MovieChat Forums > Billy Budd (1962) Discussion > So did Peter Ustinov make the wrong deci...

So did Peter Ustinov make the wrong decision.


I don't understand Peter Ustinovs character at the end. He spends a great deal of time convincing his officers who were ready to acquit Billy to vote to hang him. He spends a great deal of time convincing himself and arguing that it is the right thing to do. Then after Billy is hanged and their ship is attacked by the french, he basically walks away emtionally distraught to the point he no lomger can function as captain and in a sense commits suicide. So even with all his hot air arguments did he realize that he made the wrong decision, that sometimes strictly following the letter of the law is not the right thing all the time. Or did he still think it was the right thing to do but after being done he could not live with the results of the decision.

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Or did he still think it was the right thing to do but after being done he could not live with the results of the decision.


Yes, sort of.

It was never really a question of right or wrong to Vere. He was compelled to do his duty as military law and his rank required of him, but Billy's bravery and unwillingness to condemn Vere for doing so was more than he could bear.

He no longer wanted the burden of command and the responsibility of life and death over other men, especially someone like Billy who was a better man than he could ever hope to be.

"I am just a man, not fit to do the work of God... or the Devil."

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They all knew what they had done was wrong, it was out of a willful subservience to duty that they condemned Billy to death. They believed that their duty to the crown in a time of war required this action. It might be difficult for us to fully understand this sort of attitude today.

Personally, their arguments towards this in the movie struck me as extremely weak. No one was served by them executing Billy. Not Billy, not Claggert, not the Captain nor the the crew. Not the Crown nor Great Britain either. Plus, they knew it was morally the wrong decision. Their duty as a member of the panel in a court martial is towards justice. Yet their decision was unjust.

I think to understand their actions you have to take into consideration their aristocratic sense of duty at that time. Like I said, this may be a bit hard for us to understand today. And the movie doesnt really help explain it.

But they never wanted to execute him. They just felt they were duty bound to.

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They should have acquitted him. What harm would it have done? Mind you the thought of someone like Vere leading his men into.combat...

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