While the recent obituaries for director William Friedkin largely praised his masterpieces The Exorcist and The French Connection, the filmmaker also triumphed in adapting stage material to the big screen. And rather than try to “open up” properties like The Boys in the Band or Bug, to name a few, Friedkin instead leaned into the claustrophobia, the spatially-enforced intimacy that could bring characters closer together or wear away at their sanity.
It’s disappointing to report, then, that his final film lacks the verve and the urgency of his other stage adaptations. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, based on Herman Wouk’s play, is a fairly standard people-in-a-room-talking drama that’s terminally stagebound and rarely compelling. Neither Michael Grady’s cinematography nor Darrin Navarro’s editing serves to make these proceedings any more interesting than the latter half of any given Law & Order episode.
Friedkin’s one twist on the material is to update the setting from the 1940s to the present, and the results are a mixed bag: While it allows a US Navy tribunal to include women and people of color among the participants, the era shift removes a necessary context and motivation for at least one of the characters.
Audiences familiar with the previous adaptations — Edward Dmytryk’s 1954 film, based on Wouk’s 1952 novel; Robert Altman’s 1988 made-for-TV version, based on the play — will know the story: Lt. Steven Maryk (Jake Lacy) is being court-martialed for a December 2022 incident in which he committed a mutiny against Lt. Commander Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) aboard the mine-sweeper the USS Caine in the Persian Gulf. Maryk’s reluctant counsel, Lt. Barney Greenwald (Jason Clarke), realizes the only way to win the case is to put Queeg on the stand and expose him as a twitchy paranoic who crumbles under pressure and blames others for his mistakes.
Traditionally, Wouk’s courtroom drama gives the actor playing Queeg (Humphrey Bogart in 1954, Brad Davis in 1988) a chance to shine, as the commanding officer goes from dominating and precise to sweaty and neurotic, compulsively fidgeting with ball bearings in his hand. Sutherland takes a more subdued tack, but this isn’t the kind of material that calls for subtlety. And while Clarke puts the pressure on in the courtroom, he’s not nearly as intensely watchable as he was in a similar role in Oppenheimer.
It doesn’t help that Friedkin’s decision to update the material undercuts Greenwald’s big closing monologue. The 1940s setting of the original allowed this Jewish lawyer to defend officers like Queeg, who had already been in the service in the 1930s, as having been the first line of defense against Hitler while college guys like him (and Maryk) didn’t join up until after Pearl Harbor. That same monologue — in 2023, about 9/11 — doesn’t quite play the same.
The VIP here is Monica Raymund (Bros) as Commander Katherine Challee, the prosecuting lawyer. She’s a commanding presence in the courtroom, capable of an intimidating cross-examination, and she emerges as the most interesting character amid all the fulminating. (It’s also a treat to get one more performance from the late Lance Reddick, to whom the film is dedicated, implementing his legendarily intimidating diction to full effect as the trial judge.)
There’s a history of great directors going out on a lesser film, and unfortunately, Friedkin joins their ranks. He leaves behind an extraordinary filmography of groundbreaking work that will inspire generations to come, but The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial will exist, at best, as a footnote to this legendary career.
Director: William Friedkin
Screenwriter: William Friedkin, based on the play by Herman Wouk
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, Monica Raymund, Lewis Pullman, Jay Duplass, Tom Riley, Lance Reddick
Producers: Annabelle Dunne, Matthew Parker
Executive producer: Michael Salven
Director of photography: Michael Grady
Production design: Kirk M. Petrucelli
Costume design: Louise Frogley
Editing: Darrin Novarro
Sound: Thomas Wolseley, foley mixer
Production companies: Republic Pictures, Paramount Global Content Distribution
In English
108 minutes
