[Yesterday I decided to post every day for 30 days straight. Today is the second day. I’m not sure what I want to write about, so I’m just calling this post a log update. (You know, like sailors and ship captains keep logs? In the Heart of the Sea is one of my favorite movies, btw. You should watch it.) Oh great, I guess I’ll just talk about In the Heart of the Sea then.]
I first watched In the Heart of the Sea around four years ago. I’ve watched it at least five times since then. It’s a beautiful film about survival, and the extent humans will go to to survive.
The film starts off with… I promise I won’t give any spoilers… So the film starts with a broke Herman Melville (yes, Herman Melville, that guy who wrote the famous Moby Dick) visiting a retired sailor’s home. Melville has traveled a long way to meet this sailor because this sailor knows what happened to a whaling ship that sailed into the sea but never came back – He’s one of the only few survivors.
What follows is a heart-wrenching tale of bravery, adventure and horror as the sailor recounts what happened to that ship.
It’s a beautiful survival film but also more than just a “survival film.” It had a profound impact on me for a long time and made me think deeply about a lot of things. Everything is set in the late nineteenth century by the way, so this is really a treat for anyone who loves history or is interested in life in the old times, when there was no electricity, no phones, no computers, and they used to go out into the sea and crack open whale heads for oil.
The film is based on a book of the same name by Nathaniel Philbrick. I ended up reading that book after watching the film and it was very good. The book goes into a lot more detail and focuses on facts but it’s not boring at all. It’s fun to read. The film deviates from the book a little bit to maintain sensationalism. But both are really good. I highly recommend this combo. 10/10. Great for temporary emotional damage and psychological crisis.
PS. There’s Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, and a really young Tom Holland. In case you still weren’t sold.
