Moby-Dick (1956) Captain Ahab's speech, All visible objects are but as pasteboard masks..

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  • Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
  • Moby-Dick (1956)
    “Hark ye yet again,-the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event-in the living act, the undoubted deed-there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ’tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. Who’s over me? Truth hath no confines.” - Excerpt from Moby-Dick; Or The Whale.
    #mobydick #captainahab #hermanmerville

КОМЕНТАРІ • 109

  • @MathewRenfro
    @MathewRenfro Рік тому +156

    "Speak not to me of blasphemy, man. I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."

    • @karolk7711
      @karolk7711 Рік тому +16

      Badass line

    • @malikoniousjoe
      @malikoniousjoe 25 днів тому +2

      This is how I feel everytime i stub my toe or catch on a cabinet handle. I know it’s dumb to get angry and attribute agency to inanimate objects but the spite and vitriol exists nonetheless

  • @dhruvdatta1055
    @dhruvdatta1055 2 місяці тому +38

    CURSE YOU BAYLE

    • @bighex5340
      @bighex5340 2 місяці тому +2

      I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE

    • @greed94
      @greed94 2 місяці тому +7

      I HEREBY VOW YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY

    • @mrgoober6320
      @mrgoober6320 Місяць тому +2

      WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS!

    • @saidarbas8769
      @saidarbas8769 Місяць тому +2

      BEHOLD A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR AND IIIIIIII IGON!!!

    • @urlocalhistorybuff316
      @urlocalhistorybuff316 Місяць тому +1

      NYAHHHHH!!!!

  • @pilates68
    @pilates68 Рік тому +14

    Amazing scene from what is still the best adaptation of Melville’s book. Apologies to the great Patrick Stewart, but Gregory Peck WAS Ahab!!!

  • @joeking6972
    @joeking6972 6 місяців тому +3

    4:16 imagine writing something THIS good.
    MD is my favourite novel of all time.

  • @jamesruscheinski8602
    @jamesruscheinski8602 3 роки тому +49

    While Starbuck has traditional view of God with a changing earthly authority, Ahab retains a traditional view of his earthly authority while his view of God is changing. This dynamic leads to friction between the two with Starbuck seeing Ahab as heretical whereas Ahab sees Starbuck as disloyal and insubordinate. By the end, Ahab's new view of God is followed by Starbuck's changed earthly authority. The sinking of the Pequod symbolizes the end of the traditional views of God and earthly authority. There is a sea change in the perception of God and earthly authority, in keeping with Ishmael saying before coming down to New Bedford that at sea each man finds himself like looking in a mirror. This realization is probably a main reason Ishmael survives to tell the tale, for the purposes of the story.

    • @jameslippincott7440
      @jameslippincott7440 2 роки тому +4

      I don’t quite understand, could you elaborate? I always thought Starbuck was right to question Ahab and would’ve been right in standing up to him, even if it meant his life or imprisonment. Although, I found it odd that the author makes a point to excuse Starbuck.

    • @basilmarasco1975
      @basilmarasco1975 2 роки тому +8

      @@jameslippincott7440 On another posting of this clip, the commenters boiled it down, more or less, to the contest between Man and Nature. Ahab doesn't accept than Man cannot control Nature.

    • @will-ob7pr
      @will-ob7pr Рік тому

      ua-cam.com/video/52XlyMbxxh8/v-deo.html

    • @LunaValravn
      @LunaValravn Рік тому

      Captain Ahab’s view of god seems more aligned with Gnosticism. And if you suppose that which is behind the mask is “the demiurge”… I imagine it would be the right of any man to strike that entity. Striking through the mask, through matter, through the illusion, and wreak that hate upon the force behind it
      Starbuck is more concerned with selling oil and making a living, focused on earthly treasures. Whereas Ahab has a higher purpose. Some would call it revenge, but it could also be interpreted as a man standing up for himself, even if it brings his own mortal destruction.

  • @rullmourn1142
    @rullmourn1142 Рік тому +6

    I feel sorry for those that only saw the remake of this great film.

  • @pilates68
    @pilates68 Рік тому +6

    What a scene!!! Awesome!!!

  • @christorrence1114
    @christorrence1114 6 місяців тому +2

    Starbuck is so conflicted, yet at the end, he is a whaling man, And jumps headlong to take on Mobi Dick; he is the real center of the story.

