It's a movie you watch first and then a play. When I watched the movie, I thought: How did such a good subject become like this? ——Although this film is not bad, especially the performance of the captain is commendable. But the problems with this film are: 1. The straightforward narrative style lacks dramatic tension, allowing the audience to understand the whole thing from the very beginning, without too much suspense; 2. The courtroom drama is too short, and the real highlights are For a few minutes, there is a feeling of "top-heavy"; 3. The love scene between the officer Keith and the dancer May is a bit inexplicable - neither promoting the development of the plot, nor showing the development of the characters, nor intensifying the dramatic conflict - —On the contrary, it makes the plot less compact; 4. Except for the captain's very full and admirable performance, other characters have relatively simple personalities, or they are not very good, especially the role of Keefer, which is not very convincing. Should also be able to act better - if the script were more fleshed out.
Personally, I think this film is very suitable for the way "Twelve Angry Men", with pure dialogue and wonderful performances to promote the plot, show the personalities of each character and the conflict between each other. This is also the reason why the drama version is better.
btw, found director Edward Dmytryk's later review of the film on IMDB: "..it's a disappointment in my career, to tell the truth. I insist it could have been a classic...but Kramer, who (with Dore Schary) is the most publicity-conscious man in the industry, got high-handed with Harry Cohn, and in fact had to toe the line...Stanley Roberts' original script was about 190 pages, even without the romantic subplot.. .It should have remained that - a three and one-half or four-hour picture - and it would have been more logically developed, the characters would have been further fleshed out. It would have been perfect."
It seems the director didn't like it either A love scene in the middle.
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The Caine Mutiny reviews
