As our first official classic movie review, I\u2019ve picked a beaut.\u00a0 \u201cThe Caine Mutiny\u201d is a World War Two movie made nine years after the war had ended.\u00a0 It is an adaption of Herman Wouk\u2019s novel and stage play.\u00a0 This movie has a cast that included star, Humphrey Bogart, veteran actors like Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray and Jose Ferrer along with character actors like Lee Marvin and Claude Akins.\u00a0 It follows the crew of the USS Caine, a minesweeper under the command of a very difficult captain, Philip Francis Queeg played by Bogart.\u00a0 A series of incidents convinces the officers that Queeg is a dangerously paranoid lunatic.\u00a0 It all comes to a head during a typhoon when the officers relieve Queeg of command.\u00a0 This sets up the finale of the movie, a court martial of the officers who mutinied against their captain.\u00a0 Jose Ferrer portrays the defense counsel and his part is a tour de force.\u00a0 He dominates the end of the movie and resolves the conflicting faults of the main characters by identifying \u201cthe true author of the Caine Mutiny\u201d and placing blame where it was deserved.\u00a0 All of the veteran actors perform admirably with Fred MacMurray being especially notable for his character portrayal against type.\u00a0 There is one weak aspect to the movie.\u00a0 One of the primary strands of the plot is the story of young Ensign Willis Seward “Willie” Keith played by neophyte actor Robert Francis.\u00a0 A love story between Keith and his girl at home, May Wynn, is woven into the plot.\u00a0 In my opinion it is a weak element and a distraction.\u00a0 Some of the stronger elements involve humor stemming from the crew\u2019s experience of Queeg\u2019s erratic behavior.\u00a0 But for all of his extreme behavior, Bogart comes off as a strangely sympathetic character and the lack of a truly heroic character seems fitting and realistic.\u00a0 I think Wouk was capturing the actual experience of war.\u00a0 The fear and uncertainty that even the sane individuals felt humanizes the behavior of someone like Queeg.\u00a0 I think it will strike a chord for many people who have had to work together under crisis conditions.<\/p>\n
Who will like this movie?\u00a0 I guess folks who like court room dramas are likely candidates.\u00a0 Even though it\u2019s a WW II movie and mostly takes place on a war ship it\u2019s not really a war movie.\u00a0 But it is about navy men and it does reflect the time when it took place.\u00a0 One interesting historical detail is the social reality of the place of black sailors in the US Navy of the time.\u00a0 The mess-boys are the cooks and all of them are young black men.\u00a0 They have an important plot element and I\u2019m sure if Alec Baldwin and Dave Letterman ever review this movie on TCM they\u2019ll denounce the rabid racism of the United States and the military then, now and forever.\u00a0 Luckily for all of you I just think it\u2019s an interesting footnote on a different time.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, to quote from Captain Queeg, the Caine Mutiny can be counted among \u201cthe greatest, I kid you not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As our first official classic movie review, I\u2019ve picked a beaut.\u00a0 \u201cThe Caine Mutiny\u201d is a World War Two movie made nine years after the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,239,238,237],"tags":[192,190,43,191,193],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-bogart","tag-classic-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-ocf-classic-movie-review","tag-wouk"],"yoast_head":"\n