Young Billy is a good-hearted and simple-minded merchant seaman. He is illiterate and doesn't know how old he is or where he was born, but is well-liked on the friendly ship Rights of Man. Things change when he is impressed aboard the warship Avenger, an entirely different environment.
With acute irony, the first words we hear from Billy are when he sings a halyard shanty, "Hanging Johnny".
1797 is during the war against Napoleon and revolutionary France; mutiny is in the fleet and discipline on the warship is kept by the brutal Master of Arms Claggart. The men hate him and the officers dislike and mistrust him, but he does a necessary job.
Claggart is an impenetrable mystery: the cruel man who cannot be reached or softened, who hates Billy for his goodness. He persecutes him until...
Many familiar faces:
- Terence Stamp plays the handsome, innocent sailor perfectly. Not overacting, but undoubtedly aware of his appeal, the hearts he is melting. He became famous for this role and many young women wanted to know him. Roommate Michael Caine said that his job, as loyal friend, was to act as air traffic controller, easing one date out the back door as another entered the front. (The credits say "Introducing", and although the IMDB lists Term of Trial (1962) first from the same year, he says he did that film after and it was a terrible experience).
- Robert Ryan: as always, one of the essential actors of that era. His Claggart is the picture of demonic malevolence.
- Peter Ustinov: produces, directs, gets a screenwriting credit, and plays the Captain who is not unkind, but who sees his bitter duty more clearly than anyone else on board.
- Melvyn Douglas (The Old Dark House (1932), Ghost Story (1981)) and Ronald Lewis (Scream of Fear (1961)) as seamen.
- John Neville (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)) and David McCallum (The Great Escape (1963)) as officers.
Available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive. The commentary track has Steven Soderbergh interviewing Terence Stamp. Many great stories, although they don't seem to be watching the film closely.