Moby Dick: The True Story

If this were a Hollywood movie, the tagline for this entertaining historical documentary from the Discovery Channel might be: “The whale was only the beginning….” Just as the account of Owen Chase, first mate of the whaling ship Essex inspired Herman Melville to write the classic Moby Dick, this video account of the true-life whale attack draws from another, lesser-known, memoir penned by Essex cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, who--along with a handful of others--survived the 1820 shipwreck and many weeks of horrific storms, thirst, and hunger that drove the men to cannibalism and madness. The Essex, after leaving Nantucket Island bound for the Pacific, eventually rounded Cape Horn in South America and somewhere between Ecuador and Hawaii encountered an 85-foot sperm whale that (uncharacteristically for the gentle giants) battered and sank the old whaling boat. That's where Melville's novel ends, and this story begins, as it follows the perils of the three groups of survivors as they try to find land, and details the almost unspeakable extremes to which some were pushed. Combining effective voiceovers, reenactment footage, stunning computer graphics, vintage shots of actual whaling, and informative interviews, this production offers viewers a good overview of whaling life in the early 1800s (a boatload of rendered whale blubber brought a hefty paycheck for the captain and crew), as well as a report on the modern-day sperm whale population. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (C. Block)