Billy Budd (film)

''Billy Budd'' is a 1962 British historical drama- adventure film produced, directed, and co-written by Peter Ustinov. Adapted from Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman's stage play version of Herman Melville's short novel '' Billy Budd'', it stars Terence Stamp as Billy Budd, Robert Ryan as John Claggart, and Ustinov as Captain Vere. In his feature film debut, Stamp was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer. The film was nominated for four BAFTAs.

Plot

In the year 1797, the British naval vessel HMS ''Avenger'' presses into service a crewman "according to the Rights of War" from the merchant ship ''The Rights of Man''. The new crewman, Billy Budd, is considered naive by his shipmates, and they attempt to indoctrinate him in their cynicism. But Budd's steadfast optimism remains; when asked to critique the horrible stew the crew must eat, he offers "It's hot. And there's a lot of it. I like everything about it except the flavor." The crew discovers Budd stammers in his speech when anxious.

Though Budd manages to enchant the crew, his attempts at befriending the brutal master-at-arms, John Claggart, are unsuccessful. Claggart is cruel and unrepentant, a man who controls the crew through vicious flogging, savaging them before they can prey on him.

Claggart orders Squeak to find means of putting Budd on report and to implicate him in a planned mutiny. He then brings his charges to the Captain, Edwin Fairfax Vere. Vere summons both Claggart and Budd to his cabin for a private confrontation. When Claggart makes his false charges that Budd is a conspirator, Budd stammers, unable to find the words to respond, and he strikes Claggart - who falls backward against a block and tackle and fatally injures himself.

Captain Vere assembles a court-martial. Though aware of the background to Budd and Claggart's conflict, the captain is also torn between morality and duty to his station. Vere intervenes in the final stages of deliberations - which at that point are in support of Budd - to argues the defendant must be found guilty for even striking Claggart, not to mention killing him. His argument that the letter of the law matters is successful, and Budd is convicted.

Condemned to be hanged from the ship's yardarm at dawn the following morning, Budd takes care to wear his good shoes. At Budd's final words, "God bless Captain Vere!", Vere crumbles, and Budd is subsequently hoisted up and hanged on the ship's rigging. The crew is on the verge of mutiny over the incident, but Vere can only stare off into the distance. Just as the crew is to be fired upon by the ship's marine detachment, a French vessel appears and commences cannon fire on the ''Avenger''. The crew breaks off from the potential mutinty to return fire, and in the course of battle a piece of the ship's rigging falls on Vere, killing him. The ship's figurehead is also shot off while a narrator tells of Budd's heroic sacrifice.

Cast

* Robert Ryan as John Claggart, Master d'Arms
* Peter Ustinov as Edwin Fairfax Vere, Post Captain
* Terence Stamp as Billy Budd
* Melvyn Douglas as The Dansker, sailmaker
* Paul Rogers as Philip Seymour, 1st Lieutenant
* John Neville as Julian Radcliffe, 2nd Lieutenant
* David McCallum as Steven Wyatt, Gunnery Officer
* Ronald Lewis as Enoch Jenkins, maintopman
* Lee Montague as Squeak, Mr. Claggart's assistant
* Thomas Heathcote as Alan Payne, maintopman
* Ray McAnally as William O'Daniel, maintopman
* Robert Brown as Talbot
* John Meillon as Neil Kincaid, maintopman
* Cyril Luckham as Hallam, Captain of Marines
* Niall MacGinnis as Captain Nathaniel Graveling

Production

In addition to serving as director, Ustinov also produces and co-stars in the feature. His dedication to the film appears to emanate from his identification with the characters in the story. He said, "I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day."

On the novel itself, Melville had been writing poetry for 30 years when he returned to fiction with ''Billy Budd'' in late 1888. Still unfinished when he died in 1891, Melville's widow worked to help complete it, but it remained unpublished. Melville's biographer accidentally stumbled upon it when going through a trunk of the writer's papers in his granddaughter's New Jersey home in 1919, and it was finally published in 1924. Over the years other versions were published, but it was not until Melville's original notes were found that the definitive version was ultimately published in 1962. Coincidentally, this movie version, made in continental Europe and England, was released the same year.

Reception

Stanley Kauffmann of ''The New Republic'' wrote ''Billy Budd'' was 'in almost every way a failure, and it is (Peter) Ustinov's fault.'.

In its opening weekend in Leicester Square, London, it grossed a house record $12,000.

Awards and honours

References

Further reading

* Tibbetts, John C., and James M. Welsh, eds. ''The Encyclopedia of Novels Into Film'' (2nd ed. 2005) pp 33–34.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Billy Budd (Film)
1962 films
1960s adventure drama films
1960s historical adventure films
British historical adventure films
British adventure drama films
Films based on works by Herman Melville
Films based on American novels
British films based on plays
CinemaScope films
Films based on adaptations
Films directed by Peter Ustinov
Films scored by Antony Hopkins
Films set in 1797
Films shot at Associated British Studios
Military courtroom films
Seafaring films
1962 drama films
1960s English-language films
1960s British films