Moby Dick (1956)

Leo Genn: Starbuck

Photos 

Quotes 

• Starbuck, first mate : To be enraged with a dumb brute that acted out of blind instinct is blasphemous.

  Captain Ahab : Speak not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. Look ye, Starbuck, all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet reasoning thing puts forth the molding of their features. The white whale tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask. 'Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung.

• Starbuck, first mate : It's late; you should turn in.

  Captain Ahab : Sleep? That bed is a coffin, and those are winding sheets. I do not sleep, I die.

• Starbuck, first mate : [to Stubb and Flask]  It is an evil voyage, I tell thee. If Ahab has his way, neither thee nor me, nor any member of this ship's company will ever see home again.

  Stubb : Aw, come on, Mr. Starbuck, you're just plain gloomy. Moby Dick may be big, but he ain't THAT big.

  Starbuck, first mate : I do not fear Moby Dick - I fear the wrath of God.

• Starbuck, first mate : It is our task in life to kill whales, to furnish oil for the lamps of the world. If we perform that task well and faithfully, we do a service to mankind that pleases Almighty God. Ahab would deny all that. He has taken us from the rich harvest we were reaping to satisfy his lust for vengeance. He is twisting that which is holy into something dark and purposeless. He is a Champion of Darkness. Ahab's red flag challenges the heavens.

  Stubb : Well, sir, if it's like that, I don't wonder that you, a religious man, might be a bit downcast. But I don't much see what you can do about it.

  Starbuck, first mate : Listen to this.

  Stubb : [He goes over to a bookshelf, picks up a heavy book, opens it, and reads aloud from it] 

  Starbuck, first mate : "A captain who, from private motives, employs his vessel for another purpose from that intended by the owners, is answerable to the charge of usurpation, and his crew is morally and legally entitled to employ forceful means in wresting his command from him."

  Stubb : Well, that's a mouthful, I swear!

  Flask : Wrest his command from him? Does that mean take over?

  Starbuck, first mate : It does, Mr. Flask.

  Stubb : [incredulous]  Why, you ain't proposing we do any such thing?

  Starbuck, first mate : [Starbuck indicates yes] 

  Stubb : You're in dangerous waters, Mr. Starbuck! Helm hard over; come about!