Something to watch tonight: Thursday 31 October
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Friedkin, 2023)
When William Friedkin passed away in August last year, I immediately recommended his classic The French Connection (still available on Disney+ in New Zealand and Max in the USA) and kept an eagle-eye out for his final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial which was due to premiere at Venice in September.
Last Labour Weekend – thanks to one of my US-based streaming accounts – I was lucky enough to see it with subscriber JL of Freemans Bay and we were both so impressed that it was clear I would have to recommend it as soon as it became available in New Zealand.
So I waited … and waited … and waited. For some reason it has taken a year to finally make it to streaming screens here.
Why is it such an easy recommendation? Well, it has great bones for a start. Herman Wouk won a Pulitzer Prize in 1952 for his original novel and then adapted it himself for the stage a year later. A year after that, the first film version was released featuring Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer and Fred MacMurray.
Versions of it were made for television in the US (1955) and Australia (1959) and in 1988 Robert Altman directed The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial as a TV movie featuring Brad Davis, Eric Bogosian and Jeff Daniels.
The novel follows a fairly straightforward narrative, following the Pacific tour of duty of a minesweeper, the U.S.S. Caine, during World War II. The commander of the ship, Queeg, is not liked or much respected by his crew. He is a stickler for the rules, to the exclusion of (they believe) decency or common sense. They also believe that he is suspect under pressure and his second-in-command, Lieutenant Maryk, relieves him of his duties following a typhoon.
Queeg considers this to be mutiny and when the ship returns to port, Maryk is put on trial. The play, and the screen adaptations of it, are courtroom dramas and the events of the mutiny (and the aggressions and micro-aggressions that led to it) are relayed by witnesses not flashbacks. So, it’s talky but it is gripping.
Friedkin adapted Wouk’s play himself and brought the setting and context up to date. The structure – the slow build to a devastating climax and then an epilogue that changes the audience’s perceptions – that was all there waiting for an expert director like Friedkin to put his stamp on.
Friedkin was 87 when he made the film and for insurance reasons Guillermo Del Toro was on set the entire time in case he, you know, keeled over, but his health held out and Del Toro and has said that it was a masterclass for him to watch the great man in action. The budget was low, the schedule was tight – more than one take for a shot meant added pressure on everyone – but Friedkin maintained his grace throughout.
Not only was The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial his final film, it was also the final credit for the great Lance Reddick (The Wire) who plays the lead judge, Blakely.
Where to watch The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
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