Good by frustrating: Spoilers included

I read Moby Dick at the age of 10 and was always fascinating by the story. Of course, at age 10, the book meant nothing to me and left me confused and bothered. Like someone said online, Moby Dick is a book you will understand as you age.

I also love films that are set in certain periods, and love learning about the way they sailed/managed in those days.

This movie is good in it's performances. ALL actors are excellent. Each hold their own, none steal the film away from the other. They work well as a group which is what we want, given these whalers were out to sea for years at a time--it is only natural they would be close.

However, from there, we run into problems. In part, this movie has no idea what direction to go in. As a result, the pacing starts to fail. Very slow, then fast action, slow slow, fast action. It doesn't stick to any sort of path a storyline should.

What frustrates me is it doesn't stick to the facts, and that is where it's seriously flawed. Why bother making a film, based on a book that has all the facts, only to change it?

For start, having Melville interview the young boy (now old and haunted) provides nothing but a slow down of the film. Melville interviewed the Captain, Pollard, who was all to willing to share his account. That would have made for a far better paced film. We spend far too long getting to the story and that was unnecessary when there are more important things we would like to see.

From there, we enter into the life of Own Chase, First mate. Whether he left an expectant wife behind I don't know--no account mentioned so my guess is that was for dramatic purposes only. We see clearly that Chase loves the sea and is a natural born leader. Pollard was born into the family who whales, and is well to do as a result. Did this cause problems aboard the Essex? No. In fact, later on, it is shown that while Pollard made a critical error at sea in going into a squall, that damaged the ship, it was when they were stranded did Chase and Joy (who were like brothers at sea) pushed their way upon Pollard, which was a critical error and likely affected the lives of the crew by being at sea longer than necessary. Had Pollard insisted they go by his way, they may have had a different ending. In the film, we see Pollard portrayed as much stronger/more assertive. Again, I have no read the whole book this film was loosely based on, but to me, if he was assertive in one aspect, I then doubt he would defer to his first and second mate in a crisis situation (or would he?)

From here, more inaccuracies from truth wane. Matthew Joy was ill before the Essex sank--why is he portrayed as healthy until the accident on the boat (which was also fictitious). His account is changed in the film and they leave him on the island. In reality, Matthew Joy's ship and those in it ran out of supplies first, and then was adrift from the rest. Their boat was found with 4 skeletons in it , on a small island. Why change this? It builds up the horror if this sad story.

From the new accounts of a journal written by the young boy Thomas, he was not happy with how Chase was so controlling. Chase controlled the rations, and while he was fair, he also gave the larger pieces of bread to himself. Thomas's frustration was more when Chase and Joy chose to sail further, avoiding islands (marquesis) due to natives and possibilities that they might be cannibals. (Ok, in 1875, I'd understand that caution). The island they did land on had little fresh water. Sadly, no fresh water, very little life that would live there. But, 3 men did stay on land and did survive until they were rescued. Would they have lived if the others hadn't set sail again to find help?

From there, we continue to tweak the plot: The sperm whale continues to chase them. Um, no. That's straight out of Moby Dick and suddenly Chase is Ahab??? Um, what? Did we switch gears here? In reality, the Essex was hit and after which, the whale was never seen again. That makes sense as whales are NOT aggressive creatures. They will only become aggressive if their young are threatened.

What is sad, is instead of offering a solution to WHY this whale hit the ship (never has a whale attacked a ship), they go to fiction. In reality marine biologists theorize that Chase's repair of his whaling boat, hammering on the ship, radiated a similar sonar pitch to the whale that the whale read as a threat--the whale saw the ship as another large male whale and attacked it to protect his pod. THAT would have been FAR more interesting to see in a film than this giant white whale popping up like a faux jaws like scenario. I would have even offered Chase thinking he saw the whale, when in fact he was hallucinating--the only purpose the whale serves is a moral conscience to what they were doing.

Fact: it was 1875. They needed jobs, and they needed oil from whales. It sucks, but that's how man survived back then. I'm sure they hated what they did (love the sea, hate the job). That too is touched upon in this story.

Another frustration was they talk about the horrors, the madness: But it's never shown. Not even for a bit! They show the boats in the distance, and the weight loss in just a few scenes---very little of their 89 days at sea is really shown. In fact, they skipped A LOT: How Chase's boat kept filling with water and they had to bail constantly (Remember, his boat the morning the Essex sank was damaged and he was repairing the boat), the starvation and even worse, the raging thirst. How badly they were exposed by the sun etc was never really shown. instead, the have the whale popping up for action.

They also changed the name of Pollard's first cousin to help eliminate confusion in the film. Ok, that's fine. I understand. However, it was his cousin who suggested to draw straws as to who would be sacrificed to 'eat'. His cousin NOT Pollard, drew the short straw. Pollard(Captain) was protective and refused to let him be killed. But, the cousin accepted his fate and laid his head down to be shot and consumed.

I can understand why they preferred to have Pollard as a hero, as this weighed heavily on Pollard for the rest of his life. (That he consumed his first cousin). But it is frustrating and leads to poor pacing of the film. Either make it true to the story or make it totally fictional.

The final part that annoyed me was the ending. How they wanted them to lie at the inquiry. Again, perhaps they were told to lie and they chose to tell the truth, but if that were the case, I think that would have been touched down upon in reviews.

In all, the film is interesting but I found it very slow in parts, making me look at the time wondering how /when it would end. Pacing was poor and leaves me to wonder if producers of the film had it edited to make it more 'sellable'. The fact we barely see the actors, who spent months losing huge amounts of weight, in that state leads me to believe they indeed cut a lot of the parts at sea in favor of having the action with the whale. (which is totally unbelievable because true account stories have stated they were so weak, they couldn't even talk to each other at the end. So, how could Chase even muster the energy to hold a harpoon, let alone stand to contemplate throwing it??)

I hope you enjoyed it if you watched and am curious at what your take on this film is.