Billy Budd

If you've read the Melville story, this film will be a delightful surprise, especially in contrast to what usually happens to film adaptations of literature. For those of you who've never heard of Herman Melville, it's no matter. This film can stand on its own without reference or support from its original source.

A cheerful, innocent young man with wide eyes and blonde hair is conscripted from his commercial schooner to serve aboard an English Royal Merchant ship, which is akin to being Shang-Hai'd, but without the knock to the head. Everyone on both his old and new ship loves Billy Budd, an affable, competent young seaman who can fathom no sinister purpose in man nor beast, until he meets the master-at-arms of his new vessel.

I don't want to give away any more of the story, so give this lovely film a try if the premise interests you.

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.

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.

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, a merchant sailor dragooned into service aboard a British warship, loves everyone around him and is loved by everyone around him. Everyone, that is, except the ship's master-at-arms, John Claggart, who sees human affection as a threat to him and his ability to do his duty as a maker of war. Billy seems to have only one flaw; he cannot speak coherently when in the grip of strong emotion, and Claggart mercilessly exploits this weakness with tragic results.

I've not read Melville's original story "Billy Budd, Foretopman" and cannot say how it compares with the great novelist's work. But this movie stands in its own right as one of the hardest-hitting dramas of its time. The conflict between law and justice, created and demanded by the circumstances of naval service in the age of sail, was never so well explored. Instead of taking the easy path of caricaturing all the ship's officers as brutal tyrants, director Peter Ustinov portrays them as men trapped into acting against their own desires. This helps lift BILLY BUDD head and shoulders above such solid but pedestrian shipboard historical dramas as DAMN THE DEFIANT! Lastly, BILLY BUDD shows that forgiveness can sometimes be harder to bear than scorn or hatred.

Outstanding performances are the order of the day. Terence Stamp's acting as Billy Budd seems natural, unforced, and human despite the nearly incredible innocence and naivete of his character. Robert Ryan is coldly malicious and calculating as the master-at-arms. Ustinov gives another great performance in a career of great performances as the conscience-tortured Captain Vere, sparking great chemistry with his fellow officers played by David McCallum and John Neville.

Many a movie since my childhood has brought a tear to my eye, but I have not *sobbed* at a movie in the past fifteen years, except once: at the end of BILLY BUDD. It is moving, passionate and poignant. Don't miss it.

Rating: **** out of ****.