It may not be necessary that you were/are a member of the armed forces in order to grasp the narratives being conveyed in this film. On the other hand, maybe it is. I was in the Army back in the late 1960s. The film focuses on the Navy during the Second World War. But the military is still the military is still the military. And everything in the military revolves around the sacrosanct “chain of command”. And every soldier embedded in the “enlisted ranks” knows just how crucial it can be when you are assigned to a unit in which the officers are hard core. Especially the commanding officer.
Here, the experience of the enlisted men is especially grueling because the CO [and the officers] before Queeg could not possibly have been less hardcore. When that happens, the transition can be nothing short of infuriating. Or can be if you are not particularly gung-ho yourself.
Ah, but what if the CO is not only a hardcore, spit and polish lifer but also…crazy? Can’t say as I ever had that experience. On the other hand, my CO at the Song Be MACV [Lt. Colonel Robert Hayden] surely came close. Of course he did put me in for the Bronze Star.
Anyway, the Caine mutiny is basically a fascinating examination into the military mentality embodied in an individual who is starting to come apart at the seams. Mentally. And of the reactions of those around him. Men who are sounder mentally but maybe not so much…morally? Which is just to point out the obvious: that psychologically sound folks can still be assholes.
This film more or less shifts back and forth between what we [the audience] know the reality to be given what we are shown up on the screen and how the individual characters in the film [not privy to this] might just as easily insist it all comes down to a judgment call. One based solely on what they do know. And how that can be effected by their own personalities and prejudices.
In the end, it’s basically A Few Good Men from a different era. Only this time the point is more a defense of Col. Nathan R. Jessup and his ilk. They have the balls to defend freedom in and around actual combat. But then again you can’t quite make the comparison between World War 2 and Vietnam. At least most don’t make it.
A word of advice: The parts about May and Mother? You might want to fast forward them. Why the fuck they were put in the movie at all is simply bewildering. Queeg and Keefer and Greenwald are the movie.
IMDb
[b]There was considerable opposition to the casting of Humphrey Bogart, since he was much older than Captain Queeg was supposed to be. In addition, Bogart was already seriously ill with espohagal cancer, although it would not be diagnosed until January 1956.
Humphrey Bogart’s tour-de-force performance in the climactic courtroom scene was so powerful that it completely captivated the onlooking film technicians and crewmen. After the scene’s completion, the company gave Bogart a round of thunderous applause.
Lee Marvin, who served in the United States Marine Corps and knew a great deal about ships at sea, served double duty by also lending his expertise on military matters.
This movie’s opening prologue states: “There has never been a mutiny in a ship of the United States Navy. The truths of this film lie not in its incidents but in the way a few men meet the crisis of their lives.”[/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caine_Mutiny_(film
trailer: youtu.be/2MeErathhsg
THE CAINE MUTINY [1954]
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
[b]Sailor [of the Caine]: It’s a mistake scraping this ship. The only thing keeping the water out is the rust.
…
DeVriess: She’s not a battleship or a carrier; the Caine is a beaten-up tub. After 18 months of combat it takes 24 hours a day just to keep her in one piece.
Keith: I understand sir.
DeVriess: I don’t think you do. But whether you like it or not, Keith, you’re in the junkyard navy. And keith … Don’t take it so hard. War is hell.
…
Keefer [to Ensign Keith while giving him a tour of the Caine]: The USS Caine is a minesweeper. These paravanes carry sweep wires off both sides of the ship. The wire saws the mine in two. We’ve been in combat a year and a half, and we’ve never swept a mine. So the first thing you’ve got to learn about this ship is that she was designed by geniuses to be run by idiots.
…
Lt. Keefer [to Keith]: This is the engine room; to operate, all you need is any group of well-trained monkeys. 99 percent of everything we do is strict routine. Only one percent requires any creative intelligence.
…
Keith: Sir, you don’t like the Navy, do you?
Keefer: Who called the Caine the Navy?
…
Keith: Sir, I spotted a Japanese aircraft off the starboard bow. Angle 20. See him?
