In the Heart of the Sea

2015 • 121 minutes

About this movie

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. “In the Heart of the Sea” reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath, as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.

Ratings and reviews

Rented it thinking I would watch it then watch it again later with my wife. I was thoroughly disappointed. Not only did I just barely finish the movie before nodding off from boredom, I never even mentioned renting it to my wife. Story drags in the worst since of the word " drags " . The character development was horrible and incomplete. Never cared what happened to anyone in the story. Was a shame too because it starred some otherwise decent actors. Definitely not a fan of this pitiful excuse for a movie.

I have mixed feelings about this film. In a sense, reading the book the movie is based on ruined the movie for me. The movie only covers 1/4th of the material in the book. There were so many details and events that happened that I don't think a movie could adequately tell the story of what happened. While they tried to convey conflicts and situations through dialogue in the movie (e.g., Owen's inclination to lead over Captain Pollard), there were other embellishments added to what actually happened which turned me off. Movies like this try to give historical events more flare and excitement by taking out major events or by adding things that never happened. For example, in the book written by Philbrick, the whale was never seen again after it had destroyed the ship. However, in the movie the whale follows them for several days and attacks them right before they made it to the island. I just rolled my eyes when this happened. The whale was actually a very small part of it all. While I still enjoyed the movie to a point, over all, it was lackluster for me because of these factors. Word of advice: Don't get your history from Hollywood.

I didn't expect much given what I've heard from critics and word of mouth. I was pleasantly surprised however. People complained that the pacing of the film stalled every time they broke away from the ship and crew to catch up on wives and folks back home. Perhaps the movie was re-edited because the tedious cut away scenes I heard described were absent in this version. It flowed well and my wife and I enjoyed the film.