The first problem with this film is it tells two stories - Bogarde undermining Guinness, and the mutiny. It tries to have it both ways, with the troops being inspired to go for the kill when Bogarde takes over after Guiness is injured... but then they were plotting mutiny before... only it wasn't a real mutiny because they just want justice...
The second problem is it pulls its punches. Bogarde orders some people flogged and is mean but his evilness is more sadism. Guiness never really seeks revenge he gets frustrated. The mutineers just want a better deal, only one wants violent payback, and he's the real baddie. It's like cosy British post war industrial relations before the cut-throat antics of the 70s and 80s with the sailors (decent folk as exemplified by Anthony Quayle) going on strike rather than genuinely mutinying. Like so many class conscious films, it's prejudiced - Bogarde is allowed to die because he's bad, but Guiness and his idiot son are allowed to live, and Quayle and the extremist mutineer die.
There's some gorgeous colour photography, an accurate seeming depiction of life on a boat during this time, a bit of action, a decent enough story despite the above problems. Bogarde sweeps the floor with Guiness, whose Obi Wan Kenobi voice is really distracting here and who seems more like a benign hippy that a sea captain. (While I'm at it, it's hard to have too much sympathy for a man who press gangs his sailors.)
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