Review of In the Heart of the Sea (2015) by Elliot S — 12 Dec 2015
The film fudges a lot of facts. It's strange, since the real story is at least as compelling as the one Howard makes up. Melville actually went to visit Captain Pollard, not that other crew member, as the film would have it.
He went after he wrote Moby Dick, not before, as the film would have it. So Melville wasn't in Nantucket looking for inspiration, as the film suggests. He just wanted to pay his respects to a very unlucky captain (Pollard lost another ship after the Essex).
The whale that sank the Essex was not a stalker, as the film makes it out to be. The stalker was Melville's fictional Captain Ahab, i.e. humankind. It's in poor taste that Howard makes a lot of his character Captain Pollard's integrity in telling the truth in an inquiry: admitting that a whale sank his ship.
All the while, Howard plays loose with the facts in a crass Hollywood effort to jazz up the story.
This review of In the Heart of the Sea (2015) was written by Elliot S on 12 Dec 2015.
In the Heart of the Sea has generally received mixed reviews.
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