Billy Budd

Terrence Stamp, Robert Ryan   w/d  Peter Ustinov

Herman Melville's morality play brought gloriously to the screen in 1962. Has here ever been a more saintly character than Billy? Or a more twisted, evil villain than Claggert?

Big budget film holds up very well. Exteriors on the ship are convincing...the focus on the characters in the interiors distracts from the artifice of the sets. Stamp was beautiful and his portrayal of the simple, honest, charming seaman made the film work. PU brought his trademark actor's tics, Ryan his glowering, inner-tortured self and the rest of the cast excelled.

All here but Budd wrestled with intense moral decisions. His inhuman perfection...the goal men strive toward...had to be destroyed because he stood as a living reminder of the our failure to transcend our very selves.

A classic.

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