There are ideas prevalent in today’s society that sound new age but actually have a basis in Catholicism.  We tend to look to the East for practices like meditation, but Western monks have been doing that for hundreds of years.  For whatever reason, there is a disconnect between meditation and prayer, though it should be noted that a Buddhist and a Catholic probably look at the act of meditating in different ways.  When we pray, we turn our hopes and thoughts to the Divine. Those in religions like Buddhism look inward.  I point this out because I recall something I once read the Dalai Lama say in The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (1998) about it being difficult for people in the West to truly convert to a different religion other than the one they were baptized into, which is usually Christianity.  His Holiness has a lot of respect for other Faith traditions, and I was privileged to once see him speak in person at Loyola University Chicago. Because of his appreciation for Christianity, he claims that it is possible to attain enlightenment through it.  Hence, I would ask anyone thinking of starting Eastern style meditation or yoga: what are you trying to accomplish?  Another common saying that has its roots in Catholicism is that confession is good for the soul.  Catholics have been doing that for centuries.  It is a key aspect of today’s film, In the Heart of the Sea (2015), and hopefully this review will show you why.

Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) is seeking a confession at the start of In the Heart of the Sea, one for which he has agreed to pay money.  If that name is familiar to you, it is because he is the author of one of the most popular American novels of all time, Moby Dick (1851).  The person he is searching out is Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), the only living member (one of the film’s inaccuracies, unfortunately) of the infamous whaling ship the Essex that sank in the Pacific Ocean thirty years previous in 1820.  It is Thomas’ wife (Michelle Fairley) who greets Herman, as Thomas is far from cooperative.  It takes her insistence, talking of his need to get the story out and the usefulness of the money, to get Thomas to grudgingly agree to give his account.  Once Herman establishes his credentials as having once served on a whaler, most of the rest of the story is flashback.  The real focus of the tale is Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth).  For now he is a first mate, but promises of being a captain of his own ship propel him from his pregnant wife, Peggy Chase (Charlotte Riley), to the company for which he works.  Unfortunately, when he goes before the board and learns that the refitted Essex is about to head to sea to bring back a hold full of whale oil, he is to remain a first mate.  Against his protests, he is told that he can either choose another career, or be second-in-command to George Pollard Jr. (Benjamin Walker).  George is made Captain Pollard because his family is well connected, whereas the Chase name has the stain of Owen’s criminal, landlubber father.  Still, the board does offer a lucrative contract and a written promise to be captain with a successful voyage.  Thus, he joins the crew, of which young Thomas (Tom Holland) is a greenhorn on his maiden trip.  The Essex’s second mate, Matthew Joy (Cillian Murphy), predicts a feud between Owen and Captain Pollard.  The prediction is proved correct when after a few weeks sailing they come across a storm.  Owen preaches caution, but Captain Pollard orders the Essex into the tempest.  With building seas and wind tossing the ship around, Owen and Captain Pollard give contradictory commands that only cause confusion and damage.  Once they reach safety, Captain Pollard informs Owen that not only will they be returning to port to repair the boat, but that the first mate must apologize to everyone for what happened.  There is no love lost between the two, but Owen reasons that going home with an empty hold would benefit no one, particularly the two commanding officers.  As such, they continue onwards, catching an odd whale before getting into the Pacific.  Pulling into harbor in Ecuador, they meet a local whaler missing an arm that tells of a vast pod of the aquatic animals about two thousand nautical miles due west along the equator.  When asked about the missing limb, they are told of a massive white sperm whale that guards the group.  Finding the last bit to be farfetched, they choose to believe the first part and head in that direction hoping to quickly meet their quota.  When they finally make it to the place indicated, blowholes stretch to the horizon.  Yet, as they are beginning to get their harpoons out, that is when they discover the other part of the story to be true.  Owen’s whaling boat rows back to the Essex for repairs, and this is when the massive whale strikes, crippling the ship to the point that it eventually sinks.  Now the crew of the Essex is stranded in inadequate vessels thousands of miles from shore.  To make matters worse, the same beast that caused all the trouble seems to be stalking them.  They ration what food they are able to salvage as best they can, but that also runs out.  Land is sited at one point, a lifeless rock in the middle of the ocean they barely manage to reach because of another attack from the whale.  Owen discovers a cave on the island containing bones of other stranded sailors and realizes that if they have any hope of survival, they must head back out to sea.  They are paid one last visit from the whale, and Owen is about to attempt to kill it with the last of his strength before they lock eyes and he lets it go.  From there, they manage to survive by eating members of the crew who die before they are finally rescued.  Back in New England, the board wants to claim the Essex ran aground in order to collect the insurance money.  Owen and Captain Pollard refuse to lie and go about the rest of their lives with their honor intact.  As for Herman, before departing, he says he will spare some of the details given him by Thomas in writing the book that will become Moby Dick.

If you could not guess what some of those details are that Herman says he will leave out at the end of In the Heart of the Sea, it pertains to cannibalism.  In the nineteenth century as today, eating the flesh of another human being is frowned upon, carrying a stigma with it even if it is done purely as a matter of survival.  It is a tricky topic for a Catholic.  While watching the movie, being as versed as I am in my Faith’s pro-life stance, and supporting it wholeheartedly, I began to wonder what the Church’s teaching would be on this situation.  None of these men want to consume their shipmates, but feel driven to it in order to survive.  What is important is that, for the most part, they were waiting for people to die a natural death before cooking them.  There is one moment when Captain Pollard’s boat is drawing straws to see who will be killed for the sake of the others.  That is not a great solution, but a Christian can at least appreciate his willingness to sacrifice himself to save his men.  Instead, his cousin, Henry Coffin (Frank Dillane), commits suicide, not wanting to see his family and captain lay down his life.  This is a difficult position, and I pray that nobody has to face these awful choices.  How does one who is committed to the proposition that all human life is sacred navigate this situation?  There have been real life instances of this sort of thing, such as when a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Chilean Andes in 1969 and had to resort to similar measures to survive.  At the time, a few Catholic theologians opined on the event, saying that as long as respect for the dead was maintained, they did not commit a grave sin.  I am not sure how comforting that is to know, but it should be underscored that not only is Catholicism always going to be in support of life, the same can be said for the dead.  Mere survival is not a sufficient reason to purposely ignore these guidelines.  God sees you and will judge you accordingly.

Interestingly, at one point in In the Heart of the Sea, Owen wonders if they had done something to offend God and were therefore being punished.  This is superstition, another thing on which the Church is not keen.  Sailors tend to be some of the most superstitious people around, but they are also aware that they are pretty small in the grand scheme of things.  As such, all these elements mix together for a pretty satisfying viewing experience.