Die Verdammten der Meere

This movie was adapted by a novel from Herman Melville and directed by Peter Ustinov. It was unfortunate that this movie came out at the same time as Mutiny On The Bounty and as overshadowed by that movie. This is a much better movie and has a great cast with Peter Ustinov playing the captain, Melvyn Douglas playing an old sailor, Terence Stamp playing the title character and Robert Ryan playing John Claggart, the Master-at-arms. Robert Ryan easily steals the movie and when Ustinov was casting this picture he didn't know why Ryan would want this role when he was trying to stay away from roles like this. Ryan always played great villains and this was one of his best roles. Everyone in this movie was great and so is the film.

One of the best dramas of the sixties. The acting in this movie is superb. With an all star cast of Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Melvyn Douglas and Terrance Stamp you can't go wrong. Filmed in glorious black and white. Ustinov at his best as the perplexed Captain and my favorite Robert Ryan as the sadistic Master of Arms. Billy Budd is a high seas adventure which won't disappoint.

I saw this when it first came out and loved it! The makers of this film (from the UK) are to be praised for addressing a subject historically so controversial that their countrymen could object it has anti-British content based on familiar stereotypes. Yet it is undeniably true. The British Empire thrived on a system of enforced labor, which included plantation slavery, pressgangs in the Navy and crimping of soldiers into the Army. The practice of stealing American sailors off of American ships and forcing them into the British service remained a vexed question between the two countries even after the revolution. Americans who had won their freedom in the revolution had to surrender it to the same tyrants on the high seas. "Billy Budd" shows the tragic injustice of being forced to serve an enemy, suffer his contempt and be punished for the natural act of defending oneself.

Technically, the film couldn't be better. The drama is excellently drawn in well lit black and white and cuts from scene to scene in a manner that never sacrifices clarity to suspense, telling the story as well as it can be told on screen. The close ups reveal all the nuances of character implied in Melville's great novel, making very accessible the emotion of righteous indignation, which is the film's final message. Today, a production crew like the one that made "Billy Budd" could make itself very busy faithfully translating literary classics onto the screen.

Billy Budd is one of those under-appreciated films that demonstrate just how good movies can be when the producers don't succumb to the temptation to `Hollywoodize' a great work of literature. Peter Ustinov is to be commended for not adding any gratuitous love-interest to this film. In fact, there are no women in the movie at all, nor are is there any reason why there should be. Ustinov is also to be commended for not mitigating the tragic overtones of Mellville's story. Very few movies have been produced, apart from adaptations of Shakespeare, that can truely by characterized as tragedies. For Billy Budd is, indeed, a tragedy in the classical sense of the word. Billy is a classic tragic hero in that he is brought down by his single fatal flaw: an inability to articulate under emotional stress. By the same token, Captain Vere's tragedy lies in an equal inability to see beyond the need to uphold the letter of the law. All the cast do a superb job, but Terrance Stamp is particularly outstanding in the Christ-like title role. Ustinov himself also shines as the Pilate-like Captain Vere, and this movie may well be his finest performance. Robert Ryan also stands out as Master-at-Arms John Clagget, one of the most enigmatic villains in all literature. About the only criticism that has been directed at Billy Budd concerns the seeming incongruouity of the film's final scene. Without giving too much away, it should be pointed out that, after the mass-mutiny of the sailors in the British Navy in 1797 (the historical period in which Billy Budd takes place), those same British sailors turned around and achieved a resounding naval victory at the Battle of Camperdown. Bearing that in mind, the ending does not seem quite so unbelievable after all.

Peter Ustinov is generally a lot better at being a raconteur, chat-show guest and portly, engaging presenter of documentaries than film director, but this adaptation of Melville's short novel (note that the screenplay is based on a previous stage version) is surprisingly gripping. Terence Stamp, in his first movie role, is excellent as the benign life-force, Billy. Pressganged into service aboard a Royal Navy Man'o'War (clunky symbolism - the ship Billy leaves is called the "Rights of Man"), he soon wins over the crew with his guileless respect for justice and fair play. Robert Ryan is superb as Claggart, although perhaps this actor's tremendous capacity for sheer charmless evil overbalances the plot. When Claggart is struck down by the momentarily enraged Billy, he dies with a smile on his face, a detail which isn't in the book. It makes Claggart into a malevolent genius, when Melville wrote him as a preternaturally bitter and empty man. But that's showbiz for you.

There's a lovely scene between Stamp and Ryan, presumably missed by those who refuse to recognise the latter's genius, in which Billy almost manages to win Claggart over; you can see Ryan's eyes getting almost misty (he was a great eye actor) as he contemplates the spectacle of his own bleakness compared to Billy's warmth. But then, as he suddenly growls "You would charm me, too. Get away!" it's as if he suspected Billy if coming onto him. Remarkable touch.

John Neville and David McCallum are fine as the officers with tortured consciences; Ustinov has to carry off the difficult moral turnaround, kind of the opposite of what Fonda spends a whole film doing in "Twelve Angry Men", and has seldom acted so well. Perhaps in the book he's a less significant character, but for dramatic purposes the role obviously needed expanding, and it's done with taste and restraint. Supporting roles are all finely rendered, with Melvyn Douglas especially red-eyed and gravelly as the religious Dansker. Good stuff. And unusually for an adaptation, a sizable chunk of the dialogue is authentic Melville.