Set aboard the HMS Avenger, an 18th-century British frigate, Herman Melville’s last novel is both a realistic drama and morality play depicting a head-on clash between absolute good and absolute evil that brings destruction to those involved in the struggle.
Transferred to film by producer-director Peter Ustinov (who had a hand in the film’s script as well as portraying the pivotal role of Captain Edward Vere), Billy Budd becomes an interesting but flawed work.
Terence Stamp plays the titular angelic merchant seaman whose innate goodness blinds him to the evil of other men. Robert Ryan is the sadistic lash-happy Master-at-Arms John Claggart, who – unable to comprehend Billy’s honest nature and hating him for it – plans his downfall.
When Budd accidentally kills Claggart, Captain Vere ultimately has to choose between human compassion and the letter of the (naval) law.
John Claggart
Robert Ryan Captain Edwin Fairfax Vere
Peter Ustinov Billy Budd
Terence Stamp Dansker
Melvyn Douglas First Lieutenant Philip Seymour
Paul Rogers Second Lieutenant Julian Radcliffe
John Neville Gunnery Officer Steven Wyatt
David McCallum Enoch Jenkins
Ronald Lewis Squeak
Lee Montague Alan Payne
Thomas Heathcote William O’Daniel
Ray McAnally Arnold Talbot
Robert Brown Neil Kincaid
John Meillon Captain Alfred Hallam
Cyril Luckham Nathaniel Graveling
Niall MacGinnis Amos Leonard
Victor Brooks Charles Mathews
Barry Keegan
Director
Peter Ustinov
Video
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