctic ice?), a total lack of the atmosphere Huston drenches his film in, and rather anemic performances, with the exception of Patrick Stewart's fiery version of Ahab. Stewart treated Ahab as a mighty Shakespearean tragic figure, the way he always should have been done. Still, Gregory Peck's interpretation shows that he was far from miscast, just cast unusually. He holds Ahab's madness down under a brooding darkness and does indeed keep a "deranged dignity," never lets the story turn merely absurd. The film ends holding on the floating coffin that saved Ishmael - a typical Huston gesture. But this film is not typical, far from it. If you are new to Melville, see it; if you are a Melville purist, open your mind to something that is very far from a watered-down rewrite of a great but dramatically flawed book, something mighty and inspiring in its own right.
Rating:
Summary: Herman Melville would have liked this film.
Review: I liked this movie for a number of reasons. Among them was the performances by Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Orson Wells. Another was John Huston's treatment of the Moby Dick novel, he kept it as faithful as he could. Finally was the apperance of Moby Dick himself. In an era before computer effects, they made the Moby Dick model look very much like a white Sperm Whale, and his apperance looks very convinceing. The final scenes where Moby Dick rams and sinks the Pequod were filmed brillently. This was so much better then that terrible TV film remake they did last year.
Rating:
Summary: This movie is an irreplaceable masterpiece.
Review: Just to set the record straight, the Pequod set sail from Nantucket, not New Bedford, be it in Connecticut, Massachusetts, or wherever.
Rating: 
Summary: Call me Ishmael...
Review: My only objection to this film is that when I read the book I hear Gregory Peck's voice! Despite the advances in special effects that might diminish this work in the eyes of the video generation I found this to be a masterwork, especially the film coloration that served as a "background wash" for Ahab's hard-edged reality. Orson Welles' portrayal of Father Mapple is worth the price of admission in and of itself. Visually, this is a magnificent film. A must for coffee drinkers who wonder who Starbuck's coffee is named for...
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: This is a powerful film. A wave crashing, salt spray stinging the eyes, rope burns on the hands, creaking oak, rolling deck masterpiece. Gregory Peck was not miscast. He is superb. He portrays a troubled soul, A man at war with nature, a man who has lived for that war and will die for it too, with all the single minded, seething, brooding menace that such men exude. A dormant vulcano, rumbling dangerously, full of acid and fire. This is a film to put chills up the spine of any but the saddest of the slack jawed gawkers of the MTV generation (Marvin, Terminater 2 should turn up on Mars soon, that should keep you happy). Huston has brought a past age to furious, glorious life. This is a film that will still be appreciated in 500 years. Magnificent.
Rating:
Summary: Search for the lost in the wasteland of one man`s mind.
Review: This movie reminds us how sometimes one thing can be more important than everything-even life.Anger and desire for revenge leads wreckage of a man Ahab to final encounter with THE BEAST.But as he is being dragged down by Moby Dick,we might be wondering what makes it the evil sprite.Can it be that it`s humans that can`t accept the fact that nature rules outside.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice, but no cool special effects.
Review: It was a very interesting but not very unbelieveable. The book was much better than the movie. It was neat to the point that it showed good and evil. It was groovy dude!
Rating:
Summary: Master Filmaker at Work
Review: New Bedford is in Massachusetts, not Connecticut but why carp....John Huston,s "Moby Dick" is worth the viewing. Anyone who would dare to bring this great novel to the screen is certainly to be applauded. All the nuances of Mellville,s saga is almost impossible to depict. John Huston stamps his signature on this wonderfull film with his subtle framing of scenes and , with Oswald Morris, a mix of color and sepia that is "real" for the period. Richard Basehart does a nice job of narration and I must confess that I might watch the film just for seeing Orson Welles deliver that sermon as Father Mapple..it,s pure Welles. Finally, There will be other filmakers that might try their hand at this drama..I dare say that this film is their benchmark...!!
Rating: 
Summary: Boring!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie is very boring and is not very good. While watching this shameless movie, I fell asleep. It is about Ahab and his obsession with a white whale (Moby Dick). If you are looking for action this is not for you. It gets somewhat suspenseful in the last half-hour. However, I do not recommend it to anyone!!
Rating:
Summary: To my mind the masterpiece of John Huston!
Review:
Herman Melville was an avid admirer and exhaustive reader of William Shakespeare. This fact somehow fed the febrile imagination stating an obsessive chase between the nature's forces represented by Moby Dick the assassin whale that destroyed the existence of Ahbab.
This passionate conflict overcomes by far the limits of the anecdotic character and places us in the big stage: the man against the nature; the will facing the fate. The presence of Prometheus emerges clearly in this singular challenge.
Visually stunning, admirably played by Peck in one of his most smouldering performances ever made. And the additional presence of Orson Welles as the preacher in the first third of the picture and the masterful and inspired direction of John Huston make of this one of my 200 cult movies in any age.
Another point to remark resides in the fact this movie was chosen as an example of Leadership in the reviewed book: Movies for Leaders with these other films: Hoosiers, Bridge on the Kwai River and Wizard of Oz.
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