Interesting, good pacing, has alot going for it...!
Any other ship movies like this?
"Hey...I like that...I like that...!!"
--Sensei Terry Silver Karate Kid III
"Damn the Defiant"- Alec Guinness,Dirk Bogarde, and Anthony Quayle among other notables. 1962 or thereabouts.
shareI've always been partial to Captain Horatio Hornblower
A modern one would be Master and Commander.
Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade.
There's always Moby Dick (Gregory Peck), or Mutiny on the Bounty (Charles Laughton).
A lesser known, but excellent movie I found similar to Billy Budd in theme is The Sea Wolf with Edward G. Robinson, based on the Jack London novel. An intelligent but sadist captain tries to corrupt the soul of an "innocent" man he has trapped aboard his ship.
If you want something less dark and more uplifting, see Captains Courageous (1937) with Spencer Tracy. A much younger Melvyn Douglas (who played Danskers in Billy Budd) has a role in this movie too. I saw this movie when I was a teenager and it had a tremendous impact on me. I've seen it many times since and I still get choked up at the end.