''Moby Dick'' is a 1998 American television

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

based on

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...

's 1851 novel of the same name. It was filmed in Australia in 1997 and first released in the United States in 1998. The miniseries consisted of two episodes, each running two hours with commercials on March 15 and 16 of 1998 on the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

. This is

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

's final on-screen role.

Plot

Ishmael is a young sailor who joins the crew of the whaling ship ''Pequod''.

Queequeg Queequeg is a character in the 1851 novel ''Moby-Dick'' by American author Herman Melville. The son of a South Sea chieftain who left home to explore the world, Queequeg is the first principal character encountered by the narrator, Ishmael. T ...

, a Pacific Islander and experienced whaler, meets Ishmael at an inn and joins him in this whaling journey. The captain of the ''Pequod'', Ahab, soon reveals his obsession with the legendary

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

Moby Dick, who bit off Ahab's leg years earlier. Since that day, Ahab has sworn to find and kill Moby Dick himself. Ahab rejects the repeated pleas of his first mate, Starbuck, to stop chasing Moby Dick because the ship is operating at a loss due to Ahab's apathy towards hunting whales other than Moby Dick and because he fears the captain's narrow-minded pursuit puts the entire crew's safety at risk. Queequeg, assigned to work as Starbuck's harpooner, also disagrees with the captain's mission and engages in passive resistance by completely refusing to do any work on the ship, even throwing down his harpoon when ordered to join a whale hunt. As months pass by with no sighting of Moby Dick, Ahab's madness becomes more and more obvious. He refuses to assist another ship searching for the son of their captain, who was lost at sea. He forces the crew to drag the ''Pequod'' over ice with ropes and sail through a massive storm. Yet even as their fellow sailors perish and their survival becomes more and more uncertain, the majority of the crew refuses to challenge Ahab, eager to help him claim the prize of Moby Dick. Finally, the ''Pequod'' locates Moby Dick, and Ahab personally leads a group of men to kill the beast. Despite being harpooned, the whale manages to crush the boat and kill everyone except Ahab. When the captain tries to untangle his harpoon rope, he gets caught and Moby Dick drags him underwater to his death. The ''Pequod'' is rammed and sinks, with Ishmael the only survivor.

Cast

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actor ...

Captain Ahab Captain Ahab is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists in Herman Melville's ''Moby-Dick'' (1851). He is the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod''. On a previous voyage, the white whale Moby Dick bit off Ahab's leg, ...

Henry Thomas Henry Jackson Thomas Jr. (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and had a lead role in the film '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), for which he won a Young Artist Award and received Golden Globe ...

as Ishmael *

Father Mapple Father Mapple is a fictional character in Herman Melville's novel ''Moby-Dick'' (1851). A former whaler, he has become a preacher in the New Bedford Whaleman's Chapel. Ishmael, the narrator of the novel, hears Mapple's sermon on the subject of Jon ...

Ted Levine Frank Theodore Levine (born May 29, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Buffalo Bill (character), Buffalo Bill in the film ''The Silence of the Lambs (film), The Silence of the Lambs'' (1991) and Leland Stottle ...

as Starbuck *

Bruce Spence Bruce Spence (born 17 September 1945) is a New Zealand–Australian actor. Spence has amassed over 100 film and television credits and has also acted in theatre. Biography Spence won an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1971 comedy ...

as Elijah *

Hugh Keays-Byrne Hugh Keays-Byrne (18 May 1947 – 2 December 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the ''Mad Max'' franchise ...

as Mr. Stubb * Piripi Waretini as Queequeg *

Dominic Purcell Dominic Haakon Myrtved PurcellO'Connor, B,Break Out". ''Men's Fitness''. December/January 2007 Issue; retrieved 18 December 2006. (born 17 February 1970) is a British-Australian actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Lincoln Burrows in ...

Bulkington Bulkington is a large village and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Bedworth, in the Nuneaton and Bedworth district of Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : In the 2011 census the ward ...

Norman D. Golden II Norman D. Golden II (born April 7, 1984) is an American former actor best known for his performance in the 1993 film ''Cop and a Half'' as Devon Butler. He is also a rapper who goes by the name of Enormus. Career In 1992, Golden became a series ...

as Little Pip *

Norman Yemm Norman Yemm (23 March 1933 – 3 February 2015) was an Australian actor, opera singer and sportsman. Screen career (Film and TV) Yemm's film roles include ''Night of Fear'' and ''The Fourth Wish'' On the small screen he may be best remembe ...

as Carpenter * Shane Feeney Connor as Mr. Flask *

Peter Sumner Peter Malcolm Sumner-Potts (29 January 1942 – 22 November 2016), professionally known as Peter Sumner, was an Australian actor, director, and writer. He had a long career in theatre, television, and film. Career His credits include parts in su ...

as Captain Gardiner * Matthew Montoya as Tashtego * Michael Edward Stevens as Dagoo * Kee Chan as Fedallah * Warren Owens as Cook Patrick Stewart took the lead role shortly after making a striking reference to the book, and quoting from it, in '' Star Trek: First Contact''. Gregory Peck appeared as Father Mapple more than 40 years after he played Ahab in the 1956 film adaptation directed by

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

Awards

Gregory Peck won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. The series also won awards for its music and was nominated for several

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

References

External links

* * {{USANetwork Shows 1998 television films 1998 films 1990s American television miniseries APRA Award winners USA Network original films Films based on Moby-Dick Television shows based on American novels Television series set in the 19th century Films directed by Franc Roddam

Plot

Cast

Awards

See also

References

External links