FULL BILLY BUDD Complete Movie UK 1962 Peter Ustinov, Terence Stamp, Robert Ryan, Melvyn Douglas

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: BILLY BUDD  
• Composer: Antony Hopkins  
• Libretto: adapted from Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman's stage play version of Herman Melville's short novel Billy Budd  
• Venue & Opera Company: Studio and on location UK  
• Recorded: 1962
• Type: Movie
• Singers: N/A
• Conductor: Antony Hopkins  
• Orchestra:
• Stage Director: Peter Ustinov  
• Stage Designer: Donald M. Ashton  
• Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Rank Film Distibutors  
• Date Published: 1962  
• Format: DVD
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  
• Video Recording from: AMAZON     #ad   Get this Recording
•  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Billy Budd is a 1962 British historical drama-adventure film produced, directed, and co-written by Peter Ustinov. Adapted from Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman’s stage play version of Herman Melville’s short novel Billy Budd, it stars Terence Stamp as Billy Budd, Robert Ryan as John Claggart, and Ustinov as Captain Vere. In his feature film debut, Stamp was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer. The film was nominated for four BAFTAs.

Plot
In the year 1797, the British naval vessel HMS Avenger presses into service a crewman “according to the Rights of War” from the merchant ship The Rights of Man. The new crewman, Billy Budd, is considered naive by his shipmates, and they attempt to indoctrinate him in their cynicism. But Budd’s steadfast optimism remains; when asked to critique the horrible stew the crew must eat, he offers “It’s hot. And there’s a lot of it. I like everything about it except the flavor.” The crew discovers Budd stammers in his speech when anxious.

Though Budd manages to enchant the crew, his attempts at befriending the brutal master-at-arms, John Claggart, are unsuccessful. Claggart is cruel and unrepentant, a man who controls the crew through vicious flogging, savaging them before they can prey on him.

Claggart orders Squeak to find means of putting Budd on report and to implicate him in a planned mutiny. He then brings his charges to the Captain, Edwin Fairfax Vere. Vere summons both Claggart and Budd to his cabin for a private confrontation. When Claggart makes his false charges that Budd is a conspirator, Budd stammers, unable to find the words to respond, and he strikes Claggart – who falls backward against a block and tackle and fatally injures himself.

Captain Vere assembles a court-martial. Though aware of the background to Budd and Claggart’s conflict, the captain is also torn between morality and duty to his station. Vere intervenes in the final stages of deliberations – which at that point are in support of Budd – to argue the defendant must be found guilty for even striking Claggart, not to mention killing him. His argument that the letter of the law matters is successful, and Budd is convicted.

Condemned to be hanged from the ship’s yardarm at dawn the following morning, Budd takes care to wear his good shoes. At Budd’s final words, “God bless Captain Vere!”, Vere crumbles, and Budd is subsequently hoisted up and hanged on the ship’s rigging. The crew is on the verge of mutiny over the incident, but Vere can only stare off into the distance. Just as the crew is to be fired upon by the ship’s marine detachment, a French vessel appears and commences cannon fire on The Avenger. The crew breaks off from the potential mutiny to return fire, and in the course of battle a piece of the ship’s rigging falls on Vere, killing him. The ship’s figurehead is also shot off while a narrator tells of Budd’s heroic sacrifice.

Quoted from Wikipedia