Film Culture (1956)

pect. I understand you began writing the script many years ago—ais it the same script? HUSTON: Yes and no. I wrote some parts of the scenario some years ago; then, I had my father in mind for the part of Ahab. I’d planned the script for years. Bradbury and I worked on the version that was used in the film. But the reflection of years has gone into it, so in some respects, I feel it to be close to my original conception. LAUROT: Being such a compelling and original world, Moby Dick would demand a corresponding originality and forcefulness from the director, also. . . HUSTON: That was my main preoccupation. I wanted to find fresh ways to deal with the substance of Melville’s book. On the most obvious level—that of color— I tried to discover the tones that would tell Moby Dick as a picture—this particular picture and no other. So we devised a new color photography process and found a palette to paint Melville’s story. We shot Moby Dick in Technicolor. From the color film we made two sets of negatives—one in color, one in black and white. The two negatives were printed together on the final print, achieving a completely new tonality. The dancing purples, for instance, are absent. _; LAUROT: The rather amorphous, narrative construction of the book must have presented difficulties in dramatization. HUSTON: Yes, we had to dramatize some of the narration, and aside from that, create dramatic situations. But always—without exception— they come from the book, although sometimes, from just an important line in the text. For example, Starbuck discovered through Ahab that the purpose of the voyage, so far as the master of the ship is concerned, is to kill Moby Dick. In the book, Ahab has a chart. In the film, the chart has been made into a scene. The original scene where he declared himself and what he conceived the white whale to be took place on the quarter deck where he spoke to the mariners and where they drank to the death of Moby Dick. In the picture, as they drink to the death of Moby Dick, the crew sees him for the first time, and he studies them. Then, after that, they have their first lowering, or engagement with the whales, and the barrels are stored in the hold. Starbuck goes to report to Ahab so many barrels, and then Ahab shows him his charts. He believes he has discovered the movements of the whales around the world—‘I know them as I know the veins of my arm.” Starbuck sees this as a way of filling the hold in record time and Ahab says, “so we shall, once we have accomplished the bigger business.’ Starbuck ought to know what that business is. Then into that comes his accusation of blasphemy and the first revelation on Ahab’s part— “Talk not to me of blasphemy, I'd strike the sun if it insulted me.’ That is what I meant about dramatizing the narrative. I hope the picture will be successful because production costs are in the millions and unfortunately, you can’t get funds for anything that is in the least way a departure from the established pattern. When I went to Hollywood, there were only a few who had broken away from it—Flaherty, Murnau. Trader Horn was the one great adventurous undertaking. This represented the sum total of shooting done anywhere other than in Hollywood. My going to Mexico to shoot The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was a big step for the studio to take. Now, the situation is completely changed—companies are shooting all over the world. So, the industry’s decentralization and the growth of East Coast production, for instance, is encouraging. But it will be utterly meaningless if it does not bring about a complete breakaway from standard Hollywood patterns. LAUROT: You seem to speak with intimate knowledge about the ‘‘patterns. . .” HUSTON: Oh, the worst frost I ever had was with The Red Badge of Courage. It was “‘rearranged,’ as you know. During the preview, large sections of the audience just left in the middle of one of the best scenes, the one in which the tall soldier dies and then the boy and the tattered soldier leave him. They tried to salvage what looked to them like a hopeless mess. The Red Badge of Courage was made during the Korean War and this might have had something to do with it. It was too much for audiences, they wanted no part of it. All their feelings were magnified by the Korean War. It had something to do with bad timing. Now, if somebody else comes along and wants to do something like The Red Badge, many would be opposed. LAUROT: Before, when we talked about dramatisation, I recalled that some people won 3