It was during the Summer of 1997 while working in the westernmost hotel in Ireland (and, by extension, Europe) that I read Herman Melville's classic Billy Budd, Sailor. Lucidly beautiful, poetic, philosophical yet concise, emotionally involving, it proved excellent company on lonely Summer evenings in a tiny room in a dilapidated, rundown yet morosely attractive old rooming house, with a view of Ballydavid Bay and the Triúr Deirfiúr cliffs.
Pleased to say that the book's qualities all transfer well onto celluloid. The language, while peppered with legal and nautical/military flourishes, is by no means archaic or difficult to follow.
The film marked Terence Stamp's breakthrough into the bigtime; performances are strong all round - Peter Ustinov and Robert Ryan are in there too. It's on YT; the aspect ratio seems a little 'vertically stretched' but the vid's otherwise of excellent quality. Viewed over several lunchtimes, I had to postpone the wrenching conclusion until after work when the office was empty.
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