The ghosts of film history can be seen all over Venice, the city where Dirk Bogarde sat down in a deck-chair and died and Donald Sutherland was bewitched by the sight of a red raincoat. One spies their faces on black-and-white stills inside the main festival site and adorning celebratory posters positioned around town. They occasionally crop up on the movie schedule as well.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is the swansong film from director William Friedkin, completed just before his death last month and dedicated to the memory of its co-star, Lance Reddick, who died back in March. This is a forensic, exacting courtroom drama; stiffly tailored and a little unyielding; doggedly making a bonus of a claustrophobic single location. It’s not The Exorcist, Sorcerer or The French Connection. But it makes for a worthy late addition to the great director’s armada.
