IMDb plot summary: On the H.M.S. Defiant, during the French Revolutionary War, fair Captain Crawford is locked in a battle of wills against his cruel second-in-command Lieutenant Scott-Padget, whose heavy-handed command style pushes the crew to mutiny.
Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Starring Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, and Maurice Denham.
H.M.S. Defiant, or Damn the Defiant as it is alternately known, stars Alec Guinness as a Royal Navy captain during the French Revolutionary Wars and Dirk Bogarde as his first lieutenant. The two men have very different views of governing a ship, and they enter into a tense battle of wills that also happens to be bumping up against a planned mutiny from the non-officered soldiers. Guinness and Bogarde are really wonderful to watch here, exuding very different *kinds* of power but seeming very evenly matched, and watching how their ethics play out in their treatment of others is the most engaging part of the movie. I do also appreciate how much time was spent focusing on the pending mutiny -- it humanized the sailors Guinness and Bogarde were fighting over and showcased them and their needs in a compelling way. The ending is a satisfying one that lands exactly where I wanted it to. The only points where my interest flagged were the battle sequences, but even those held my attention a bit more than usual, as the movie did a good job of tying the fate of the battle to the fate of the characters in a way I cared about. A solid watch!
How it entered my Flickchart:
H.M.S. Defiant > Pi
H.M.S. Defiant < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
H.M.S. Defiant > The Romantics
H.M.S. Defiant > Show Me Love
H.M.S. Defiant > The Last Seduction
H.M.S. Defiant > Minority Report
H.M.S. Defiant > Luca
H.M.S. Defiant > Munich
H.M.S. Defiant < Jack Goes Boating
H.M.S. Defiant < Hoop Dreams
H.M.S. Defiant < Till Death
H.M.S. Defiant > The Palm Beach Story
Final spot: #939 out of 3706, or 75%.
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