The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023) * * *

 

Directed by:  William Friedkin

Starring:  Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, Kiefer Sutherland, Lance Reddick, Monica Raymund, Lewis Pullman, Tom Riley

Unlike the 1954 film The Caine Mutiny starring Humphrey Bogart, the bulk of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial mostly takes place within a hearing room.  When you think movie court-martials, you think A Few Good Men (1992).  The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial does not have the thrills of A Few Good Men's last-minute confessions or colorful characters like Col. Jessep, but it has a lean effectiveness which keeps our interest.  This was the last film of director Friedkin and actor Lance Reddick, who presides over the proceedings efficiently and intelligently.  

The court-martial charge of mutiny levied against Lt. Stephen Maryk (Lacy) is handled by attorney Barney Greenwald (Clarke), who hasn't tried a case in many a moon.  Barney was only assigned the client days before the trial.  He isn't sure he can win an acquittal and he isn't sure about Maryk, who snatched command of the Caine from Captain Phillip Francis Queeg (Sutherland) during a violent sea storm.  Queeg insisted his strategy to survive the storm was sound.  Maryk felt the opposite course was necessary and with help from Lt. Thomas Keefer (Pullman), seized control of Queeg's boat.  

Barney's inner conflict stems from the idea that he must show Queeg to be incompetent, while also admiring his many unblemished years of military service.  He must destroy Queeg's career to save his client's, which gives him understandable pause.  Those expecting Kiefer Sutherland to channel Lt. Kendrick from A Few Good Men will be sorely disappointed, but this is a great Sutherland performance.  Yes, Queeg may be somewhat off his rocker, but he's also a Navy lifer known for running a tight ship and serving his country honorably.  When Queeg starts to ramble, we feel for him, because despite his shortcomings, his positive qualities outshine them.   But Barney, in a sense, has to put Queeg on trial and we have to remind ourselves that Queeg isn't the defendant.  

In the 1954 The Caine Mutiny, we see the events leading up to the mutiny for ourselves.  In this version, which runs like the stage play on which Herman Wouk based his book, we have to decide for ourselves who is right.   This has its dramatic limitations, but the courtroom drama trappings work well enough here.  We don't see the outcome, although we learn of it later, and Barney's speech at the end gathering (one of the few scenes which don't take place in the courtroom) takes on resonance to current events and the generation gap which has created two very different types of soldiers.