Billy Budd

Peter Ustinov produces, directs, and stars in his own adaptation of Herman Melville's tale of a saintly seaman and his tragic end. Terence Stamp in his debut role glows with innocence as Billy, Robert Ryan is convincingly evil as his nemesis Claggart, and Ustinov distinguishes himself as Captain Vere, who must reluctantly mete out justice on a British man o’ war early in the Napoleonic Wars. Notable for widescreen location shooting in lustrous black & white, this film has a clever credit sequence that I don’t remember seeing elsewhere – as the actors’ names appear on screen, they sound off with their characters’ names and ranks. There’s very little swashbuckling action or high seas drama, as the film comes down to a well-done court martial sequence, which may lend a different emphasis than Melville but is dramatically effective. (1962, dvd.) *7*

I’d had Billy Budd on my Netflix queue for a long time, but bumped it to the top in preparation for showing Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1998) to the Cinema Salon Film Club at the Clark, which also jumps off from Melville’s posthumous novella. There the setting is a French Foreign Legion post in East Africa, and the dynamic amongst the three leads is even harder to parse, but as cinema that aspires to the condition of music and dance, Denis’ film definitely works.