The Bounty

I have seen this film many time over the years and i never get bored of watching Sir Anthony Hopkins give a riveting performance in this classic story of life aboard The Bounty and the events that lead to mutiny.

Mel Gibson plays Fletcher Christian who must watch helplessly as his captain(Hopkins) demoralizes his men and drives them ever closer to the brink of mutiny. The tension builds throughout the film and in no small part to the excellent score. The disgruntled crew has many recognisable faces including Liam Neeson and Bernard Hill which makes the film all the more enjoyable. Daniel Day Lewis is particularly watchable as mr. frier, showing us a rather smug and sometimes fiery officer. The film is shot beautifully and the story is compelling. Even the script holds up in a film where the best performances come from the actors with the least to say.

I'm only giving this film 8 stars, because as good as it is "the Bounty" still leaves some undeserved blots on the reputation of a great and courageous man. A bit more truth and this film would get a TEN from me.

There have been many film treatments of this amazing story, but only "The Bounty" gets it even halfway right. The 1935 Lawton/Gable "Mutiny on the Bounty" is 49% balderdash and 51% falsehood. The Trevor Howard/Marlon Bando stinker is even less factual. "The Bounty", however is pretty good history in many places, especially Bligh's court-martial and the actual mutiny sequence, which is almost word-for-word what Bligh recorded in his own writings on the matter. The ship itself is correctly represented, right down to the figurehead – a woman in a blue riding habit, which makes no sense until one realizes that HMAV Bounty was originally a merchant ship called the Bethia.

The movie does take liberties with history. Some characters are composites and some important figures are absent entirely. In the plot Bligh seeks out Christian to be his second officer. In reality Christian was a friend of Bligh's wife's family, and it was he who sought a posting on Bounty; Bligh didn't solicit his participation. In fact Bligh jiggered the ship's roster to make room for Christian.

But the worst departure from fact is the business about Cape Horn and circumnavigation. The movie wants us to believe that Bligh chose the route for his own glory. Not true. Bligh complained to the Admiralty about the chosen course before they set sail from England, thinking it too dangerous for such a small vessel. But he was overruled. The return trip was never intended to go by way of Cape Horn. The cargo was breadfruit seedlings, a tropical plant that can't endure the kind of temperatures encountered in the Drake Passage or the Straits of Magellan. Bligh was forbidden to return via this route. Even if he wanted to such a course of action would have ruined his career. Also the mutiny occurred near Tofua, about 1300 miles west of Tahiti, the wrong direction to sail if you're bound for Cape Horn.

Bligh was a man and a professional. Christian was a silly, overwrought upper class schoolboy who committed a vile crime over puppy love of a Polynesian girl. He got away with attempted mass murder, and 200 years later people still praise him. Bligh was a true hero who hasn't got justice yet.

It's ironic that this 1984 film, "The Bounty," would be the least popular full-length movie about the famous mutiny. It received no awards or major nominations. It had an excellent cast, with top actors and stars on the rise. And, this is the most factual and true rendition of all the films made. It is also the most detailed in the purpose of the voyage, the ship and its crew, and the relationships of the men. It includes the mutiny, the voyage of survival by Bligh and his faithful crew members, and the fate of Fletcher Christian and the rest of the mutineers

So, for its historical rendering, "The Bounty" excels. Many of these details are not covered, or are skimmed over in the more popular movies. For instance, Bligh was a Royal Navy Lieutenant - not a captain. Bligh was the only navy man and only actual officer on board. Christian was not a first lieutenant, but a master. He and all the rest of the leaders of the crew had the ranks of noncommissioned officers and came from the merchant marine. Christian was a known friend of Bligh's before the voyage. Bligh's first mate had already been chosen, so Christian signed on as junior to him. But, Bligh later removed the other mate, Fryer, and put Christian in his place.

