Review of In the Heart of the Sea (2015) by My $ — 20 Dec 2015

Aside from underdeveloped characters and uneven cinematography, this film may prove a bit disappointing to those already somewhat familiar with the tragic tale of the Essex, or the history of whaling. Sailors rowed their whaleboats in sync, for example, not willy nilly. The screenplay takes many dramatic liberties that depart from historical narratives. The Essex did suffer a harrowing knockdown during a gale in the Gulf Stream, rolling so far that her yards were buried in the water. But there is no record of Chase scampering up the rigging to save the ship, as depicted; Pollard and Chase had sailed together before, and their relationship was not as strained as the film contrived; as Mate, Chase was said to have been a much less benevolent overseer than is portrayed; the 85-ft whale that stove the ship was described as scarred, not as white, and rammed the ship twice on the port side (first just forward of the forechains, then on the bow near the anchor), before swimming off never to be seen again; Pollard said it was an orca -- not the original sperm whale -- that subsequently attacked his whaleboat; Coffin drew the lot, not Pollard; Chase and Pollard were never in the same whaleboat; the men left on Henderson Island were eventually rescued; &c. The film also downplays not only the extraordinary feat of navigation, in the horrific conditions, across thousands of miles of open ocean to recovery (near Masafuera Island for Chase's boat; Pollard's near St. Mary's Island), but also the heroic action of the African American steward, Bond, to salvage navigation gear from the sinking ship. Similarly, it ignores the racial dimension of the survival cannibalism in the whaleboats.

But I suppose some dramatic license is to be expected....