Parents' Guide to The Caine Mutiny Court Martial

Director William Friedkin provides a solid if claustrophobic courtroom drama here. The Caine Mutiny Court Martial is the last film for Friedkin (The Exorcist and The French Connection) and Lance Reddick (The Wire), who plays the chief judge with gravitas and subtlety. Unlike the famed 1954 film version featuring many flashbacks set on the ship, the action here takes place almost entirely in the courtroom. Every iteration of this drama over the years has the same problem, a rather glib final dismissal of Maryk's instinctive actions as if they had been part of an ill-conceived plot rather than the act of a man trying to prevent disaster. The story suggests chain-of-command should excuse and protect incompetence and cruelty, and that we should accept that such leniency is the reward we confer on anyone willing to devote his or her life to defending our country. The same specious argument regarding the need for military "discipline" is made by the arrogant and barbaric Marine officer played by Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, as he defends his heinous acts with a shield of patriotism and expedience.

This time the blame for the entire unpleasant incident is self-righteously dumped on a minor character, a Princeton grad with a literary bent -- codewords for an over-educated, soft, liberal -- even though that guy himself has sacrificed for his country by serving in dangerous conditions in the military. Sutherland is excellent as the officer who looks good on paper and talks the talk until put under pressure. The real villain here is bureaucracy and rigid rules that don't account for emergency circumstances when snap judgments are necessary.