[Movie] In the Whale + Jonah and the Whale

In the Whale: an award-winning feature-length documentary about Michael Packard, Cape Cod's last-remaining commercial lobster diver.

On 11 June 2021, he and his longtime mate, Josiah Mayo, cast off on a routine fishing expedition, when Packard is inadvertently engulfed in the massive mouth of a humpback whale. He is trapped for some 30 seconds before being spit out, but survives to tell the tale. He is propelled to instant celebrity. Beyond the sensational headlines, however, lies a poignant story of survival, resilience, and the human spirit.

About the movie:

• Runtime: 1h 21m
• Year: 2023
• Unrated
• Starring: Daniel Gómez Llata, Michael Packard
• Director: David Abel
• Trailer: In The Whale

Jonah and the Whale: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-1968) is a classic ABC sci-fi series created by Irwin Allen, following the adventures of Admiral Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart) and Captain Lee Crane (David Hedison) aboard the advanced nuclear submarine Seaview. It features Cold War espionage, sea monsters, and aliens, mixing serious drama with campy sci-fi over its 110-episode run.

In the first color episode, "Jonah and the Whale" (Season 2, Episode 1), Admiral Nelson and Russian scientist Katya Markhova (Gia Scala) are trapped in a diving bell swallowed by a massive sperm whale. With a dwindling oxygen supply and an emergency escape charge likely to kill anyone trying to save them, Crane mounts a dangerous, high-stakes rescue mission into the creature's mouth.

About the episode:

• Runtime: 47m
• Year: 1965
• Unrated
• Starring: Richard Basehart, David Hedison, Gia Scala
• Director: Sobey Martin
• Watch: Jonah and the Whale

This meetup will consist of a live viewing, accompanied by discussion and analysis.

Extracts:

• "Do you know, gentlemen, that the digestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably constructed by Divine Providence, that it is quite impossible for him to completely digest even a man's arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take for the White Whale's malice is only his awkwardness. For he never means to swallow a single limb; he only thinks to terrify by feints. But sometimes he is like the old juggling fellow, formerly a patient of mine in Ceylon, that making believe swallow jack-knives, once upon a time let one drop into him in good earnest, and there it stayed for a twelvemonth or more; when I gave him an emetic, and he heaved it up in small tacks, d'ye see?" (Moby-Dick, 100)

This meetup is part of the series In the Belly of the Whale.