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Billy Budd (1962)

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From Time Out Film Guide

Ustinov directs this adaptation of Melville's last work in uncharacteristically serious vein. There is a decided shift in emphasis from Melville's allegory of absolute good and evil to a poignant examination of the blindness of justice and law. The angelic Billy is played by a blond Stamp in his first film role; Ustinov himself is Man-o-War Captain Vere, forced to try the naif Billy for the accidental murder of master-at-arms Claggart; and Ryan's performance as the evil Claggart, a role he had long coveted, is staggeringly authoritative, right up to the smile on his face as he dies knowing Billy will hang for his murder. There are many powerful scenes unspoilt by attempts from Ustinov to be cinematic; in fact his self-effacing direction allows the actors to give uniformly sincere performances. Only marginally spoiled by such visual conceits as the lurching ship representing the tilting scales of justice during Vere's debate on whether Billy should hang.

Author: RM

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

jack hilton said...

Posted on Feb 11 2011 08:05 the movie itself was very good. in the movie Mr. Billy is called the 'Handsome Sailor' no less because of his angelic features than for his absolute moral purity and innocence. Claggart's conflict with Budd takes on special urgency with the 1790's problem of mutinies aboard British sea-going vessels.
While Ustinov's film was never intended as a star vehicle, and the film adheres earnestly to its identity as an ensemble piece, Stamp's obvious power of attraction makes the film live on. Stamp was one of a number of British working-class actors born in the 1930s who quickly established their appeal to cinema-goers in the Sixties, when British cinema asserted a powerful new influence and popularity.

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