Reviews

Now some reviewers loved this movie. Some hated it. I will go middle of the road and give it a 5 out of 10. As a Naval veteran I generally cringe when I see Hollywood actors trying to act like sailors or soldiers. This movie was no different. The sailors, as usually is the case, acted like actors acting like sailors. I found it uplifting to realize that if THIS script can be made into a movie I can write a movie script. Some things I would have changed: forget the opening scene when the two buddies are kids. Pointless. Develop a love interest between Danny and Evelyn, have him volunteer for the Battle of Britain and REALLY get killed, leaving Evelyn and Rufe behind and Rufe in a position to pick up the pieces with her. Then when Rufe flies the Doolittle mission he can be guided by Danny's ghost, ala "A Guy Named Joe." Not great literature but more believable than the product delivered by PH. The American admirals were too young. FDR looked like Jon Voight with a lot of latex glued to his face.

All of the comments before this one are perfectly true in saying this is a great film, even more so considering it was made for TV. Having read The Caine Mutiny and having seen the movie numerous times I already knew many of the incidents referred to in the courtmartial dialog. I wondered how good a film it would be to someone totally unfamiliar with the Bogart film and the book. Queeg was a stinker but I still felt sorry for the SOB. Now in REAL life, Maryk would have been found guilty no matter how loony his CO was.