Damn the Defiant!

HMS Defiant, or Damn the Defiant! depending, is another entry in the early 60s Napoleonic Wars sea sagas from the Brits. Much like its brethren, Billy Budd and the Brando Mutiny on the Bounty, Damn the Defiant! is a creaky old-fashioned entertainment during an era when the cinematic landscape was changing. The best thing about it are the central performances from Alec Guinness and Dick Bogarde, and everything else is a bit of a slog to get through. Guinness is the humanistic captain with Bogarde as the sadistic second-in-command. There are hints of a mutiny brewing, but it takes forever for the payoff to come around and the planting isn’t that absorbing. Damn the Defiant! could’ve used more of the fire found in the Americanized title instead of the stately Britishness of the original.