Not only an excellent study of good and evil, this film also explores the conflict of duty vs personal ethics. When the officers are pondering Billy's fate, Wyatt pleads passionately for him. He is told that they are talking about law not justice and he asks pointedly , "Was not the one designed to serve the other?" Of course this opens up for the viewer a question of the real purpose of law. Excellent performances all around. Of course everyone talks about Stamp, Ustinov, and Ryan, but we also see excellent performances by Melvyn Douglas and David McCallum.
This film deserves to be released on DVD. It is a classic. I have shown it to my students in Honors American Literature after we read the novella, and it is always well received. The screenplay by Ustinov improves on the book by including the debate among the officers at Billy's trial.
This film deserves to be released on DVD. It is a classic. I have shown it to my students in Honors American Literature after we read the novella, and it is always well received. The screenplay by Ustinov improves on the book by including the debate among the officers at Billy's trial.