DeVriess: Keith, if you stay in the Navy ten years, you may learn to tell the difference between an aircraft and a flock of seagulls.[/b]
Enter Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg…
Queeg [introducing himself to the officers]: I’m a book man. I believe everything in it was put in for a purpose. On this ship, we do things by the book. Deviate from the book and you better have half a dozen good arguments…and you’ll still get an argument from me. I don’t lose arguments on my ship. That’s why it’s nice to be captain. Remember, on board my ship excellent performance is standard, standard performance is sub-standard and sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist…Now that I’ve shot my face off, I’ll give you the chance to do the same.
Maryk: Captain, I don’t want to seem out of line but it’s been a long time since this crew did things by the book.
Queeg: Mr. Maryk, there are four ways of doing things on board my ship: The right way, the wrong way, the Navy way and my way. Do it my way and we’ll get along.
The he brings out the steel balls. Uh, oh…
[b]Queeg: Anyone notice anything peculiar about Seaman First Class Urban? A shirt-tail hanging out of trousers is, I believe, regulation uniform for a bus boy, not, however, for a sailor in the United States Navy. These are some of the things we’re going to start noticing again. Mr. Maryk, who is the morale officer?
Maryk: We don’t have one, sir.
Queeg: Who, then, is the Junior Ensign?
Maryk: Keith, sir.
Queeg: Mr. Keith, you are now appointed the morale officer. In addition to your other duties, you are to see that shirttails are tucked inside trousers.
Keith: Aye, aye, sir.
Queeg: If I see one more shirttail flapping while I’m captain of this ship - woe betide the sailor; woe betide the OOD; and woe betide the morale officer. I kid you not.
…
Keith [of Queeg]: Well, he’s certainly Navy.
Keefer: Yeah…so was Captain Bligh.
…
Keith [of Queeg]: You made a mistake, Tom. He’s still here.
Keefer: My mistake was nothing compared to the Navy’s.
…
Keefer [of “Old Yellowstain”]: What do you think of your boy now?
Keith: I don’t know. There must be a reason for this.
Keefer: Yeah. There’s a reason, all right.
…
Keefer [after yet another surreal meeting between the officers and Queeg]: This is what is known in literature as the “pregnant pause”.
…
Keefer: Has it ever occurred to you that our captain might be unbalanced? I’m no psychiatrist, but I know about abnormal behaviour. Captain Queeg has every symptom of acute paranoia. It’s just a question of time before he goes over the line. He’ll snap any day.
Maryk: Step outside Keith.
Keith: I’d like to stay.
Keefer: Let him. He studied psychology.
Maryk: You’re fooling with dynamite, Tom.
Keefer: Will you look at the man? He’s a Freudian delight; he crawls with clues! His fixatiom on the little rolling balls…the charttering of second hand phrases and slogans…his inability to look you in the eye…the constant migraine headaches…shirtails and tonight’s pathetic speech. “Forget about turning yellow, my dog likes me”.
…
Maryk [writting in his log book]: “Medical log on Lieutenant Commander. The possibility appears to exist that the commander of this ship may be mentally disturbed.”
…
Maryk: How’s it going?
Keith: All right. The captain’s been put away for the night.
Maryk: Lay off.
…
Whittaker: Mr. Maryk, Mr. Keith. The captain wants a meeting with all officers, right away.
Maryk: Now? At one o’clock in the morning?
Whittaker: Yes, sir.
Maryk: Do you know what it’s about?
Whittaker: Yes, sir - strawberries.
…
Keefer: Steve, are you familiar with Article 184 of Navy regulations?
Maryk: Vaguely.
Keefer: Listen to this. On the Caine it ought to be required reading. Article 184 : “Unusual circumstances may arise - - in which the relief from duty of a commanding officer is necessary. Such action shall be subject to the approval of the Navy Department, except when it is impracticable because of the delay involved.” If I were you, Steve, I’d memorise it.
…
Greenwald [to Maryk]: I don’t want to upset you too much, but at the moment you have an excellent chance of being hanged.
…
Greenwald [at the court martial]: Doctor. You have testified that the following symptoms exist in Lieutenant-Commander Queeg’s behavior. Rigidity of personality, feelings of persecution, unreasonable suspicion, a mania for perfection, and a neurotic certainty that he is always in the right. Doctor isn’t there one psychiatric term for this illness?
