Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Wordiezett So much average

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

jacobs-greenwood Better known today as a two-time winner of the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, Peter Ustinov also produced, directed and/or wrote a handful of other films, in which he usually appeared as an actor as well. Bringing this classic Herman Melville seafaring novel about good vs. evil to the big screen was his last production; Ustinov directed it, played one of the main characters, and (along with DeWitt Bodeen) adapted the Louis O. Coxe-Robert H. Chapman play for the screen.Newcomer Terence Stamp (in only his second film, the first to be released in the United States) played the title role, Melville's stammering protagonist who's impressed into wartime duty as a sailor from a merchant ship (Rights of Man) by an officer from the English man-of-war Avenger in 1797. Stamp would earn his only recognition from the Academy with a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination of his own.Captain Edwin Fairfax Vere (Ustinov) and his officers, which include 1st Lieutenant Philip Seymour (Paul Rogers), 2nd Lieutenant Julian Ratcliffe (John Neville), and Gunnery Officer Steven Wyatt (David MacCallum), are wary of these impressed into service crewmen because of rampant rumors and incidents of mutiny aboard other British Navy ships, especially since their own Master-at-arms, John Claggart (Robert Ryan), is a particularly sadistic and cruel individual who seems to enjoy exercising his authority to have men flogged for no apparent reason.This adventure drama not only includes a flogging scene ostensibly to instill obedience and discipline of servitude among the crewman who must watch it, but most of the other requisite military ship at sea movie sequences such as a burial at sea, men shown climbing the ship's masts to unfurl its sails, etc.. What's unique about this one, besides the central conflict between both extremes - the unbelievably virtuous Budd and the overly malevolent Claggart - is its final third:Anyone who has seen 12 Angry Men (1957) knows that, as Juror #8, Henry Fonda convinces a hung jury, one by one, that it's an innocent man that's about to be convicted; much of the last 30 minutes of this drama plays out in exactly the opposite way. After Budd is so enraged by Claggart's false testimony - about the seaman's supposed involvement in a mutiny plot - that (unable to find his tongue) he lashes out and kills the Master d'Arms, Captain Vere convenes a military court (comprised of the aforementioned officers) to try the case.When the understanding officers are ready to acquit Billy, Vere convinces them that the law is more important than justice in this case, that it's their duty to find him guilty of killing of a superior officer, that no matter what the extenuating circumstances (e.g. Claggart's bearing false witness or other justifications) Billy must hang. Like the other drama, it's this deliberation that is the crux of the film.Others who appear in the film include Melvyn Douglas, as a wise old sailmaker dubbed Dansker (because he's Dutch), Ronald Lewis as Jenkins, a maintopman whose death begins the central conflict, and Lee Montague as the aptly named Squeak, Claggart's informer- assistant.

Conspirator Slash It's not a well-known movie, but people, this is a true masterpiece. It's almost like an European art movie, there's nothing Hollywood in it. Ustinov is a sensitive director who respects and remains true to the book (a rarity). A good idea it was made in B&W, for it makes the whole thing extremely beautiful. Hail to the photographer. And a perfect cast. Ustinov, although better known for his great comic roles, is a serious, noble, sympathetic Captain Vere. Okay, he's not as attractive as Philip Langridge (who played the role in the '88 filmed stage version), but he's credible. For Billy, the incredibly young, angelic, nice, innocent Terence Stamp was a perfect choice. He looks exactly like Melville described the character, and he's truly good and lovable without being a Mary-Sue. Maybe the only "extra" is that although naive, he has some kind of wisdom: he understands Claggart and tries to befriend him. And for the master-at-arms, Robert Ryan (who was so sympathetic and tormented in The Wild Bunch) is Evil incarnate. Not your overplayed bad guy, but a silent, smiling sadist. His death scene is one of the most frightening things I've ever seen: the dies SMILING, as if he knew he has won, and that Billy would die for this, too. One must think Claggart actually WANTED to be killed. He tempts fate again and again till he gets what he deserves. Not many movies are there what made me cry, but this one did. There's much more in it than a symbolic fight between Good and Evil. Billy might be an angel, and Claggart might be a lovechild of Iago, but the actors make them human. The tragedy is that there was the possibility of loving each other. Billy had offered it, and Claggart almost fell for good, but he couldn't deny his natural depravity. As for the homoerotic undertones: yes, they are there. Especially in Ryan's Claggart. His hate is mostly an oppressed lust.So it's a nearly-perfect movie, it really deserves more popularity. MJelville is so under-adapted! Only two versions exist for Moby Dick, and BB wasn't filmed again (at least not for cinemas) since this film.

