Billy Budd

Pure good vs. impure evil, Herman Melville style. A once-praised, now underrated film that may have been dwarfed in an exceptional movie year. [09 Mar 2007, p.12D]

The tragic tale of Billy Budd, the beautiful sailor, intelligently handled by a superb cast. [16 Mar 2007, p.C4]

There are many powerful scenes unspoilt by attempts from Ustinov to be cinematic; in fact his self-effacing direction allows the actors to give uniformly sincere performances.

The classic conflict of good and evil, drawn in Herman Melville's "Billy Budd" with the story of a pure young British sailor tormented by a vicious master at arms, is firmly battened down and rendered shipshape in a splendid film based upon the book and on a recent play put together from it.

Terence Stamp might not be quite the golden god that Herman Melville envisioned, but he nevertheless gives a compelling performance as a simple, irony-challenged sailor who meets a cruel fate at the hands of his polar opposite, seafaring sadist Robert Ryan, in Peter Ustinov's literary adaptation. [04 Mar 2007, p.N16]

Peter Ustinov's production of Billy Budd is a near miss, and Ustinov, alas, is the culprit.