  • @tg995nation6
    @tg995nation6 2 роки тому +8

    I don't sleep, I die.

  • @oobrocks
    @oobrocks 2 роки тому +9

    I wonder, seriously, if this how Starbucks got it's name!

    • @AirForceChmtrails
      @AirForceChmtrails 2 роки тому +15

      It is. The founders of the Coffee Shop deliberately chose the name because in the book as supplies are being loaded aboard the Pequod Second Mate Stubbs speculates about coffee for Mister Starbuck.

    • @oobrocks
      @oobrocks 2 роки тому +2

      Yes: i googled this after my post :)

    • @basilmarasco1975
      @basilmarasco1975 2 роки тому +10

      @@AirForceChmtrails Still, I'd rather have a cup of coffee with Mr. Starbuck than have a cup at Starbuck's.

  • @bighand1530
    @bighand1530 2 роки тому +4

    Kinda looks like Wolverine in the thumbnail.

  • @bellicose4653
    @bellicose4653 2 місяці тому +2

    3:30 he said the name of the movie😂😂😮😮

  • @EdT.-xt6yv
    @EdT.-xt6yv Місяць тому

    4:15

  • @AirForceChmtrails
    @AirForceChmtrails 2 роки тому +5

    As always the book is better than the movie.

  • @ididyermom3273
    @ididyermom3273 Рік тому +66

    Gregory Peck doesn't blink once during his haunting speech! Something that was very intentional revealing the incredible actor he was.

  • @AirForceChmtrails
    @AirForceChmtrails 2 роки тому +76

    Brilliant script, acting, and direction! Still the best version of Moby Dick.

    • @basilmarasco1975
      @basilmarasco1975 2 роки тому +14

      Easily the best version. The other versions are mere attempts ...

  • @Dover0486
    @Dover0486 2 роки тому +57

    "To be enraged with a dumb brute who acted out of blind instinct is blasphemous."

    • @crimsondynamo615
      @crimsondynamo615 Рік тому +7

      “Speak not of blasphemy to me, man. I’d strike the sun if it insulted me.”

  • @bobgucciardi124
    @bobgucciardi124 2 роки тому +117

    Ahab was insane. Rational and calculating in his own mind but obsessed beyond reason. Trouble is, he's not only Insane, he's in charge. A brilliant scene and a caution that has clear relevance today.

    • @AirForceChmtrails
      @AirForceChmtrails 2 роки тому +6

      Ahab reminds me of Dumb Old Trump, Nixon, Hitler, Stalin, Joe McCarthy, Vlad the Impaler Putin, Kimchi Jong, Genghis Khan, Mao, Mussolini, Tojo, Xi Jinping, Duarte, and that teeny tiny despot in Venezuela.

    • @savapavlovic3956
      @savapavlovic3956 2 роки тому +6

      @@AirForceChmtrails Yeah kind of, all of them somehow draw charisma out of their obsessions.

    • @Mae_Dastardly
      @Mae_Dastardly Рік тому

      @@AirForceChmtrails Don't insult ahab by comparing him to morons like trump and putin, ahab was at least competent in his sociopathic obsession his only error was assuming he could kill a demon like that whale.

    • @terrorsaur599
      @terrorsaur599 Рік тому +6

      The scariest aspect about Ahab isn’t his corrupt, twisted goals and motives. It’s his ability to convince others those motives are reasonable and have them achieve those goals for him.
      Charisma is what separates all-powerful tyrants from common maniacs.

  • @wyrdwik4610
    @wyrdwik4610 Рік тому +38

    Peck may not have cared for his performance in this film but I think he was tremendous as Ahab and he delivers the pasteboard masks speech here with restraint but the obsession bubbling under the surface is still plain.

  • @PhoenixProdLLC
    @PhoenixProdLLC 2 роки тому +126

    "Let Ahab beware Ahab." Sums up the heart of the story fairly concisely in that line.

  • @mairo6863
    @mairo6863 2 місяці тому +9

    THE FAULT LIES WITH YOUR ISHMEAL
    AGAIN THE FAULT LIES WITH YOU

  • @MelancoliaI
    @MelancoliaI Рік тому +39

    It's like Ahab is at war with Reality itself.