Bligh was an accomplished and skilled naval officer. He had served under Captain Cook on his third voyage to the South Pacific, so he alone knew the area and Tahiti. Bligh was not the fierce commander who doled out heavy physical punishment. He was more lenient than most captains in that regard. But, he had a temper, and made many verbal miscues as an officer. All of these things and many more facts of the true story are in this film. It is an excellent account of the voyage of the HMS Bounty, the mutiny, the successful 3,500-mile sea voyage of Bligh and his loyalists on a small boat, and the plight of the mutineers.

So, why then is it not the best, the favorite of all the movies? I think it's because the characters of the other films were much more interesting. Look at the 1935 film, for instance. Charles Laughton was outstanding as a fierce, fear-inspiring captain. Clark Gable was much more interesting as the flamboyant officer and dashing ladies' man. And, then there's the amount of time spent on so much of the factual details. I think the 1984 film spent far too much time covering the five-month layover on Tahiti. The sailing scenes were better and more interesting in the earlier films.

The performances in "The Bounty" were all very good. But, the screenwriters needed to do something to make the leads more interesting - especially Christian and Fryer. There were a couple of excellent supporting performances in this movie. Most notable was that by Liam Neeson as Seaman Charles Churchill. I am among those who find the 1935 Bounty with Laughton and Gable the most exciting and entertaining. I think that drives home a good point that people should not rely too much on movies for accurate history. A movie like the 1935 film can entertain by playing loose with or not including many of the facts or true aspects of the story. And, it can wet one's appetite for history. But, we need then to check the true story in the Encyclopedia Britannica or other sound historical sources.

I thought viewers might be interested in some more facts. Although it had three masts, the Bounty was quite small as could be seen in the early loading scenes. It was only 90 feet long, 24 feet wide, and displaced a mere 230 tons. It had a crew of one officer and 45 men. Compare that to a Man-Of-War, the types of ships we have seen in some of the great naval movies and swashbucklers. For instance, Lord Nelson's ship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 (just 15 years after the Bounty mutiny) displaced 3,500 tons. It had three masts, each with three to four sails (some as long as 200 feet), and measured 227 feet long and 52 feet wide. It carried a crew of 850 men - nearly 20 times the size of the Bounty's crew. And, it had 104 canons; 4 in the bow, 8 astern, and 56 each aligned on three gun decks on each side. It could make 8 to 9 knots an hour - about 10 miles per hour.

The HMS Victory is still in service as the flagship of the Royal Navy Fleet Admiral at Portsmouth, England. MGM used existing sailing ships for its 1935 film to represent the Bounty and the Pandora. Fewer tall ships existed by 1962, and MGM built a replica for its film that year with Marlon Brando. After the movie it sailed around the world as a tourist attraction, but sank off the coast of North Carolina after the crew abandoned it during a hurricane in 2012. Another replica was made for this 1984 film, and today it serves as a tourist boat in Honk Kong Harbor. In 1957, divers from National Geographic discovered the ruins of the Bounty at Pitcairn Island. And, that island today has about 56 residents, descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who went with them.

I will admit, I thought I'd seen it all when I first saw Charles Laughton bring the snivelling and maniacal Captain Bligh to life. I was dead wrong. Anthony Hopkins, whom I place on the highest rank of accomplished actors, recreates the memorable role with incredible flair and complexity. He shows us not just an insane seaman bent on ultimate subordination, but a man with real concern for maintaining order, knowing the consequences of anything less. "The Bounty", yet another retelling of the classic tale, is actually an amazing recreation of the sea fable, pumped with real emotion and drama. The writers really understand the characters in this story, especially in Bligh's case, but also in Fletcher Christian's as well. Mel Gibson reigns over the role this time, still fresh from his Australian beginnings, and undoubtedly one of the best at perfecting the challenged and affected hero. I proudly rave this version of the famous mutiny, and probably will place this among 1984's best films. Rating: Three stars and a half.

