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Jun 03, 2015Nursebob rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Much of Melville’s Shakespearian prose and lofty spiritual metaphors survive intact thanks to a literary screenplay penned by Huston and Ray Bradbury—rarely have flocking seagulls and sheets of lightning taken on such supernatural significance—and the set designs are sublime, be it a humble fishing village, a nautical-themed church (where pastor Orson Welles delivers an apropos sermon on Jonah), or the cramped quarters aboard a heaving ship. Despite their miscasting, both Gregory Peck (too young) and Richard Basehart (too old) deliver fiery performances with Ahab’s self-destructive rage contrasting significantly with Ishmael’s sense of humility. But it is in the film’s ultimate confrontation between man and beast that director John Huston pulls out all the stops, delivering a thunderous battle sequence of exploding waves and splintering wood before winding things down to an eerily calm final frame. An overlooked classic that deserves to be reevaluated.