MacMurray as a Bad Guy

Rating: 9/10 (6 December 2016)

The beauty of this film is that there is no black and white. Bogart's Queeg should have been relieved of duty before because of his unpredictable emotions. He is mostly correct about the ship. They have been fortunate to function well under a liaises faire commander. Queeg is blood and guts and tries to push his agenda on the crew. They are not great sailors because they begin to undermine his authority, yet are self righteous about their motives. The incident with the strawberries is nutty enough; Queeg on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But, of course, command decisions later are the real reason for the mutiny. The men know they must do something and mutiny followed by a trial occurs. When the chips are down, MacMurray gets going. He is the wise guy who embraced the mutiny until the trial began to go badly. Queeg is pathetic at this point, but his service record is worthy of respect. Great movie.