Excellent Story And Cast

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2016)

The Caine Mutiny, while little remembered today, is a great example of how a stellar book can be adapted into a great movie. Featuring an excellent cast and an engaging story, all while looking visually spectacular, The Caine Mutiny is an underrated classic from the 1950's.
The movie stars Robert Francis as Willie Keith, an ensign who is assigned tho the USS Caine. There, he meets Lieutenant Commander William De Vriess, Executive Officer Steve Maryk, and Communications Officer Tom Keefer. Shortly thereafter, De Vriess is replaced by the hard-nosed yet uneasy looking Captain Queeg. Keefer suspects the captain may be paranoid and is unsuitable to run the ship. Maryk becomes irritated by this suggestion, yet soon realizes it after Queeg orders everyone on the ship to search for a quart of frozen strawberries at 1 A.M. Maryk relieves Queeg of command during a storm, and is put in a court-martial.
The film is well shot, especially the exterior of the ship during the storm, and the Technicolor works in favor of the film, providing a more beautiful setting to the film. The setting allows the viewer to be drawn in easily to the movie, its characters, its story, and is never dull, even in the prolonged court scene, always remaining interesting until the credits roll.
Queeg is easily the most interesting character. Queeg seems to be a man who puts morale as a top priority, yet is shown to be mentally unbalanced and has showings of paranoia. Yet at the same time, he never truly loses his sanity, and retains enough of a normal attitude to look normal to outsiders.
This is why the role works so well. There's such a fine line on his paranoia that he really could just be eccentric, and not paranoid. However, his breakdown while being cross-examined in the court proves his paranoia to be indeed true.
An interesting parallel brought up at the end is how similar Keefer is to Queeg. Keefer is shown to be a coward, bringing up Queeg's paranoia, and yet doesn't act on it, reaping the benefits when Maryk is at the court-martial, and lies on the stand about Queeg's behavior, effectively proving he's as cowardly as Queeg is paranoid.
The Caine Mutiny is an excellent film, and strangely, is largely forgotten. The only thing that even bogs down the movie slightly is the romance between Willie and May. Otherwise, the movie is a testament to film adaptations of books, and is a definite must-watch for any movie fan.