Not only is the story of Bligh and Christian the most famous mutiny in history, it is also the most filmed. It started with an Australian silent movie in 1916. The Aussies took another shot at filming the Bounty mutiny in 1933, providing a young Errol Flynn (as Fletcher Christian) with his first movie role. That was followed only two years later by the first American try with Charles Laughton in a tour-de-force performance as a sadistic Captain Bligh. Nearly thirty years passed before another movie attempted the story. The 1962 production remains controversial, as does Marlon Brando's affected turn as Christian. These earlier movies were based on the books by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall that portrayed the Bounty's commander, William Bligh, as a brutal disciplinarian and the second in command, Fletcher Christian, as a hero. The actual story is not so black and white. In Captain Bligh and Mister Christian: The Men and the Mutiny (1972), Richard Hough presented a more balanced account of the famous mutiny that is meticulously researched and shows keen psychological insight into the characters of the men involved. It is on Hough's book that The Bounty is based.

The Bounty has a lot going for it. It is based on Hough's book, perhaps the best account of the mutiny. The screenplay was written by Robert Bolt, who also wrote such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Man for All Seasons, and Ryan's Daughter. His work shows in the complex, fully realized characters that are the center of this story. And those characters are brought to life by an amazingly strong cast - Anthony Hopkins (an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs) as William Bligh, Mel Gibson (an Oscar for directing Braveheart) as Fletcher Christian, Daniel Day-Lewis (an Oscar for My Left Foot) as John Fryer, and Liam Neeson (nominated for an Oscar for Schindler's List) as Churchill. Of course, none of these actors were famous yet when they performed in The Bounty. Two film giants, Laurence Olivier and James Fox, make cameo appearances as Admiral Hood and Captain Greenham, respectively, members of the Court Martial that tries Bligh on his return to Britain. The rest of the cast is not so well known, but they are all excellent.

Anthony Hopkins' Bligh is definitely not a villain, but he is at best a flawed hero. Hopkins, as he always does, makes the character of Bligh completely believable. He is a superb seaman and a man of unquestioned courage. He is also a very capable leader in the right circumstances, but he has a quick temper and a tendency to shift responsibility from himself to others. And he is an ambitious man with no connections or influence in a society where those weigh as heavily as skill and competency. When the chance to make a name for himself seems to be drifting from his grasp, his frustration and anger is turned on those around him. Hopkins never seems to be acting. He becomes Bligh.

Mel Gibson was a bigger name actor than Hopkins even when this movie was made, but it is obvious that he is not quite in the same league. His is the weakest performance of the primary actors, but that's still not bad considering the caliber of this cast. He does a nice job of letting Fletcher Christian evolve from a rather shallow, genial fop into a tortured leader of a mutiny. He seems to work a little too hard at being the tormented soul during the mutiny but it's a good overall performance and does not detract from the story.

The Bounty does an especially fine job of showing the Tahitians as real people. The costumes and behavior feel completely authentic. Wi Kuki Kaa as King Tynah, although not on screen for very long, manages to create a fully realized and sympathetic character. Tevaite Vernette as Mauatua, Christian's Tahitian wife, is lovely but a bit bland at first. Once the mutineers have left Tahiti on the Bounty, she develops into a stronger character who backs Christian when the other mutineers turn against him.

Roger Donaldson's direction is deliberate. He builds the story slowly and purposefully, piling small scenes one atop another to build a foundation for the intense, emotion-laden scenes of the mutiny and its consequences. The pace may be too slow for modern viewers grown accustomed to the quick-cut editing of contemporary action/adventure movies, but the pay-off is worth the effort for those with some patience.

The Bounty is a beautiful movie. Wonderful cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson makes full use of the sea and tropical islands. There's nothing quite like the appeal of a full rigged ship under sail and we get plenty of the Bounty - brilliant, sun-drenched shots, towering waves and howling winds around the Horn, silhouettes of the ship against color saturated evening skies, and more.

Of the three movies I've seen based on the story of the mutiny on the Bounty, this is my favorite. It is more historically accurate in its presentation of the events, the characters, the ship, and the Tahitian people and culture. A brilliant screen play and fine performances from an exceptional cast are the core of the movie. It is well crafted and beautifully filmed. The pacing may be slow for some, but for anyone interested in this famous mutiny or sea stories, in general, it is highly recommended.