    • @JulioLeonFandinho
      @JulioLeonFandinho 2 місяці тому +5

      Evil, which hides itself behind the appearence of things, that's what Ahab beileves in.
      In the book there's a whole chapter dedicated to colour white as a representation of evil, Ahab thinks that Moby Dick is evil in the form of a white whale. Starbuck is a pragmatist, he doesn't believe such things, that's why he says Moby Dick is just a whale

  • @CarmenLC
    @CarmenLC 8 місяців тому +13

    ISHMAEL

  • @alonsom4270
    @alonsom4270 Рік тому +25

    cap ahab is based

    • @K1ng_Squ1dZ
      @K1ng_Squ1dZ Рік тому +4

      No he isn't, moby is

    • @-dusan5726
      @-dusan5726 Рік тому +3

      i hate whales because of ahab

    • @K1ng_Squ1dZ
      @K1ng_Squ1dZ Рік тому +1

      ​@@-dusan5726whales hate you too I'm sure

  • @41hijinx22
    @41hijinx22 3 роки тому +37

    Very much Old Testament character.

    • @ahmedibnadam3434
      @ahmedibnadam3434 2 роки тому

      What do you mean by that?

    • @joshdavis5991
      @joshdavis5991 Рік тому +8

      @@ahmedibnadam3434 captain Ahab was named after the ahab in the Bible.

  • @AirForceChmtrails
    @AirForceChmtrails 2 роки тому +47

    Sometimes I've felt like Captain Ahab, other times like Mister Starbuck, and still other times like Ishmael, watching a tragedy unfold between good and evil while powerless to stop it. Mom and dad come to mind. After two decades of fighting they finally and mercifully divorced. I think I danced the Tarantella on that day.

    • @gregorygarcia6558
      @gregorygarcia6558 Рік тому +4

      I sir was once in that place like you as a young lad...... my mum &dad used to put me through the same thing &sadly it came from the venom from my older brother &sister......my parents never divorced but grew a tolorance to them, my older brother has since disconnected himself from my family but my sister still goes about in her venimous ways......

    • @johnshannow8524
      @johnshannow8524 Рік тому

      You good bruv?

    • @MelancoliaI
      @MelancoliaI Рік тому +1

      Damn that is heavy. It's a real fun time being embroiled in the drama of others. 🙄

    • @EdT.-xt6yv
      @EdT.-xt6yv Місяць тому

      ​@@gregorygarcia6558Hell is the family you are thrown INto?

  • @stuartwilliams-fw4vo
    @stuartwilliams-fw4vo Рік тому +16

    Peck made a very fine Ahab in an almost impossible book to film. Had a picture of Moby Dick been made earlier, in the late 1930s, then one could quite easily have seen Basil Rathbone as Ahab. He had all the technical apparatus for the role, which is, after all Shakespearean in its grandeur and burning intensity.

  • @wastehazey6468
    @wastehazey6468 Рік тому +13

    "Money is not the measurer man. It will fetch me a great premium.. here."

  • @Broken_Messiah1
    @Broken_Messiah1 5 місяців тому +11

    THE FAULT LIES WITHIN QUEEQUEG

  • @mountkilimanjaro2982
    @mountkilimanjaro2982 11 місяців тому +11

    This is the one thing the movie does better than the book (not that this isn’t a great adaptation). In the book, Ahab had this feud with Starbuck on deck, when he announced this wouldn’t be an ordinary whale hunt. I like this better, because it allows more tension to grow with the two characters.

