Can someone please tell me what happens at the end? I missed the last few minutes of the movie and didn't get to hear the courts decision and what happended to everyone afterwards.
Thanx
Jack
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land...
–Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1776
Jose gets him off of course. But the movie, as well as the play creates suspense enough that when I was in College (a long time ago) we did the play, and let the audience vote, and then worked out the ending per the vote. The audience however always vote the same way. For acquital.
shareNo court decision is shown in the movie- just a party where the ship's officers congratulate Steve for winning. Queeg's performance on the stand was presumably so whacky that that was enough.
Ferrar comes to the party all pissed off (and slightly drunk)that the officers hadn't responded to Queeg's request for help. After all, Queeg's a Regular Navy officer, who did his duty in peacetime while all those Reserve officers were out having a good time.
Ferrar is most pissed at MacMurry, who perjured himself. He calls for a toast and throws his champagne in Mac's face and invites him outside.
The Ensign introduces his fiance to his mother and then gets assigned to a new ship- captained by the first ship's former Commander, who lets the Ensign take the ship to sea.
That little "drunk speech" by Ferrar at the end is the reason I recommend to
everyone to watch this movie; it is an important lesson in management.
After the whole movie leads the audience to side with the young officers who
"did the right thing" by taking control of the ship from Cmdr Queeg who "lost
his mind", comes that speech at the end with a slap: This was the fault of the
officers who drove Queeg into madness!
Hopefully I haven't spoiled it for you; still recommend you watch the whole
movie from start to end, to learn that subordinates have a large part in their
manager's success or failure.
The movie is an excellent example of perspective. We're shown Queeg through the eyes of those that do not know him while being, all-the-while manipulated into believing something by someone we assume would tell us the truth. Queeg is quirky to say the least, but no officer should ever be driven to madness so easily as dealing with subordinates.
But, to side with his officers, Queeg did not readily exude the confidence needed to be a commander and his decisions were often quite questionable, which was never explained or justified in the movie. Why did he let the boat cut its own cord and then try to cover it up afterwards? Why did he race ahead? Why did throw in the dye? Why did he run away? And why did it look like that junkyard of a boat was going to capesize at any moment while being broken into pieces in the meantime? The movie may tell you that Queed isn't crazy, and while that may be true, would anyone say they would be confortable in the command of a man like that?
Watch the movie a second time, knowing that Queed is not paranoid and then to explain or justify each of his unjustified actions. Then tell me if they were not right to remove him, not because of being paranoid, but because he wasn't fit to command due to ineptitude.
Queeg had a problem, that we know. When the novel writing officer helped warp the views of the other officers and plant suggestions into their heads about the Captain, the conditioning would have altered the way they did their jobs and how they interacted with the C.O.. As is seen clearly in the movie Queeg did make an effort to reach out to his subordinates. So what did they other officers do? Nothing! So it can be argued that the officers helped contribute to the Captain's overall decline, by not checking their pride and leaving someone in need of help and support all alone to his devices. The result is incidences that could have been avoided, and the name, character and reputation of a long serving, dedicated officer in shambles. Yes he was sick, but the officers who mutineered against him were a bunch of selfish people, who helped let the sickness get ther better of the Captain, and in doing so they actually endangered the lives of all aboard the USS Caine.
shareI don't think that the officers of the ship were selfish, they did not let his sickness get the better of their captain and they did not endanger the lives of everyone on board the Caine. In fact the film does not tell the full story of Queeg's actions aboard the Caine, you need to read the book to get an accurate portrayal.
In the book Queeg continually pulled up and reprimanded his officers for the most minor and trivial errors. He often woke up his officers in the middle of the night to discuss petty affair and would not let them sleep during the day even if they had been continually awake for 48 hours. On the other hand Queeg himself often goofed up and never admitted to any error, he frequently left the running of the ship in Maryk's hands and spent large parts of the day in his cabin, sleeping, reading, making jigsaw puzzles etc i.e taking it easy whilst his officers were pushed to the limit.
Queeg also showed cowardice on at least three separate instances, the Yellowstain business, he sailed away rather than aid another ship that was under fire from shore batteries, he continually stayed on the sheltered side of the ship when escorting marines to an island invasion.
Then at the time of the battle of the Coral Sea, (the largest single naval battle in history) he main concern was about missing strawberries!!!!
The fact is that under Captain De Vriess, despite the fact that everything on board ship appeared sloppy and slovenly, the ship's crew performed outstandingly in actions that really mattered i.e life and death. De Vriess may not have been a textbook captain but he knew how to get the best out of his crew. Queeg on the other hand did everything possible to get on the nerves of his officers and to ruin their confidence.
Also the crew of the Caine were not the only ones who had doubts about Queeg's ability to command. After the incidents with losing the target and the scraping of the ship's side against the dock Queeg was called to appear before Captain Grace on the Admiral's staff and Grace offered him the chance of a transfer to a shore duty position, which Queeg refused. Grace then told the Admiral that he thought that Queeg was unsuitable for command of a ship.
Actually, it was the Battle of Leyte Gulf that was the backdrop of the Strawberry Incident.
I agree that the book shows just how bad a captain Queeg was. It wasn't so much his desire for discipline. The officers could all deal with that. It was his sheer incompetence as both a ship handler and in combat that lost him the loyalty of the wardroom.
Captain Grace does indeed feel Queeg is a poor officer. However, he admits to the admiral that Queeg is only a few weeks into his first command. He says that he's willing to extend the benefit of the doubt and attribute his errors to simply being a little nervous with his new assignment, as they have no conclusive proof of anything Queeg has done wrong. (They've heard the rumours about the towline incident but have no proof of it).
He got them off by making Queeg crack under pressure. It doesn't show the aquitall but they are celebrating when Jose come in and tell them what *beep* they are for not supporting Queeg and reveals that Keefer is a liar and challenges him to a fight, but Keefer just stands there ashamed.
sharethere is a novel you could actually read it
suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008