Review of The Caine Mutiny (1954) by Ben T — 13 Jul 2008
The film is one-third a court-room drama and mostly a film about relationships and grinding of gears in the ocean as a new captain played with ferocity by Humphrey Bogart takes an iron fisted control over a small insignificant vessel in the U.
S. Pacific Fleet. The film is solidly cast from Bogart?s menacing Captain Queeg to Jose Ferrer?s Lt. Barney Greenwald who sees things quite clearly all the way to Fred MacMurray?s Lt. Thomas 'Tom' Keefer who has a lot more depth to him than originally let on.
MacMurray thrived in the Disney company playing good guys, but I think his forte is playing the anti-hero, a villain, because he has the good face, but the conniving element to him. The plot goes that the first officer, played by virtuous Van Johnson, relieves tyrannical Captain Queeg of command during a critical time in a storm fearing for the health of the ship.
In the process this act creates an uproar in the fleet because it appears to mutiny. The first officer is put on trial and is defended by crafty Lt. Barney Greenwald. Its glue is a masterful performance from an aged Humphrey Bogart much like how he did another daring role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre except he was not overshadowed by a father and son duo in this film and thus was allowed to shine during his time in this film.
I enjoyed the film before reading the novel, but found it be even greater after reading the fantastic Herman Wouk novel because of how well adapted it was, staying quite close to the novel, but also editing the extraneous stuff to focus the story.
One of the best war dramas to not feature a battle of any sort.
This review of The Caine Mutiny (1954) was written by Ben T on 13 Jul 2008.
The Caine Mutiny has generally received positive reviews.
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