Memorable Wartime Psychological Drama

Rating: 8/10 (16 April 2005)

The film is set on a US Navy minesweeper during the Second World War and tells the story of the difficult relationship between her Captain, Philip Queeg, and his crew. Queeg is deeply unpopular, not only with the enlisted men but also with his subordinate officers. His predecessor in command, Captain DeVries, was relatively easygoing, even slack, but Queeg is an obsessive disciplinarian, determined to enforce Naval regulations to the letter, especially with regard to trivial issues. He insists that shirts are always tucked in, makes all the men get short haircuts, and turns the ship upside down in a vain attempt to discover the truth about a small quantity of stolen strawberries. Despite his obsession with doing everything correctly, he himself seems to be an indifferent, even incompetent, seaman and is suspected by some of his fellow-officers of both cowardice and mental derangement. Things come to a head during a typhoon when Queeg's indecision and bad seamanship seem to be endangering the safety of the ship. His second in command, Lieutenant Steve Maryk, with the support of some of the other officers, takes over the ship on the grounds that Queeg is no longer mentally fit for command. For this act of insubordination, however, Maryk finds himself on trial charged with mutiny.
The film's defects are mostly of a structural nature. I have never read Herman Wouk's novel, but it is clear from the film that it could have furnished enough material for two films, a war film dealing with men at sea and a courtroom drama dealing with the court martial. I felt that the balance between these two aspects of the story was unsatisfactory; much more time is given to the sea story than to the courtroom drama, which I felt was rather rushed. Although this is a relatively long film, at just over two hours, I felt that it could have been longer to do justice to both aspects of the story. (It is rare that I feel that a film is too short; excessive length is a much more common fault). Another structural weakness is that the first half of the film concentrates too much on Willie Keith, a junior officer who plays a subordinate role in the alleged mutiny and who is not placed on trial, especially as the actor playing him gave one of the weaker performances in the film. I felt that more emphasis should have been placed on the character of Maryk from the start. If the filmmakers had wanted to cut material to keep the length of the film down, they could easily have dispensed with the subplot about Willie's romance with a nightclub singer and his relationship with his domineering mother.
In most other respects, however, this is an excellent film. The best thing about it is Humphrey Bogart. Although he gave many excellent performances in his career, Queeg is a very different role to the ones he normally played. Bogart's most frequent screen persona, seen not only in his private eye roles like "The Big Sleep" but also in films such as "Casablanca" and "The African Queen", was that of the tough guy, outwardly hard-bitten and cynical but inwardly decent and honourable. Even in his mid-fifties, however, he was clearly keen to extend his range as an actor, because we see him for once portraying an emotionally vulnerable character. Queeg is not a wicked tyrant like the Charles Laughton interpretation of Captain Bligh, nor is he (despite what Maryk and some of the other officers think) insane. He is rather an ordinary human being, driven over the edge by the stress of command. This is spelt out for us in the scene at the end of the film when Lieutenant Greenwald, Maryk's defence lawyer, tells a few home truths to the officers who have failed in their duty to give their support to their captain, but it was always evident from Bogart's interpretation. 1954 was a good year for Bogart, as he also starred in two other fine films,"Sabrina" and "The Barefoot Contessa".
There are no other acting performances that are particularly outstanding, although I liked Jose Ferrer as Greenwald and Fred McMurray as the cowardly Lieutenant Keefer, who incites Maryk to take over command and then, to save his own skin, lies on oath about his part in the affair. Keefer, a novelist in civilian life, is a good example of the sort of intellectual who knows the world from books but knows little of practical matters or human nature. (I wondered if he represented Wouk's comment on some of his fellow-novelists). This is, however, a film where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. What is memorable is not so much individual performances, apart from Bogart's, but rather the way in which the contributions of the various actors, and of the director, combine to produce a tense, exciting and memorable psychological drama of men facing up to the stress of war. A film well worth seeing. 8/10