Anyone here have any insight as to why the men are so quick to forget their anger over Billy's death at the end, and start fighting with the French? Was Melville suggesting that the men were fickle and really wouldn't stand up for Billy when their lives were on the line? If that's the case, why did they hesitate to act after the ship was initially attacked, as if they were firm in their defiance?
Ah, Bartleby. Ah, Humanity!
The sailors eventually realized they'd be sunk and drowned by the French ship if they didn't act to repell the attack. They had little alternative.
shareActually, the script is very removed from Melville's book. I just watched the movie, and was surprised at all the chatter chatter chatter! Billy in particular seems to say way too much. I understand the impulse to hammer home every subtle implication found in the book for the unwashed masses, but much of the storytelling could have been done visually. Too bad someone who understood the truly visual nature of film didn't take charge of this. The script is way overwritten. I'm not saying it's a bad film, but sometimes it sounds like a policy committee meeting of Amnesty International.
So, when you refer to Melville in your question, it really doesn't apply.
She's a mother. It's a sick, sick bond. Think of yours; think of mine. It's unwholesome.
If you notice, Kincaid yells "Let's give it to the French for arriving too late." the implication is that if the French vessel had made its presence known ten minutes earlier Billy would at least have been reprieved and could perhaps have escaped during the action. At any rate, the men needed to lash out at someone and the French were as good a target as any. I though the film was very good, and Robert Ryan, who it has taken me a long time to appreciate as an actor, gives a very nuanced performance as Claggert.
sharethat and it was more of a distraction than anything. Remember earlier in the movie when they were too out of range to actually attack an enemy ship? Ustinov decided to fire some shots anyway just to distract the crew from any thoughts of mutiny or whatever.
share
Well, the ending is a little fast. I mean, the battle begins, and... ?
If that French vessel be the Athée, Vere will not suffer long. I'd love to see a version which includes his death, as the movie didn't, and in the opera, he lives long (but definitely not prosper), and is the narrator as a old man.
Starry Vere, God bless you!
From memory the French attack gave the men little time to react.
shareThe last couple of minutes is perhaps the least satisfactory part of the script. It is oddly rushed, the death of Captain Vere is inadequately marked, and the narrative coda is awkward. The credits state the film to be based on a play by Louis Coxe and Robert Chapman; I do not know the play, but perhaps the film follows it here. It would I think have been preferable to have ended with the dying words of Vere as given in the novella:
An engagement ensued; during which Captain Vere... was hit by a musket-ball... More than disabled he dropped to the deck and was carried below... He lingered for some days, but the end came. Not long before death, while lying under the influence of that magical drug which soothing the physical frame mysteriously operates on the subtler element in man, he was heard to murmur words inexplicable to his attendant--"Billy Budd, Billy Budd."
Well, once the hero of the story is dead, the story is over. I suppose they could have spent another 10 minutes showing the battle, but then you end the movie too long after the real climax was reached, and the impact and poignancy of it is diluted. At that point, did it really matter who won the battle?
Vere's death was clearly, if not graphically marked. I thought the subtlety of simply showing his motionless arm sticking out from under the fallen sails (the white canvas having all the appearance of a burial shroud) was very effective.
I would agree with an earlier post that Kincaid's reaction of let's punish the French for being late, otherwise Billy would still be alive, makes perfect sense. It's a question of first things first. The men are angry and heart broken, and might have stood firm even when the Royal Marines opened fire on them, and likely would have attacked the officers and Marines. But the British hated the French, and despite their anger at the officers, they would have put that aside long enough to prevent being killed by cannon fire, drowning, or dying aboard a French prison ship. Once the battle was won, they could decide how to deal with their own.
[deleted]