John Huston's 69-Year-Old Adventure Movie Starring Gregory Peck & Orson Welles Is Perfect To Watch After In The Heart Of The Sea

In the Heart of the Sea tells the true story that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick, so the perfect follow-up to watch is John Huston’s film adaptation of the literary classic. Based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s historical account of the same name, In the Heart of the Sea tells the true story of the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820. The cast of In the Heart of the Sea features huge stars like Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Holland, with Ben Whishaw playing Melville.

Since it arrived on Netflix, In the Heart of the Sea has become a streaming hit. Viewers who have finally caught up with Ron Howard’s harrowing nautical adventure, a decade after it underperformed at the box office, might be wondering what to watch next. Given that the movie chronicles the inspiration for Moby Dick and ends with Melville putting pen to paper, the ideal next movie to watch would naturally be the best film adaptation of the book itself.

John Huston's Moby Dick Adaptation Provides A Great Follow-Up Watch After In The Heart Of The Sea's Ending

It Follows On Perfectly From Melville Writing The First Line Of The Book

In the Heart of the Sea ends with Melville writing the first line of Moby Dick, inspired by his experiences in the sinking of the Essex whaling ship, as the movie has just depicted. In order to complete the perfect seafaring double feature, follow up In the Heart of the Sea with John Huston’s 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick. Just as Melville is starting to put the story into words, see those words extrapolated into a dazzling cinematic spectacle by one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.

Just as Melville is starting to put the story into words, see those words extrapolated into a dazzling cinematic spectacle by one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.

It might seem redundant to watch a Moby Dick movie after In the Heart of the Sea, since they both tell essentially the same story of a deranged sailor’s vendetta against a destructive whale. But Huston’s film would parallel the story of In the Heart of the Sea in really interesting ways in a double feature. It’s a more dramatized version of the story, with a mythic quality capturing the bare-bones essence of the battle between man and beast.

Why John Huston & Gregory Peck's 1956 Movie Is Still The Best Moby Dick Screen Adaptation

It's A Grand Spectacle With A Powerful Ahab Performance

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From a 1926 silent film called The Sea Beast to a 2018 sci-fi movie called Beyond White Space, Moby Dick has been interpreted every which way on the screen. There are over a dozen film and TV adaptations of Melville’s book. But Huston’s effort from 1956 remains the best movie version of Moby Dick. It has the grand spectacle of old-school Hollywood adventure movies, while Gregory Peck brings the appropriate gravitas to Captain Ahab. Moby Dick is the perfect follow-up movie to In the Heart of the Sea.