Damn the Defiant!

 I had a keen thought earlier to day. In fact it was so sharp that it cut its way completely out of my memory. In the struggle to recapture the fugitive notion, I believe it had something to do with music and how it-- That's where the void takes over. I remember being fairly entranced with the idea and resolved to think and write more about it. Maybe some day I will, but it is not this day - something I have in common with the men of Gondor and Rohan. 

 

Because I could not remember the intriguing thought, I did remember that over the last week I watched Damn the Defiant! Or Obi-wan at sea before the force was with him. I also watched him as King Charles in Cromwell. As you might expect, I preferred him in the role of Captain Crawford. Alec Guinness will forever be Obi-wan to me. Although I had seen him in movies prior to Star Wars, it was that role that made the greatest impression on me. Therefore, he will always be Obi-wan, regardless of the role.

Guinness plays Captain Crawford and Dirk Bogarde plays Lieutenant Scott-Padget in this 1962 movie directed by Lewis Gilbert. Obi-wan has a terrible problem. He has a lieutenant on his new ship with his own version of the force in the form of friends in high places and who is used to bullying his captains into doing whatever he wants. To complicate the issue, a young padwan sails as a midshipman on the vessel. The padwan is the captain's son. When the threat of reporting the captain to his friends at court proves ineffective at manipulating Obi-wan, the Lt. uses punishment against the boy as his lever.

Another complication in our Sea Wars drama arises in the form of a fleet-wide mutiny that has been planned. The conditions for sailors in the British Navy never got a five star rating. In fact, most of those trying the accommodations gave no stars and didn't recommend to friends. Although, they would go about in the press gangs to welcome new guests in a manner in which the guests could not refuse.

Obi-wan's gentle hand and calm voice of restraint against Scott-Padget's excesses in discipline does the potential mutineers no favors. However, two things finally happen. Both concern the real reason I watch shows about the age of sail:

The unfriendly exchange of broadsides as an RSVP to a boarding party melee. In the first instance, Obi-wan and his antagonistic Lt. defeat a French frigate. One of the French muckety-mucks on the ship reveals that he knows the details for Bonaparte's planned invasion of England. The wily Captain Obi-wan takes the prize and includes his son as part of the prize crew to get him away from Scott-Padget's machinations. Obi-wan appears to have beaten his onboard enemy, but in an encounter with a second French ship, he is wounded and delirious. The Lt. assumes command and drives the mutineers to implement their plan. 

Obi-wan recovers from his delirium and persuades the mutineers to go to the fleet to turn over the Frenchmen with the invasion information by agreeing to speak for them to the admiralty. When they arrive at the rendezvous, the admiralty has already caved to the demands of the combined mutineers, so everything seems peachy. But wait, there's a last plot complication. One of the malcontents who had been abused and scourged by Scott-Padget completely loses his gruntle and throws his knife into the Lt.'s chest. Scott-Padget is struck through the heart, and he's to blame, he gave mutiny a bad name. Naturally, the other revolters know he's put them at risk by his rash slaying of an officer. The lead mutineer puts an old fashioned force choke on the malcontent by actually using his hands on his throat and then throwing him over the side. Obi-wan helps the Lt.'s corpse over the side as well. 

Don't go away yet. The hefty soprano has yet to bellow. There's an enemy attack on the fleet. They've sent a fire ship right at the flagship, which for some reason I didn't catch can't get underway and avoid the flaming request to tango. The quick thinking Obi-wan persuades the head mutineer to let him command the ship to save the day. He takes the Defiant in and hurls some grapples to the fiery interloper and drags it away from the flagship in the nick of time (parsley, sage, and rosemary did not get mentioned). Of course, the admiral sends his thanks for saving him from the barbecue. It looks like all will be well. However, there was a broadside received by the Defiant and the mutineer leader took a substantial splinter to the chest and expires after getting word that the admiral thanks him for his service.

I give it 3.5 broadsides out of 5.