  • @Len124
    @Len124 10 місяців тому +10

    While there are no 100% (in)correct interpretations, I always used the following interpretation to convey to people who didn't want to read Moby Dick how profound Melville's writing can be. Again, you may disagree, but the fact alone that it inspires such debate is proof enough of its beauty and depth. It's a textbook interpretation, and I'm not religious, but it's by far my favourite.
    In essence, the "pasteboard masks" seem to be gesturing toward a deep religious claim underpinned by one of the oldest and still-relevant philosophical concepts of Western civilization: the subject-object distinction, the epistemology of that dynamic, and whether one can be subsumed into the other (i.e., subjects are simply complex objects that can be known as the objects are known or, as is most relevant here, objects, at least as far as they are available to us, can be subsumed into subjects as a confluence of sensory information created by the mind). Plato's allegory of the cave, Kant's idealism, and Schopenhauer's pessimistic take on it represent the tradition descending from _Athens,_ which Melville leverages to actualize the West's other traditional source, _Jerusalem,_ in which man, as the name "Israel" implies, "wrestles with God." While you probably know what I'm getting at, just to briefly set it up: I think the concept of pasteboard masks first relies on Philosophical Idealism, which was at its zenith at the time of its writing, and its emphasis on the fact that we're forever restricted to perceiving the "phenomenal world." We are limited to experiencing reality through the secondary qualities our sensory systems assign to objects (colour being a prime example, functioning as labels assigned by our minds to represent particular wavelengths of light reflecting off said objects). What we don't "see" are "things in themselves"--generally called "noumena" in contrast to phenomena--or the objects' true forms before being interpolated by our senses; assuming there is anything behind the surface level; as some more radical forms call into question. While we can't directly perceive noumena, Ahab is insisting that their nature can be inferred by interpreting the behaviour of their corresponding phenomena; i.e., the pasteboard masks. If Starbuck is right and the whale is nothing more than an unthinking brute without malice, then the mission is absurd, but if Ahab is correct, the agency hiding behind and directing its behaviour can be discerned. To strike through the mask is then to attack the malicious force for which the whale is a proxy. Ahab likely views this force as having agency because it provides a target for his vengeance, but he justifies it by insisting that the way the mask moulds to the principal agent's features hints, if only momentarily, at the characteristics of whatever this inscrutable entity that lies beneath is; something driven by far more malevolent forces than the blind reflexes of a dumb brute.
    So, with that groundwork out of the way, we can finally ask: what is this agency motivating the whale's actions? It's implied that it's a thinking being rather than some vague force because it's supposedly subject to moral culpability and, therefore, "fair play"? Well, there are a number of non-exclusive possibilities, all of which are fairly obvious: fate, the natural world in its opposition to man, the culmination of man's cruelty reflected back at the cruelest of our kind, Ahab's insanity, shadow, and/or hubris made manifest so as to finally overcome and kill him, and the most popular option, which could be thought to encompass the rest: _God._ It should be noted that Ahab is insane, so whatever he thinks it is or whatever Melville's intention, I prefer the interpretation that Moby Dick's actions are only _perceived_ to be the direct intervention of a controlling God, when in reality it's more akin the ravings of a madman attempting to divine the future by reading the steaming entrails of the dead-type vibe. I know it's kind of trite at this point, assumed to be a given by some, and utterly rejected as outdated by others, but it's a popular interpretation for a reason, and this passage is one of the best pieces of supporting evidence. The While Whale serves as a vector for God's wrath and Ahab, knowing this, doesn't take it as a pious lesson and change his ways, but instead doubles-down on his hubris in seeing it as an insult and call to arms. Taking into account 19th Century slang and numerous contextual clues, it's strongly implied that Ahab's "demasting" doesn't simply refer to his leg, but his other "mast" as well: his sex organs and ability to procreate. Moby Dick is an obvious phallic symbol: its physical shape, the fact that it's a male sperm whale, the odd juxtaposition of eroticism and violence during the process of rendering dead whales that Melville describes in excruciating detail, and the base physicality of it as a manifestation of raw, natural fecundity. At the very least, Ahab is attempting to demast God as God had demasted him, and at worst, he's essentially saying to God (knowing he likely won't survive this voyage), "If I have to die, God, you'll have to die too!"

    • @EdT.-xt6yv
      @EdT.-xt6yv Місяць тому

      Can't wait for Melville to answer to your comment from the beyond😎

    • @Len124
      @Len124 Місяць тому

      @@EdT.-xt6yv Wow, I forgot I left this comment. I hope Melville's ghost can make heads or tails of it because I'm struggling.

  • @TheSyncop8r
    @TheSyncop8r 3 роки тому +31

    Ray Bradbury's condensing of the original text is even better, in my opinion.

    • @basilmarasco1975
      @basilmarasco1975 2 роки тому +16

      The condensing was probably also necessary for the sake of the movie. And, yes, Mr. Bradbury was very careful and did an excellent job.

    • @michaelnally2841
      @michaelnally2841 Рік тому

      @@basilmarasco1975 most definitely necessary especially with how dense the book is and how much it drags on especially with the processes of whaling how to make oil (a process we don’t do anymore), and other information that was unnecessary.

