Moby Dick is somewhat curious film as John Huston takes a very stylistic approach to the material. In that he barely adapts the dialogue from the book, and equally keeps sequences with an otherworldly feel to them. That's not the wrong approach considering the often symbolic and poetic nature of the material. There is one sinking flaw in all of this is Gregory Peck's performance as Ahab that struggles with the dialogue and fails to make Ahab feel that force of nature he needs to be. It's a gaping hole that hurts the whole film as he just seems ill at ease, now the rest of the cast is more or less decent, but Ahab's the pivotal character. However even with that problem there are striking visual sequences, I love the shot of the darkness in the doorway to Ahab's cabin, and the final climax is still rather powerful even with Peck.
4/5
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