# In The Heart of the Sea - movie

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-movie/764974>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 3, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-movie/764974 "2016-09-03T23:55:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-movie/764974/1 "2016-09-03T23:55:20Z")

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This thing got poor reviews from critics and moviegoers alike, so I waited for it to show up on HBO. Really glad I didn’t pay for this clunker, and I’m really pissed that they took an excellent book (and chapter of history) by Nathaniel Philbrick and stuck a stupid scenery chewer like Chris Hemsworth in the lead role. How did this guy ever get hired as an actor? His pecs? The guy has all the nuance of an anvil. Anyway, I made it through about half of it before sending it to a watery grave alongside The Essex.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-movie/764974/2 "2016-09-05T01:29:05Z")

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I saw it a few days ago on HBO.

Even more annoying to me than Hemsworth was the way they screwed with history – the whale that rammed the _Essex_ wasn’t white (or off-white), didn’t pursue the crew in their longboats as a vendetta, and the captain didn’t maniacally want to chase him. I knew all that in advance. Later I learned that the guy Melville is interviewing wasn’t the last survivor – both the captain and the first mate lived until Melville’s _Moby Dick_ was published. And Melville didn’t go interviewing any survivors. He read the published accounts, and got the details of life aboard a whaler from his own experience.

I mean, you can try and make it interesting, but turning the Essex event into a dry run for Moby Dick is going off the Deep End. I’ll bet Philbrick’s more than a little annoyed.

And Ron Howard did such a good job keeping close to reality in _Apollo 13_. Not perfect, but much better than most.

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**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-movie/764974/3 "2016-09-05T01:41:26Z")

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Loved the book, hated the movie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie set on a boat that didn’t include a _single convincing shot of the ocean_! The CGI special effects were shockingly bad.