    • @boglin
      @boglin Рік тому +1

      @@michaelnally2841 oh yeah you mean the best parts of the book?

  • @calql8er
    @calql8er 3 роки тому +15

    Leo Genn is perfectly cast.

    • @nataliehanke6391
      @nataliehanke6391 2 роки тому +4

      Aaahhh ... I've just been racking my brains where I have already seen this face: he was Petronius in "Quo Vadis"!! What an impressive actor!

  • @shadowrider6578
    @shadowrider6578 5 днів тому +2

    "Its my fault you say?I daresay its all thanks to me!"
    -Ishmael if become Ahab

  • @fuferito
    @fuferito 2 роки тому +15

    Very telling how in love with British accents movie makers were at the time, that they had a Nantucket Quaker, like Starbuck here, speak with a very posh English accent.

  • @MultiEviscerator
    @MultiEviscerator Рік тому +2

    They rarely make movies of this caliber any longer, hence the reason I try watching older movies I have never seen before. Anything is better that most of the rubbish Hollywood produces today.

  • @AmatureAstronomer
    @AmatureAstronomer Рік тому +5

    Melville had a way with words.

  • @EyeLean5280
    @EyeLean5280 8 місяців тому +3

    Hard to remember sometimes that Captain Ahab is a Quaker!
    Thank you for this, it's a pleasure to hear such nicely adapted dialog that sticks very close to the language of the book.

  • @kingofbel6499
    @kingofbel6499 Місяць тому +1

    They really dont make movies like this anymore.

  • @oobrocks
    @oobrocks 2 роки тому +19

    A very underrated film....young people won't like it due to it's dated FX...a story of obsession

    • @nel1962
      @nel1962 2 роки тому +5

      Maybe not but having just watched this again recently the effects are surprising effective still. Especially moby dick himself.

    • @oobrocks
      @oobrocks 2 роки тому +1

      👍

    • @damienholland8103
      @damienholland8103 2 роки тому +5

      I just saw the ending scene for this movie and the practical effects hold up very, very well. Probably better than most movies that use CGI today.

    • @oobrocks
      @oobrocks 2 роки тому +1

      👍

    • @Strideo1
      @Strideo1 2 роки тому +4

      If you think it's hard getting young people to watch this film then try getting them to read the actual book.

  • @christopherstewart6668
    @christopherstewart6668 5 місяців тому +1

    Easily one of my favorite Peck scenes

  • @SweatyGreaseMan
    @SweatyGreaseMan Рік тому

    This and a caramel macchiato

  • @Jonnycakes83
    @Jonnycakes83 Рік тому +2

    Not to be THAT guy, but Ahab describes the blood flowing in his veins "from heart to hand," but veins return deoxygenated blood to the heart to be oxygenated through the pulmonary circuit. Therefore "from hand to heart" would have been more anatomically correct. Either that or refer to his ARTERIES pumping blood from heart to hand.
    Not sure why Herman Melville didn't google that. 🤷

  • @arncj18
    @arncj18 6 місяців тому

    even if it is fiction, i don't get why man has to kill innocent animals.

  • @Kale-ki8xu
    @Kale-ki8xu Рік тому

    What terrible casting

    • @plasticweapon
      @plasticweapon Рік тому +4

      yeah, right. give me a break.

    • @ZeldaEd123
      @ZeldaEd123 9 місяців тому +2

      ​@@plasticweaponIt's what people thought at the time because Greg was known for playing heroic characters and the public just couldn't let go of that image.

    • @DarksaberForce
      @DarksaberForce 9 місяців тому

      ​​@@ZeldaEd123 Just like how audiences were shocked when Henry Fonda first appeared as the villain in Clint Eastwood's Western movie Once Upon Time in the West..

    • @vnkfrancis1328
      @vnkfrancis1328 Місяць тому

      @@DarksaberForce Once upon a time in the West was Sergio Leone's film actually.

  • @karolk7711
    @karolk7711 Рік тому +3

    All visible objects are but paperboard masks... Strike through that mask!

  • @NudePostingConspiracyTheories
    @NudePostingConspiracyTheories 5 місяців тому +1

    Riveting. The ego in full flight. What is the whale to him ? I must know! My appetite whetted-henceforth I go, ! to find out