The final scene of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” takes place at a party where one military man pays tribute to another in the form of a long, candid and unexpectedly bitter toast. The bitterness is mostly directed inward: Barney Greenwald , a naval aviator turned attorney, has many regrets, including his own expert performance in the recently wrapped military trial of the title.
Greenwald’s case builds slowly in a film that nonetheless speeds ahead, thanks to the screw-tightening focus of Friedkin’s direction and his knack for bringing a single-location setup to cinematic life. His skill in this arena will hardly come as a surprise to those familiar with his earlier stage-to-screen adaptations, from “The Birthday Party” and “The Boys in the Band” to his unnervingly claustrophobic Tracy Letts adaptations,.