What a breath of fresh air it is to see an authentic historical movie. Of course, any such movie will be about men—men younger than half the boys living with their mother in our fallow age. It was refreshing to discover that Chris Hemsworth can actually act—if in a narrow range.
Life in an emerging lamp-lit world, into which mankind seemed to be on the rise, yet remained obsessed with the simple act of lighting the night, is artfully evoked.
Class tensions were depicted with some nuance.
The Christianity of New England in the early 1800s is accurately depicted as both severely pious and grotesquely materialistic.
The ship and the seamanship of the actors represented an honest attempt at a reconstruction, glossing over such mundane factors as the licensed port pilot.
The whaling is gritty and evokes profound sympathy for the smallest crew member.
There is a note to be made of a certain reviled nautical figure, Captain William Bligh, who, in the same situation as this American merchant crew, facing thousands of miles of open ocean, made a drastically more heroic decision, that reflected well on his military character.
In the Heart of the Sea is well worth watching.
Thank you, Mescaline Franklin, for the loan of this movie.
