Synopsis Movie In The Heart Of The Sea - Let's Review

Tonight's television program will broadcast In The Heart of the Sea (2015) at 21.00 WIB.  The following is a synopsis of the film In The Heart of the Sea, starring Chris Hemsworth and Benjamin Walker.

Synopsis of In The Heart of the Sea

Set in 1820, a whaling company, Essex set sail in search of whale oil which was in demand in the market.  The ship was also carrying a crew member named Nickerson who was 14 years old.

On the voyage, the ship's owner also hired a veteran whaler named Owen Chase and a captain named George Pollard, an experienced sailor from a whaling family who was jealous of Chase's skills and popularity.

In the middle of the journey, Chase and Pollard clashed.  Pollard takes the ship into a storm against Chase's advice and ends up putting the whole ship in danger.

After a heated argument, Chase and Pollard agreed to put their differences aside.  This finally encouraged the crew to be more enthusiastic about hunting whales.

Three months on, the Essex ship has not gotten any results.  Pollard realized that no whales inhabit the Atlantic Ocean.  He also took his ship through Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean and wished luck.

Arriving in Atacames, Ecuador, they met a Spanish captain who informed them that his crew had found an area 2,000 miles to the west inhabited by dozens of whales.

But he warned them there were even large white whales that could destroy ships.  He even admitted that he lost six of his men.

The story made Pollard and Chase even more excited for an expedition to the west.  They even ignored the threat of the giant white whale.

When they arrived at their destination, bad things happened to their ship.  A large white whale attacked and damaged their ship.  Now, Pollard and Chase must rack their brains to save their team from the savage battle.

About the Movie

In the Heart of the Sea is an adventure drama film directed and produced by Ron Howard.  While the script was written by Charles Leavitt.

This film is based on Nathaniel Philbrick's non-fiction work of the same name, about the sinking of the whaling ship Essex in 1820. It also inspired Herman Melville to write his phenomenal work Moby-Dick.

The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson.

With a massive budget of $100 million, the majority of which was spent on stunning special effects, will this film live up to the expectations of the audience?  Check out our review of the film that can be rewatched on Netflix.

Opinion About Movie

In the Heart of the Sea seems to have a story theme that is divided into at least four, namely the relationship of real events that inspired popular novels, feelings of humanity in whale hunters, stories of survival struggles and violations of moral ethics by the company.  Perhaps Charles Leavitt as the scriptwriter tried to balance all this, but he failed.

Indeed, all of these themes are successfully shown in the film according to their portions, but they actually make us not understand the direction and purpose of this film because of the lack of deep digging to inspire.  This factor made Ron Howard's big name as a top director slightly tarnished because he could not display the essence of a film with a theme that was almost similar to his best film, Apollo 13 (1995).

Both carry the theme of survival in critical situations related to the technology of their time, it turns out that the story line in In the Heart of the Sea is too wide and not as close as Apollo 13. Perhaps the intention is to open up insights about this important event more broadly from various perspectives.  side, but it obscures the essence of the film itself.

Movie's Facts

Owen Chase, played by Chris Hemsworth, is in fact a famous whale hunter from Nantucket.  Since the sinking of the Essex ship, Chase's life has only pivoted on the search for the giant whale that had sunk the Essex ship to make his household life a mess and divorced three times.

This failed obsession with execution only served as the inspiration for Herman Melville for his popular novel, Moby-Dick, which derives much of its story from Chase's journal about the chronology of the sinking of the Essex ship four months after his return to Nantucket.  This fact obscures the story in the film where Melville gets a story from one of the ship's crew.

In fact, Melville himself wrote the novel without ever visiting Nantucket at all.  But the scene in the film can still be tolerated because the location of Melville and Nickerson's meeting is not explained with certainty, whether it is in Nantucket or not.  And maybe we're a little fooled by the appearance of Brendan Gleeson, who plays Nickerson, who looks more like Chris Hemsworth than Tom Holland.

So we think that this film is based on the story from Owen Chase's point of view, it turns out to be from the story presented by Thomas Nickerson.  In fact, this story is directly based on Chase's own writing as described earlier.  This factor is enough to weaken the story because it does not speak according to the facts.  Instead, it complicates the facts.

Movie Information

Year: 2015

Genre: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History

Production: Roth Films, Spring Creek, Imagine Entertainment

Director: Ron Howard

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson