excellent

I saw this when it first came out, and the death scene moved me so much I wept in the theater and afterward,when talking about it with my date.
I watched it again today and was again very impressed, this time more by the profound existential issues it raises, about duty/justice/truth/mercy and grace/fear/trust/cruelty. The former are discussed so well in the Court Martial scene, the latter described so well by Dansker, the old sailmaker.
All the acting was excellent, too.
My only complaint was the realism of the camera shifting back and forth to indicate the motion of the ship. I couldn't watch for more than a few seconds every few minutes, it was making me sea-sick! I am prone to motion sickness, but didn't have that handicap back when I saw it in 1962. Nevertheless, I liked it so much I am going to re-read the story.
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/melville/billy-budd.pdf