Robert J. Maxwell No big sea battles here. This is a filmed play based on Herman Melville's novel.Terence Stamp is Billy Budd, a teen age seaman impressed from a merchant ship onto a British war ship during the Napoleanic wars. Budd's new ship, H. M. S. Avenger, is commanded by the uncertain Captain Vere (Peter Ustinov) and more or less run by the sadistic Master at Arms, Claggart (Robert Ryan). Claggart enjoys making people miserable and it irritates him no end that Billy Budd charms everyone aboard the Avenger, officers and men alike, with his cheerful, good-natured, and rather perceptive honesty. Budd's illiteracy is an emblem of his innocence. If Budd has a flaw, it's that he can't get his words together under stress and so he stutters or becomes speechless. Claggart knows this and, in front of Vere, Claggart accuses Budd of stirring up a mutiny. (There has been a recent mutiny in English ports and Vere is worried about the crew's learning this and, for all he knows, rising up against him. The rebellion back home hangs like a shadow over the captain.) Budd can't find the words to defend himself, so he strikes Claggart who falls to the deck, half rises, smiling, and then dies. The summary court martial would like to find Budd innocent, once they learn the facts, but the captain talks them into following the rules blindly and Billy Budd is hanged from the yardarm. The men, witnesses to the execution of their most esteemed shipmate, are about to mutiny when the appearance of a French ship disrupts the scenario and they rush into battle for Billy's sake, unable as they are to deep six the men they'd like to. During the engagement, it seems that the distraught Captain Vere is killed.That's the superficial story anyway. I say "superficial" because I doubt that Herman Melville was much concerned with an incident in a foreign war that happened 40 years earlier. Melville always seemed to be after bigger game, sometimes the size of whales.It's about "good" and "evil", certainly, but not in any easy sense of those words. Ryan does a fine job as Claggart, his eyes glittering with malice as he heap his contumely on the men. He is constantly scowling except once, when in a private conversation at night, Billy Budd manages to get him to laugh at himself, for which Claggart hates Billy even more. Ustinov, as Vere, is quite good too in this dramatic role, but -- I can't help it -- he still seems so cute as to have miscast himself. It's like casting Dom DeLoise or S. Z. "Cuddles" Szakall as Vere. I keep looking at Ustinov and seeing Hercule Poirot in an outlandish costume. A lot of the weight rests on the shoulders of Terence Stamp and he can barely carry it. Again, it's not so much his performance as Billy Budd, but his appearance. His features are strong, sometimes almost sinister, and it might have been better if he'd been a year or two younger. Partly, too, it's that the script doesn't give him much of a chance to be charming. Sometimes he seems plain dumb, although that may be the point.Towards the end of the court martial, the three officers are about to find Billy free of guilt, but Vere intervenes and points out to them that, whatever the mitigation, the act did occur and that, however much he himself would like to let Billy go, the law requires his hanging. To me, Vere's argument is specious BS. Vere is afraid that if Billy isn't hanged, the men will take him and his officers for weaklings and revolt. The opposite is true, of course. Furthermore, the ship's doctor has found that Claggart had a "thin skull" and died accidentally from the blow -- he's seen it before -- so the legal subtext is weak.I read the story years ago and, without having looked it up in any sources, I have to say I don't remember the intrusion of that French ship at the end, or the death of Captain Vere. Whether they were in the novel or not, they seem tacked on adventitiously, like a typical Hollywood ending. The real ending to the story has Billy Budd shouting, "God bless Captain Vere", and then being hoisted wordlessly and without any struggle whatever. The actual story ends in dissonance, without any formal resolution. As it stands the whole point of the story, which has to do, among other things, with the ambiguity of man-made justice, is vitiated. When the film kills Captain Vere it seems to be following the old Hollywood code in which misbehavior can't go unpunished.It's still a powerful movie -- thought provoking and adult. Claggart sees another man who has something that he, Claggart, has never had, and deliberately arranges his death. If you substitute "a rich and beautiful babe" for "innocence", you almost have a drama in which a man jealously kills the husband of the woman he loves. You almost have "Double Indemnity" or "Body Heat" except that God is mixed up somewhere in this business aboard the Avenger.

Michael O'Keefe A classic. Herman Melville's short novel comes to life in distinguished black and white cinematography. Peter Ustinov directs, co-writes, produces and stars in this stirring tale of might verses right on a British warship in 1797. Ustinov plays Captain Vere with Robert Ryan as his Master d'Arms John Claggart. Terence Stamp makes his debut as the young Billy Budd, an uneducated naive seaman forced to serve in the British Navy during the war against the French. The innocent Budd is easily liked by the experienced crew; and a mutiny almost erupts when the charming Billy is tried for murder. Well directed and acted. Powerful original music by Antony Hopkins. The very strong supporting cast includes: Melvyn Douglas, John Neville, Paul Rogers, Victor Brooks, John Meillon and David McCallum. Too good to miss.