Worth: $17.50
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Cast:
Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jeff Stacey, Monica Raymund
Intro:
...a strikingly effective capstone work from a movie master.
For a director known and noted for dynamic, highly energised films like The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live And Die In LA and more, the late William Friedkin – who sadly passed away in 2023 – also had a deep love for the stage, and often detoured away from his trademark kinetic brand of filmmaking into more static territory with cogent, perfectly pitched adaptations of plays like Twelve Angry Men (1997), Bug (2006) and Killer Joe (2011), the latter two penned by Tracey Letts. Friedkin’s final film, 2023’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial – which sees release this week on streaming services – fits very much into this strand of the director’s often fascinating career. And though very, very wordy (even Aaron Sorkin would struggle to churn it out at this rate), William Friedkin turns what could have been a static affair into something truly compelling courtesy of judicious, sensitive editing and seamlessly stellar camera work.
Adapting Herman Wouk’s highly regarded novel and subsequent courtroom drama play himself, Friedkin leans right into what many would perhaps see as the source material’s biggest challenges, namely its dense verbiage and continuum of naval/seafaring-derived dialogue. Friedkin doesn’t pull back on these elements, but structures and cuts his film in such an ingenious way that the audience is never left behind. Despite its lack of flash, Friedkin ironically turns The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial into a low-key directorial masterclass and an extraordinary performance piece.
Though set almost entirely in a naval courtroom, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial grips utterly from beginning to end. Delivering a career-best turn, Kiefer Sutherland is all bluster, frustration and jittery menace as Lieutenant Commander Queeg of the USS Caine, who is relieved of his command when his men believe him unsuited to lead during a horrific cyclone. The resultant court case sees sceptical lawyer Greenwald (Jason Clarke is perfectly dry and low-key) defending Officer Maryk (the well-cast Jake Lacey, whose youthful good looks suggest a hero, but whose slight air of whininess suggest someone far less redoubtable) on charges of mutiny, with the testimony of the paranoiac, egotistical Queeg the vital key to proceedings. On the opposite side, prosecuting naval lawyer Challee (the excellently impassioned Monia Raymund) fights hard against the mutineers, and for the upholding of naval tradition.
While sticking close to the vintage source material, Friedkin sensibly contemporises the story, flavouring it cannily with modern concerns such as the role of mental health in the workplace (and the understanding of it), the responsibility of the law, and the military’s seeming obsession with the following of orders. There is much inherent power in the basic thrust of the story of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and Friedkin excellently exploits it for all its worth. A fascinating treatise on honour, honesty, responsibility, the military and the law, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a strikingly effective capstone work from a movie master.
