The Big Picture

• Friedkin's final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, is a thrilling legal drama with a strong cast and sharp writing.
• The film immerses the audience in a contained courtroom setting, allowing the performances to shine and the story to unfold naturally.
• Although the movie may have slipped under the radar, it is a powerful swan song for Friedkin's legendary career that deserves more attention.

One of the most legendary careers in Hollywood was capped off with a final film that, unfortunately, has slipped under the radar for many fans. William Friedkin, renowned for movies like The Exorcist and The French Connection, passed away in August 2023, but a few months later he gifted us one final film that was released on Showtime in October. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial follows Kiefer Sutherland as Captain Queeg, an eccentric, old-school commanding officer who was relieved of command of a ship by a younger officer (Jake Lacy) during a dangerous storm and is now in the middle of a court-martial to determine whether the mutiny was necessary or a dangerous overreach.

The film features Jason Clarke as Lt. Greenwald, a defense attorney tasked with representing the mutineers, and Lance Reddick as the head judge. Reddick, like Friedkin, passed away a few months before the film was released. The great cast, sharp writing, and Friedkin's reserved, strong direction make The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial one of the most thrilling legal dramas of the last few years, and a movie that desperately needs to be rescued from the streaming abyss.

'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial' Is a Lean, Incisive Legal Drama

Friedkin adapts this film from writer Herman Wouk's play of the same name, which itself was adapted from Wouk's own novel, both released in the 1950s. The story has been adapted to a variety of mediums, including one Humphrey Bogart-led film adaptation, and one made-for-TV feature adaptation directed by Robert Altman. Friedkin's version cements the story as a true mainstay of the courtroom drama genre, alongside the likes of 12 Angry Men, which similarly moved from stage to screen and was remade over generations, including one in 1997 directed by Friedkin himself.

Friedkin was known for some spectacular, bold sequences, such as The French Connection car chase, or any number of sickening moments in The Exorcist. But his strength in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is that he knows to let the words and the performances speak for themselves. When a legal drama is as contained as this one, almost entirely set within the room where the court-martial takes place, it really immerses the audience in the space to allow the visual language of the film to simply evoke the grounded experience of existing within that room. You feel like a fly on the wall, or perhaps like you yourself are on trial. The simplicity of the camera movements, production design, and editing allow the strong cast and the pitch-perfect writing to soar.

The Cast of 'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial' Breathe New Life Into an Old Story

Friedkin's film, a retelling of a story timeless enough to move from book pages to Broadway and multiple film adaptations, would feel redundant if the players were not up to the task. The cast is full of people who are perfectly tuned to appear in a talky legal drama, people with commanding presences, compelling voices, and electric energy that keeps this adaptation from feeling stale. Reddick brings a poised air of authority and intimidation; Sutherland is perfectly tuned to this wavelength of a stubborn, oddball, old guard guy who you can't quite figure out. Jake Lacy, from The White Lotus and Obvious Child, is great as the cocky, young officer who enacted the mutiny and seemingly feels no conflict at all about his actions.

Clarke is given the chance to play the exact opposite of his insidiously motivated Oppenheimer character, as in The Caine Mutiny-Court Martial, he is a lawyer who is burdened with the ethics of what he is doing. Clarke gives what is perhaps the best acting of his career in the film's final sequence. As the court-martial concludes, and Sutherland's Captain Queeg is found to have been unfit to command the ship in his condition, the young men celebrate their legal victory at a social function the following evening. Greenwald enters, feeling guilt over his part in the tear down of a decorated solider whose worst crime seems to simply be that he was a bit standoffish and strange at times. With a little liquid courage and a lot of shame, Clarke's Greenwald chastises the younger soldiers for their callous celebration of what he considers an immoral victory. The generational divide finds a disconnect within the way the younger soldiers view the older guard, many of whom saw combat and worked through unimaginable trials to get to where they are. Greenwald, who is aged roughly in between them, is torn between the two as his personal convictions clash with his professional obligations.

This is a back-to-basics approach. The movie is a tight, thrilling example of the power of letting great actors work with a solid script, and that being enough to make a project worth watching. Clarke's performance in that final scene alone makes it worth a watch. And it speaks to Friedkin's directorial talent that he knew the exact approach a movie like this needs to work. People are often fatigued by the endless barrage of IP-based remakes, but a remake like this one feels more artistically motivated, a story that Friedkin has a new take on, one that new actors can revitalize for a modern context, and one that never gets old. ​​​​​​

William Friedkin's Final Film Deserved More Fanfare

The most frustrating thing about this movie is that an iconic director helms a biting courtroom drama with well-known, acclaimed actors, the movie is well liked by critics, and then it comes out and immediately disappears into the streaming void. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was unceremoniously put up on Showtime in October 2023, with little in terms of marketing or anticipation for what should have been a posthumous victory lap to cap off his career. It is a shame that one of the last things either Friedkin or Reddick worked on has largely flown under the radar.

The situation with this film shines light on the fact that films like this can even be difficult to find if you go out of your way to look; it shouldn't be so difficult to access a movie from one of the great American film directors, especially one released in 2023. With the recent announcement that the Criterion Collection will be releasing Barry Jenkins' Prime Original series, The Underground Railroad, it is a relief to know that Jenkins' work is being pulled from the depths of obscurity. This is a 10-hour series from the writer-director behind Moonlight, one of the most acclaimed films of the century, and yet its existence solely on streaming has made it so many people, even those who love his film work, have never thought to check it out. The same is true for The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, a movie that probably slipped from most peoples' consciousness as soon as they realized they'd have to renew their Showtime subscription to watch. Friedkin's final film deserves more than that.

While The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial may not have a physical release on the horizon, and you may have to dust off an old subscription to watch it, it is most certainly worth the effort. Friedkin is one of the greatest filmmakers we've had, and this simple, to-the-point courtroom drama is a powerful swan song for his decades-long career.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is available to stream on Paramount+ with Showtime in the U.S.

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