IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (2015)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Ron Howard

SCREENWRITER: Charles Leavitt

FILM STARS: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Nathaniel Philbrick

TYPE: Non Fiction

PUBLISHER: William Collins

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 2015

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 2000

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

NOTES

GENRE: Non Fiction

WORDS: A fascinating book and film.

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a book by American writer Nathaniel Philbrick. It depicts a real life incident abord a whaling ship in the 1820s …

Wikipedia: The Essex, an American whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, sank after a sperm whale attacked it in the Pacific Ocean in November 1820. Having lost their ship, the crew of the Essex attempted to sail to South America in whaleboats. After suffering from starvation and dehydration, most of the crew died before the survivors were rescued in February 1821 … In retelling the story of the crew’s ordeal, Philbrick uses an account written by Thomas Nickerson, who was a teenage cabin boy on board the Essex and wrote about the experience in his old age; Nickerson’s account was found in 1960 but was not authenticated until 1980. In 1984, an abridged version of his account was finally published. The book also uses the better known account of Owen Chase, the ship’s first mate, which was published soon after the ordeal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Heart_of_the_Sea#Film_adaptation

That may be fascinating enough but the event, in part, inspired Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick.

Author Philbrick won the 2000 US National Book Award for Nonfiction for this book. His writing is almost novel like (he is an English professor) and is written as history as a novel (narrative nonfiction or creative nonfiction), which I generally don’t like though this one keeps the “creative” to a minimum. The author knows his stuff as he often writes on issues of the sea, shipping as well as on American colonial history. This book is full of interesting information surrounding the narrative, like why whalers needed to go to the Pacific, how whaling was done, and the culture of a whaling town. The historical characters come to life more so because the background is so well described. You understand the entire lives of these people and where they came from. Their personalities come alive and you understand how and why they do things they do.

The film is solid though with flaws.

I recall I was looking forward to this film. Films about men (yes, sorry, largely men, with one love interest occasionally thrown in) on the sea in the days of sail where a favourite of mine as a kid – Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Captain Blood (1935), Captains Courageous (1937), The Sea Hawk (1940), Reap the Wild Wind (1942), The Black Swan (1942), Wake of the Red Witch (1948), Down to the Sea in Ships (1949), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), Against All Flags (1952), Yankee Buccaneer (1952), Sea Devils (1953), The World in His Arms (1952), All the Brothers were Valiant (1953), Moby Dick (1956), Billy Budd (1962), H.M.S. Defiant (1962), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). But this is 2015 and in 2015 these films have to be (ever) more serious and politically correct  because adventure for adventures sake in historical films is out of fashion (okay, apart from the Pirates of the Caribbean films). History is political and the swashbucklers and seafarers are looked through that lens. They become colonizers, exploiters, or in the case of whalers, environmental terrorists. And perhaps they were (and many of the older films hinted at the same) but that should not get in the way of telling a story. The other problem is these films are expensive to make and returns are not guaranteed (there is no appetite for historical films … even agenda driven struggle). Peter Weir’s wonderful Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) managed to tread the line between history and adventure and entertain, and when released was roundly praised but it only just broke even.

This film simplifies the narrative as you often find it from book to film. It doesn’t have Philbrick’s exploration of whaling mechanics and the existential themes. It does, however,  take creative liberties with the story of the survivors to engage the film audience. The film also has Herman Melville being told the story by a survivor (the now grown up boy Nickerson) before Melville writes Moby Dick which is not in the book. Melville met with the captain, George Pollard Jr, and first mate Owen Chase’s son about the Essex. Owen Chase’s written account of the vent was Melville’s true inspiration

Ron Howard is a fine director. he has been around long enough, as an actor, to work (and watch) the greats – Vincente Minnelli, Richard Fleischer, Don Siegel, George Lucas, Bert I. Gordon and on TV, Franklin J. Schaffner, Lamont Johnson, Jerry Hopper, Joseph H. Lewis – to make entertaining films. He started in comedies (Night Shift (1982), Splash (1984), Cocoon (1985)) and moved to drama and action, nothing totally centered on action and nothing wallowing in drama, but an excellent mix of both, Backdraft (1991), Ransom (1996), The Missing (2003), Rush (2013). Great entertainments but there are no philosophical discussions that follow. Screenwriter, Charles Leavitt, is perhaps a good companion to him as he mixes drama and action well: The Sunchaser (1996) and Blood Diamond (2006). The acting is fine. Hemsworth (as the first mate) tends to raise his voice for dramatic lines (much like early Michael Caine did) but could have appeared in any number of adventure or swashbuckling roles in the 1940s and 1950s. He has the look and the presence. Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw and Brendan Gleeson all give good support, though it is funny how many Australian, English, and Irish actors are needed to portray American colonial sailors. Their speaking voices are, more or less, closer to Colonial American than the contemporary American voices.

The problem is the film is a little flat. It should have been more spectacular. Perhaps CGI (and real locations!) don’t convince as much as model boats and large sets used in the 30s, 40s, and 50s but those films had more awe and more of a feeling of being at sea which this film doesn’t have, despite the fact these films try to be (and usually are) more realistic. Likewise, there is no obsession in this film, the obsession that led to the characters created by Melville, and perhaps the obsession (or at least passion) that Philbrick’s book has.

The film grossed $93.9 million worldwide, against a production budget of $100 million. A flop. A pity. If it had done well it may have encouraged more of the same and it would have been good to have more historical adventure epics than superhero films (then and now).

Both the book and film are worthwhile.

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