In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story.
Aussie A-lister and top Hollywood director join forces to tell story that inspired Moby Dick.
When Oscar-winning director Ron Howard first read the script for the epic whaling adventure In The Heart of the Sea, he had no idea it was a true story, let alone the real-life inspiration for Herman Melville's iconic 1851 novel Moby Dick.
"I just thought it felt like another way to do a spin on Moby Dick," he told the Herald. "Then they said 'No no no, it's a true story', and I said 'You're kidding!' and I looked it up on Wikipedia, then I read [Nathanial] Philbrick's book and then it became an interesting proposal to me."
The "they" referenced above includes Aussie A-lister Chris Hemsworth, who embraced the script after it had been drifting around Hollywood for more than a decade, and presented it to Howard when they finished filming their 2013 collaboration, race car drama Rush.
"That experience was such a special one for me I just wanted to continue that in some way," Hemsworth said. "I knew that he brought the best out in me. I hadn't [ever] felt that grounded on set and that free to experiment and take risks as I had on Rush."
Rush garnered Howard and Hemsworth some of the best reviews of their careers. Hemsworth especially shone when given the chance to move beyond the superhero roles that have dominated his rise to stardom.
Chris Hemsworth.
"It was a real turning point for me in a lot of ways. I began to sort of let go more and not try and control it as much out of a fear of 'What if I fail?' In my mind, in my relationship to acting, it was about allowing vulnerability, or that risk factor to be present."
In the Heart of the Sea stars Hemsworth as Owen Chase, the capable first mate of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, which suffered a whale attack in 1819, signifying only the start of the crew's problems.
"Who he is at the beginning of the film, I can relate to that ambition and wanting to prove something to myself and the world," Hemsworth said. "You gotta have some of that insanity and that drive to push through what comes with, y'know, this business. But more so when I was younger. Less of that now."
Often grand and always dramatic, the true story of In the Heart of the Sea gets pretty dark, with the film going to places Melville didn't dare venture. Let's just say these whalers ended up having something in common with a certain Uruguayan rugby team.
The film's portrayal of the savagery of the whaling industry is similarly unflinching, and when we first see a whale slaughtered, it's an especially solemn moment in the film.
But Howard says he wasn't trying to service modern attitudes to whaling.
"I wanted to let the story evolve from the young man's point of view," said Howard, referring to Nickerson, the cabin boy played by Tom Holland, soon to be seen as Spider-Man in
Captain America: Civil War
.
"So in the beginning it's all adventure, a little daunting, a little unnerving, but mostly a thrill. I wanted at that point to basically say, through his eyes, this was not a boy's adventure at sea. This was not romantic. This was a brutal industry.
"And when you read accounts, certainly they wanted to capture the whales, this was how they made a living, it was an era when hunting of all kinds was entirely acceptable. But those whales were so intelligent and so alive and present - they all had respect for those whales. They sort of acknowledged the brutality of the act, almost like men at war in a way."
A script based on Nathanial Philbrick's account of the Essex was commissioned when the book (of the same name) was published in 2000. Hot directors such as Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), and Michael Mann (Heat) flirted with making it, but technical limitations prevented the movie from being mounted until now.
"I saw this script roughly around the time I saw Life of Pi," Howard said. "Then I saw the Planet of the Apes reboot and I talked to our visual effects supervisor from Rush, he said 'Well, you know, our CGI artists are now another two years along from Life of Pi'. They really delivered."
Deliver they did. "When the final shots started coming into the movie, and suddenly the whale was this presence ... We had to go back and re-edit the movie. Just in subtle ways. We had to make room for this performance."
Movie preview
What:In the Heart of the Sea Who: Chris Hemsworth directed by Ron Howard Opens: At cinemas on Thursday.
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