…
Captain Blakely: Mr. Greenwald, there can be no more serious charge against an officer than cowardice under fire.
Greenwald: Sir, may I make one thing clear? It is not the defense’s contention that Lieutenant Commander Queeg is a coward. Quite the contrary. The defense assumes that no man who rises to command a United States naval ship can possibly be a coward and that, therefore, if he commits questionable acts under fire, the explanation must be elsewhere.
…
Queeg: Ahh, but the strawberries that’s…that’s where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with…geometric logic…that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I’d have produced that key if they hadn’t of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers…[/b]
Out come the little steel balls…
[b]Keefer: Steve.
Maryk: Hello, Tom. I didn’t think you’d have the guts to show up.
Keefer: I didn’t have the guts not to.
…
[Greenwald staggers drunk into the Caine crew’s party]
Greenwald: Well, well, well! The officers of the Caine in happy celebration!
Maryk: What are you, Barney, kind of tight?
Greenwald: Sure. I got a guilty conscience. I defended you, Steve, because I found the wrong man was on trial. So, I torpedoed Queeg for you. I had to torpedo him. And I feel sick about it.
Maryk: Okay, Barney, take it easy.
Greenwald: You know something…When I was studying law, and Mr. Keefer here was writing his stories, and you, Willie, were tearing up the playing fields of dear old Princeton, who was standing guard over this fat, dumb, happy country of ours, eh? Not us. Oh, no, we knew you couldn’t make any money in the service. So who did the dirty work for us? Queeg did! And a lot of other guys. Tough, sharp guys who didn’t crack up like Queeg.
Keith: But no matter what, Captain Queeg endangered the ship and the lives of the men.
Greenwald: He didn’t endanger anybody’s life, you did, all of you! You’re a fine bunch of officers.
Paynter: You said yourself he cracked.
Greenwald: I’m glad you brought that up, Mr. Paynter, because that’s a very pretty point. You know, I left out one detail in the court martial. It wouldn’t have helped our case any.
[to Maryk]
Greenwald: Tell me, Steve, after the Yellowstain business, Queeg came to you guys for help and you turned him down, didn’t you?
Maryk [hesitant]: Yes, we did.
Greenwald: You didn’t approve of his conduct as an officer. He wasn’t worthy of your loyalty. So you turned on him. You ragged him. You made up songs about him. If you’d given Queeg the loyalty he needed, do you suppose the whole issue would have come up in the typhoon? You’re an honest man, Steve, I’m asking you. You think it would’ve been necessary for you to take over?
Maryk: It probably wouldn’t have been necessary.
Greenwald [muttering]: Yeah.
Keith: If that’s true, then we were guilty.
Greenwald: Ah, you’re learning, Willie! You’re learning that you don’t work with a captain because you like the way he parts his hair. You work with him because he’s got the job or you’re no good! Well, the case is over. You’re all safe. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
[long pause; strides toward Keefer]
Greenwald: And now we come to the man who should’ve stood trial. The Caine’s favorite author. The Shakespeare whose testimony nearly sunk us all. Tell 'em, Keefer!
Keefer [stiff and overcome with guilt]: No, you go ahead. You’re telling it better.
Greenwald: You ought to read his testimony. He never even heard of Captain Queeg!
Maryk: Let’s forget it, Barney!
Greenwald: Queeg was sick, he couldn’t help himself. But you, you’re real healthy. Only you didn’t have one tenth the guts that he had.
Keefer: Except I never fooled myself, Mr. Greenwald.
Greenwald: I’m gonna drink a toast to you, Mr. Keefer.
[pours wine in a glass]
Greenwald: From the beginning you hated the Navy. And then you thought up this whole idea. And you managed to keep your skirts nice, and starched, and clean, even in the court martial. Steve Maryk will always be remembered as a mutineer. But you, you’ll publish your novel, you’ll make a million bucks, you’ll marry a big movie star, and for the rest of your life you’ll live with your conscience, if you have any. Now here’s to the real author of “The Caine Mutiny.” Here’s to you, Mr. Keefer.
[tosses the wine in Keefer’s face]
Greenwald: If you wanna do anything about it, I’ll be outside. I’m a lot drunker than you are, so it’ll be a fair fight.[/b]