“Maybe cleverness will get you nowhere. Maybe it’s only the stupid, the brilliantly stupid, who will inherit the Earth”
1859, England. A whaler “Volunteer” sails to Greenland. Only the captain and a couple of the crew members know, that the goal of this voyage is to sink the whaler and get the insurance money. Sails are obsolete, steam is the future. And there are no more whales anyway.
Writing is technically very impressive. We have the complete opposites: Sumner and Drax. Sumner is a surgeon. Drax is a harpooner. Sumner is addicted to laundaum. Drax likes to drink. Sumner reads Homer. Drax can’t even read.
Drax is also extremely violent. He kills a man with a brick for not buying him a drink. He enjoys hunting seals. But maybe it is the man you want on your boat when your purpose is to hunt and kill whales, a cold blooded killer?
The movie is brutal for sure. The skinning of seals, whale hunt and 19th Century medicine such as draining puss all shown in great detail. Not for the faint-hearted for sure.