The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Lt. Tom Keefer: "Captain Queeg has all syndroms of acute paranoia."

By Edward Dmytryk
With Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Robert Francis

I cannot recall exactly how I heard of The Caine Mutiny, but what is certain is that it was a film starring Humphrey Bogart that I hadn't seen before. This was enough for me to watch it.

Willie Keith is a recently graduate from Princeton and joins the Navy during the 2nd World War. Much to his dislike, he is assigned to a broken down ship called The Caine. The commander in charge, DeVriess, is an old and tired commander who doesn't enforce rules, a matter which displeases Willie Keith. However, when Willie Keith makes mistakes he is duly reprimanded. When Commander DeVriess is relieved and moved to another boat, Willie Keith sees the opportunity to have more control on the ship and enforce rules.

The new Commander Philip Francis Queeg pleases him at first as his opening speech is all about abiding the rules and doing things his way. Under fire, however, Commander Queeg doesn't seem able to react adequately and blames others for any mishaps. Many incidents of this sort have the officers wondering about Queeg. The lieutenant, Tom Keefer--also a writer in his free time--tells the Lieutenant Steve Maryk that Commander Queeg shows all the signs of a paranoid. He also shows him that the Navy Code allows for a lieutenant to remove the commander from his posting in extreme cases.When a typhoon hits the Caine, in the midst of action, Steve Maryk relieves Queeg from his command.

The movie is surprising in its war-soaked environment yet it talks very little about the actual war. The focus is always on the Navy Code, the rules, the hierarchy and most importantly on the personalities and psychological characters of everyone involved. The atmosphere of the sea-at-large is very present, yet we don't really feel in a huis-clos.

I have to say I was a little bit surprised when the trial came up as I didn't expect it. Maybe I thought if they were going to have a trial it would come earlier on in the film, however, I ended up liking it a lot. The plot twists are classical but well done and I enjoyed all of them. Moreover, Bogart's performance is strong and I wouldn't be surprised if other actors who would later have to play paranoid type characters were inspired by this performance.

I was a little annoyed by the romance they forced down our throats involving Willie Keith, his overbearing mother, and singer May Wynn. It didn't have enough screen time to capture us but it was too present to be really secondary. However, I have to admit that the shots of Yosemite park were really beautiful.

I liked: Psychological. Men under the stress of combat or at sea. A mutiny trial.

I disliked: The music was loud to the point of distraction and drowned the dialogue at times.

77/100
This is a good example of a war movie to show to people who don't enjoy war movies. It owes a lot to the psychological drama genre.