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IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (12A)
IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (12A)
Run time: 122mins
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson, Tom Holland
Synopsis: In the winter of 1820, a whaling ship was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. “In the Heart of the Sea” reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath, as the ship experiences disaster and the surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. .
URL: www.warnerbros.co.uk/movies/in-the-heart-of-the-sea
Oscar winner Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, 2001; The Good Lie, 2014) directs the action adventure In the Heart of the Sea, based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s best-selling book about the dramatic true journey of the ‘Essex’ – In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.
In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship ‘Essex’ was assaulted by something no one could believe: an enormous whale with an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. The film reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath, as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.
In the Heart of the Sea stars Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers, 2012; Rush, 2013) as the vessel’s veteran first mate Owen Chase; Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012) as the inexperienced Captain, George Pollard; Cillian Murphy (The Dark Knight Rises, 2012, Inception, 2010) as second mate Matthew Joy; and Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, 2015, Spectre, 2015,“Sufragette, 2015) as novelist Herman Melville, whose inquiries into the event thirty years later helped bring the story to light.
Tom Holland (The Impossible) also stars as young seaman Tom Nickerson, and Brendan Gleeson (Suffragette, 2015; Calvary 2014; In Bruges, 2008) as the same man, thirty years on.
Director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire, 2008; Rush, 2013); production designer Mark Tildesley (The Fifth Estate, 2013); Oscar-winning editors Mike Hill (Apollo 13, 1995; Rush, 2013) and Dan Hanley (Apollo 13, 1995); costume designer Julian Day (Rush, 2013) and composer Roque Baños (Evil Dead, 2013) all contribute to convincingly recreate this handsome, old-fashioned, brooding and dark sea-faring yarn.
Images courtesy of Warner Bros