‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ Review: Friedkin Leaves Us with a Vital Lesson in Cinema
William Friedkin’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial succeeds in crafting a gripping drama with minimalist filmmaking techniques and devotes all of its focus to the riveting performances of Jason Clarke, Lance Reddick, and Kiefer Sutherland.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
William Friedkin sadly left us this year with one of the most influential filmographies in history, ranging from vital thrills in The French Connection and Sorcerer, potent images of terror in The Exorcist, and character-driven stories in To Live and Die in L.A. or the misunderstood Cruising. His body of work will forever stand the test of time and has inspired many creatives working today who saw something in his movies that pushed them to want to explore the medium further.
I remember my first viewing of The French Connection as if it was yesterday, completely riveted by its intricately plotted story and some of the most excitingly realized chase scenes ever put in a motion picture, alongside a career-defining performance from Gene Hackman. Having been so blown away by it, I took to Twitter to thank Friedkin for the film, to which he surprisingly followed me and replied: “Wow…thank you…I appreciate you’re telling me that…On New Year’s…43 years later.”
Friedkin was never afraid to speak his mind, whether ripping apart Nicolas Winding Refn’s work in front of him or allegedly stating that he didn’t want to be around when David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer was released. If you’ve followed his train of thought over the years and views on the current state of cinema, it’s of no surprise that his latest (and last) movie, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, releases on the same day as Green’s horrendous legacy sequel of The Exorcist. Even in death, Friedkin knows how to do a power move and have the last laugh as an artist and lover of film.
It shouldn’t also surprise anyone that The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a masterful piece of cinema, despite its televisual aesthetic. Friedkin elevates the material with nail-biting precision, initially presenting the film as a courtroom drama, but slowly progresses it in a reflective character study of Lieutenant Barney Greenwald (Jason Clarke), a defense attorney tasked to represent Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy) during a court-martial hearing. Lieutenant Maryk has been accused of mutiny after allegedly relieving Lieutenant Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) of his duties during a cyclone, citing signs of mental illness.
Of course, Queeg states slander and attempts to convince head judge Luther Blakely (Lance Reddick) with lead prosecutor Katherine Challee (Monica Raymund) 's aid that everything Greenwald and Maryk told are erroneous lies. But as the trial progresses, more about Queeg’s problematic behavior comes to light, which tests the court and Greenwald’s allegiance to the United States Army’s legal proceedings.
Friedkin progressively transforms the trial by playing with real-time reveals of the nature of Maryk’s actions in response to Queeg’s state. Because of this, it does take a considerable time to get going, as the film introduces a revolving door of witnesses, including Lieutenant Thomas Keefer (Lewis Pullman), Lieutenant Willis Keith (Tom Riley), and Lieutenant Allen Bird, MD (Jay Duplass) among many others. However, this allows audiences to accustom themselves to how the film operates: it never once “films” the trial through a specific point of view. Yes, the opening scene introduces us to Maryk and Greenwald first, but everything changes once they step foot in the courtroom.
The camera is always positioned away from the defense and the prosecution, at a middle-ground between the witness and the judges who decide Maryk’s fate. Even when we get individual scenes between Greenwald and Maryk, Friedkin and cinematographer Michael Grady take time to distance themselves from their conversations. We’re never in an entirely introspective point-of-view, but it slowly shifts as time goes by and grows more thrilling than ever by the time its final curtain drop occurs.
Jason Clarke has never been better. It also helps that he previously starred in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which saw him play Roger Robb, questioning (or badgering) J. Robert Oppenheimer about his alleged allegiance to the Communist Party concerning his relationship with Jean Tatlock. The final exchange between Robb and Oppenheimer, as the music intensifies and the screen continues to whiten, remains one of the year's most tensely executed dialogue scenes. It wouldn’t have been made possible without two rock-solid performances at their core.
In The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Clarke takes the same approach as Oppenheimer. Still, he elevates it through a more personal approach, particularly during its final scene, where he opens up about the trial in ways that weren’t possible in the courtroom. Supporting performances from Kiefer Sutherland and the late Lance Reddick are also strong, with Sutherland starring in one hell of a cross-examination near the latter moments of the film, which acts as both a scathing indictment of his behavior and Greenwald’s incessant badgering techniques. It’s also a terrific way to see both sides of Queeg’s coin. When we first meet him, he appears calm and self-assured. However, when he returns to the courtroom, he fidgets and uses two marbles to calm him down, and his answers aren’t as clear and precise as they should be. Is he hiding something, or is Greenwald the one making him look like that?
The film consistently asks those questions during the trial, but it never becomes more apparent during this scene, where the gloves come off, and the audience is left to decide precisely who tells the truth and who doesn’t. At first, it seems simple enough, but no one will leave this film with the same interpretation of the events they’ve witnessed. That can only be made possible if a true auteur is at the helm, knowing the exact ways to reel the audience into the story, hook them into its fast-paced dialogue exchanges, and then drop a needle at the precise moment when they start questioning the validity of anyone’s testimonies, putting them further into a state of bewilderment and disarray.
What Friedkin achieves here is not simple. Some will argue that courtroom dramas have always adopted this structure, but few filmmakers ever got it right. Even Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 wasn’t as hard-hitting as The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and had an even bigger budget and aesthetic to tell the story. In Friedkin’s case, he is limited by the time restraints of a telefilm and the aesthetic of a chintzy soap opera. It’s a shame because his vision doesn’t seem fully realized by leaning into classic TV movie tropes.
However, even with those constraints and a limited production schedule, he can still conjure up a genuinely audacious piece of work that will stay with you long after the credits have finished rolling. He leaves us with something to ponder – a final lesson of cinema from a man who gave so much to the art form and still had more to offer.
Friedkin’s career wasn’t perfect. Just like any other filmmaker, he had his critical highs and lows. But there’s no denying his impact on cinema history, as he created art beyond releasing his most-known films. For many different reasons, he will always be remembered as a pioneer. One who has always attempted to push the art of cinema forward in ways that none of us imagined it would go when The French Connection and The Exorcist were released to the world. There was only one William Friedkin, and there will never be another one like him.
Grade: [A]