Bountiful mutiny

Rating: 7/10 (12 November 2011)

Another of the films my father goes on about, so this one's for you, dad and while I can see why he reveres it so much, found some flaws in it which slightly lessened my admiration for it. Undoubtedly a brave film, with its implicit criticism of US Navy practices, the film of course has much wider points of view to posit on themes of heroism, duty and loyalty, but muddies its own waters along the way so that it misses some of its marks, rather like the Caine itself on some of its training exercises.
The faults of the film as I see them are a rather unnecessary sub-plot on fresh-out-of-naval-college Ensign Keith's love-life, the insertion of perhaps just too much stock footage and the lack of motive shown by amateur philosopher-cum-doctor-cum-writer Fred McMurray, who to me seems miscast here in an it-doesn't-work against-type role as the cry- wolf Iago encouraging others to wrest Bogart's faltering Captain from duty on the grounds of what is called throughout "paranoia", but what today we would recognise as battle- fatigue.
Aptly, therefore, the film has delusions of Shakespearean grandeur in its plotting and characterisation and has at its heart a performance from Bogart that would grace any production of the Bard. He takes almost half an hour to make us entrance but dominates the action from then on with a marvellous twitchy performance which reminded me of no- one so much as tricky Richard Nixon. Van Johnson is excellent too as his usurper Maryk, but baby-faced Richard Francs as Keith lacks gravitas, Jose Ferrer is too showy as the defending solicitor who gives Queeg enough rope to hang himself while McMurray fails to resolve his character's moral contradictions by acting in the one sardonic key throughout.
After the riveting trial scene, although itself is let down by the crude insertion of Queeg's glowing testimonial appraisal of Maryk which comes from nowhere, the film really founders as you detect the heavy hand of the Navy "censor" on the tiller when firstly McMurray's Keefer weaselly drops in on the celebration of Maryk and Keith's "Not Guilty" verdict, still failing to explain his motives but gets accepted by the guys and then Ferrer punctures the mood with a clumsy "don't judge him too harshly" speech at once admonishing Queeg and indicting Keefer so that they might as well have re-run the pre-titles legend reminding us that the US Navy never has and by implication, never could countenance a mutiny.
To some extent I can forgive the whitewash conclusion as a necessary sop to the authorities at the time (so that the movie could get made at all), but looked at today, the compromises seem excessive and blunt the moral message of the movie. That and some suspect failings in character motivation and development ultimately work to its demerit but looking past these failings and bolstered by Bogart's courageous playing of an accidental villain, there's still much to enjoy here.