The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Fresh and Exciting

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Mostly unconvincing Hollywood treatment of psychosis is over the top. Characters are really stereotypes moved around to dramatise the plot. The acting fortunately saves the film from being boring. Van Johnson solid as always but beside whom Bogart appears over-dramatic. (viewed 10/16)

* Yet the real moral of the story is that an articulate disgruntled crew member (officer or enlisted) who is not happy with the commander can be detrimental to morale by convincing others to agree with him. Keefer uses Captain Queeg's ball-bearings as a sign of insanity when they were really just a harmless nervous habit no worse than Keefer's smoking cigarettes. The captain offered the young officers a chance to discuss their feelings of his command and offer suggestions but perhaps brainwashed by Keefer's psychobabble refused to do so. Unlike the previous easy-going skipper Queeg was a by the book man but that should have been accepted and respected. Has those officers supported and respected Queeg instead of heeding Keefer things would have worked out.

First off, I just watched this in Blu Ray, and although not perfect, it is a very good transfer, and I think worth the upgrade.This is, perhaps, the best performance Humphrey Bogart ever put in to a film, or if not, certainly one of his best. Captain Queeg was a complex character. It's too easy to look at him just as a coward or just as a paranoid. Queeg is a rather complex character with ever-changing moods, and Bogart was able to capture all the various subtleties, including the scene where he asks for the help of his officers, but then realizes he has failed. However. the penultimate scene is, of course, in the courtroom with the ball bearings; a truly classic movie scene, and in my view it should have won Bogart the Oscar.However, somewhat overlooked is the very strong performance by Fred MacMurray. MacMurray is really underrated today, but throughout his career he demonstrated time and again that he could handle comedy and drama equally well. Here, he plays a bit of a coward who pushes the other officers to act, but then doesn't help them at all. The film wouldn't have worked half as well with MacMurray.The other actor here I'll give credit to is an actor I never really liked -- Jose Ferrer. I always thought the most dominant characteristic of Ferrer was his own ego, rather than his acting. However, here he was quite good as the lawyer defending Van Johnson.While I don't think Van Johnson was outstanding here, he was good, and the film is a good reminder that Johnson didn't only appear in fluff comedies and romantic films. He had a number of very good dramatic films, as well.I can't quite make up my mind about Robert Francis. Of course, his early death prevented us from seeing how he might have matured in Hollywood, but I felt that he was not handsome enough to be a traditional leading man. He does alright here, and it is through his eyes that we see the story.I always thought this was a hard film to criticize, but upon this most recent viewing I found a significant flaw -- the court-martial segment. Next time you watch the film, pay closer attention to it. With the exception of Bogart's part of it, the courtroom segment is remarkably superficial.However, all things considered, this is a very good film, and I recommend it. It's one of the rare war/military films that I watch.

I was expecting more when I watched this movie for the first time today. In other reviews, I've seen some criticisms of the special effects, which I found ridiculous. I mean, come on, it's an old movie, what do you expect? You have to just go with that and deal with it. The plot is much more important.What was odd to me was this love interest thing that seemed to have no place in the movie and the overbearing mom issue that was never really addressed. It's a movie about a mutiny and suddenly people are off in Yosemite romancing each other? It just didn't seem to work.And then the court martial. The win was a little too easy. And the speech at the end by the defense lawyer. Hey, that captain was off his rocker, but because he'd supposedly done some other things well earlier in his career, the men on that ship were supposed to let him get them killed? And the idea that after he'd exhibited unbalanced behavior that his plea for "help" was supposed to be trusted by the officers and if they had listened he wouldn't have freaked out in the typhoon? Maybe, but not real plausible. I think most people would be quite wary by that time and would have trouble trusting him when he asked for help.Anyway, Bogart did a fine job and there were good turns by the others, but the movie just kind of fell flat, IMHO.