A great opportunity missed!

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2004)

The problem I have with this film is that I have read Herman Wouk's magnificent novel probably once too often. There is so much to think about in this masterpiece. It is a story set against the background of Pacific battles in World War II, but it is far more than that.
It is also a magnificent description of the way to adulthood from a brat like Willie Keith, spoiled and overprotected by a dominant mother and grown up in luxury. When he joins the Navy and falls in love with May Wynn, he has to learn what real responsibility is. However, it is not only Willie who misjudges the situation when the Caine crew falls under the command of the emotionally unstable Queeg. Both Willie and Stephen Maryk are misled by their admiration for the intellectually very strong author Tom Keefer and it is not until after the mutiny trial, when he is in command of a warship himself that he manages to grasp the full impact of the events before and during the mutiny. What did I find back of all this in Dmytryk's movie? Almost nothing. There is a bit of psychological depth in the film, but only when Queeg talks to his staff, pathetically begging for understanding and loyalty, but soon realizes how little he is understood and how much his position is undermined by his own failed leadership. Furthermore, the relation between Willie and May is so important in the novel, and in the film it is nothing more than a time-wasting intermezzo; the acting is not convincing on top; dialogues are nothing but small talk and no attention is paid to proper characterizing of Willie, to me the real protagonist of the story. I do not think this is a good film. It misses too many chances. Whether the complexity of Wouk's novel can be grasped in a motion picture of reasonable length is another question, here is maybe an interesting opportunity for a remake, another attempt, half a century later! In spite of great actors like Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, I cannot mark this film higher than 5/10.