On Blu-ray: Billy Budd (1962) and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

While Billy Budd (1962) and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) take widely different approaches to a period milieu, they are both at their best when they spotlight their charismatic performers. The literary-sourced Budd and life-based Bean were recently released on Blu-ray from Warner Archive.

I’m generally not fond of the dudes on a ship genre, but Billy Budd has its own rhythm and transcends any genre trappings. I’ve found that my enjoyment of high seas drama depends dramatically on which dudes are aboard and that is one of the strong points of this film based on a stage play drawn from Herman Melville’s final, and posthumously published, work.

Set in 1797, all of the action takes place on a naval vessel where naïve crewman Billy Budd (Terence Stamp) has been taken from a merchant ship to serve. With dreamy eyes and dandelion fluff hair, the crew is baffled by the gentle, optimistic Budd, though they eventually admire his positive perspective. The sadistic master-at-arms John Claggart (Robert Ryan) feels threatened by Billy’s comfort with and desire to befriend him. He attempts to frame the young man for attempted mutiny, which ends up being deadly on multiple counts.

In his film debut, Stamp makes Billy an almost otherworldly character. He always seems a step removed from the pain and fear that plagues the rest of the crew members. This frightens Claggart, who is perturbed that he can't control him with fear and perhaps a bit disturbed by his attraction to Budd. He is the sort of man who gets an intense thrill from whippings and drawing blood, that this joyful boy should exist in his orbit dampens that erotic charge.

The captain of the ship (Peter Ustinov, who also directs) knows how destructive Claggart is for his men, but he fears Billy more; he could lead the crew to a more lusty mutiny than the master-at-arms. As a disillusioned elderly sailmaker, Melvyn Douglas, wearily watches Budd move towards his doom, though even he can’t see where it all is leading.

Billy Budd hits its stride when it begins to focus on one-on-one conversations. The tension between Ryan and Ustinov, and especially Stamp and Ryan is presented with menacing intimacy. These private moments form the dark core of a story the crew cannot begin to understand, increasing the overall tension. What is expressed stands equal to the repressed fears and desires of all aboard but the innocent Billy.

Special features include an interesting commentary in which director Steven Soderbergh talks with Terence Stamp about his experiences making the film. Perhaps because the pair worked together on The Limey (1999), they have a good rapport and their conversation has a nice flow.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean is a more comic enterprise. Its humorous success varies, depending on who has the spotlight in this loosely history-based western full of cameos. Director John Huston pulls together some good tall tales, but never weaves them into a cohesive whole.

As the frontier-based Bean, Paul Newman moves from the bad side of the law to impose his own morally-flexible definition of justice. He lusts after the distant star of the stage Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner), falls for a young Mexican girl (Victoria Principal), and tangles with an unruly cast of characters.

Newman is the weakest part of Roy Bean. He doesn’t have the ornery toughness or the comic juice to make his crusty character pop. While the actor could be funny in the right circumstances, he had a bad habit of seeming more amused by himself than the audience. That quality is at its worse here.

A diverse cast of characters take up the slack, in a series of amusing vignettes. Anthony Perkins sets aside his jittery persona in favor of a wry restraint as traveling man of the cloth. Leaning into his gravelly voice, Tab Hunter works against his pretty boy looks as a shifty, but oddly sympathetic outlaw. Most amusing is Stacy Keach as the bandit Bad Bob. No one relishes an over-the-top role like this actor; he looks like he is having the time of the life, which adds to the humor. Roddy McDowall and Ava Gardner also demonstrate reliable ensemble chops as a hapless lawyer and Langtry respectively.

In the end, the mess of stories, punctuated by a scene-stealing black bear, becomes a bit exhausting, but the cameos help to renew interest when the action flags.


Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing copies of the films for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) on Blu-ray

The pastoral romantic epic Far From the Madding Crowd is now available on Blu-ray in a new release from Warner Archive.

Based on Thomas Hardy's first literary success, the film stays close to the novel's plotline, taking its time, but moving along smoothly through its nearly three hour running time. Set in the countryside of England during Victorian times, it tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), the strong-willed owner by inheritance of a large farm and her romantic entanglements with three men.

In his review of the film Roger Ebert called Julie Christie, "too sweet and superficial" to handle the complexities of playing Bathsheba. While I haven't read Hardy's book, and can't comment on whether Christie captures Everdene as conceived, I thought that the way she used sweetness to charm, while often behaving in a less becoming way, was a good choice.

She plays a woman who doesn't know the extent of abilities: for attracting men, for feeling passion. She doesn't see how her sweet nature draws admirers and conceals her more turbulent personality. While she knows that she is strong, the complexities of that strength are not yet clear to her, and Christie effectively communicates her developing awareness of herself and the way she affects others.

The men who romance her, Alan Bates, Peter Finch and Terence Stamp are also well cast. As a sheepherder who is at first overconfident in his ability to win Bathsheba, Bates is cast against type as Gabriel Oak, a strong, decent man who otherwise is rightfully certain of his skill and what he has to offer. Finch is appropriately tense and awkward as Boldwood, the neighboring gentleman farmer who takes Bathsheba's joke valentine too seriously and becomes romantically obsessed with her. There's a dangerous hint of sociopathy to Stamp's portrayal of a reckless sergeant, who faces tragedy before he begins to regret his behavior.

Director John Schlesinger has created a beautifully detailed world. You can feel the weight of the farm work and the cast performing it looks authentic, as if he came upon them all by chance and decided to turn on the camera. Aided by director of photography Nicholas Roeg, who would eventually become an accomplished film director himself, he captures a heightened landscape, in which the light turns blades of grass silver and sun rays appear to reach out and caress Christie's face.

The gorgeous spectacle of it all just about distracts you from the curiously flat feel of the drama. Though it centers on romance, it seems lacking in passion. Even in a famously thrilling scene where Stamp demonstrates his skill with the sword by repeatedly endangering Bathsheba, there is excitement, but somehow the romantic element doesn't ignite. You understand why this reckless man would get her blood pumping, but you don't feel it.

It is enjoyable to watch the film though, because Schlesinger trusts his audience to understand all that is necessary. He lets the world of his characters unfold with natural ease. When Bathsheba's sheep begin to collapse from bloat, you don't get a lecture about the danger of livestock eating clover, but the urgency of the situation is made clear. In one of the most revealing moments, Bathsheba and Gabriel work frantically together to save her barley ricks, and you can see how well matched they are, even if there is no moment when the music rises and they lock eyes. In the upcoming version of the film starring Carey Mulligan, the scene has that moment, and loses the subtlety of their strengthening connection.

The picture is sharp and clean, but with enough grain to retain the nostalgic, bucolic feel. This is an extended version of the film, with three additional minutes that were not included in the original North American release. Special features include a trailer and a featurette made at the time of filming, with footage of Christie examining the filming locations.

Far From the Madding Crowd is a lush, inviting film and deserving of a wider audience.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the Blu-ray for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.