Pitcairn Island Today

This is a very brief look at the story behind "Mutiny on the Bounty" of the Pitcairn settlers on PITCAIRN ISLAND TODAY.

Again, it's narrated by Carey Wilson who calls it one of the most tragic stories in the history of the British navy.

Eighteen men remained aboard the Mutiny as it returned to Tahiti, and then went on to Pitcairn Island where they burned the ship and made a new life for themselves on the island.

A glimpse of the Adams town settlement in houses along the rocky hillside, combined with a few scenes of the men and women going about their daily tasks--and the film is over.

A meager look at a very important slice of history. If you've seen the other short subject narrated by Carey Wilson on the same subject, no need to watch this.

Pitcairn Island Today (1935)

*** (out of 4)

One of two shorts MGM made to show some backstory to their MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. This one here takes a look at the island today as we are show some relatives to the original story as well as seeing footage of where the original Mutiny men stayed. Apparently the fate of the men is pretty much looked over here but I guess that's because all but one of them were eventually murdered. I guess one could understand MGM not wanting to show off the ugliness of this beautiful island but either way one shouldn't be watching this for some sort of history lesson. I think the film works best as just an item showing off the island, its people and some of the historic places on it. There's certainly nothing ground breaking here but I think it's a fitting short to watch after seeing the Clark Gable film.

This over seventy year old short documentary isn't exactly a contemporary record of life on the isolated Pitcairn Island. Still it's an interesting view of how life evolved up to the middle of the 20th Century for the Bounty descendants.

Naturally we get to meet a whole lot of people named Christian, some named Quintal, some named McCoy names familiar to those who've read Nordhoff&Hall's novel and have seen more or more of the films about the most famous mutiny in history.

Though it's not recorded in any of the films dealing with the mutiny the mutineers were in fact all killed save one in quarrels with the natives over the native women. Only a fellow named John Adams of the mutineers was actually around when Pitcairn was rediscovered and re-charted by the geographers. I guess at that point it wasn't worth the effort for the Admiralty to open up that old can of worms again.

In 1935 life still looked pretty rugged, but the Pitcairners seem to have made a nice little society for themselves. It's still a forbidding landscape with no natural harbor. That and because it was not chartered right on the maps the Royal Navy was using at the time was the reason that Fletcher Christian chose the place as their new home.

Pitcairn Island Today remains a fine documentary and a nice coda to the MGM film that won for Best Picture of 1935

This short subject was produced by MGM to promote their big picture of the year, multiple-Oscar-winner MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Carey Wilson was credited as a writer on that movie, and he wrote and narrated this short.

What happened to the mutineers and their women? Twenty-seven of them made it to Pitcairn Island; they were not discovered for decades, by which time only one of the mutineers was still alive.

At the time this short was made, about fifty families lived on the island. Their numbers included one guy who came to the island and stayed.

There are a couple of errors here. The wreckage of the Bounty is shown, although it was not discovered until well after this movie, and much is made of the inbreeding. But it's an interesting little portrait of an isolated society.

The film is an interesting look at Pitcairn Island... however it inaccurately portrays the religious beliefs of the islanders.

The narrator refers to them as followers of "The Church of England" and that "Sunday is the holiest of days" to the islanders, but in the 1890's the islanders converted to the Seventh-day Adventist church which observes Saturday as the Sabbath.

Most Pitcairn residents have now given up Christianity altogether, but they still observe Saturday as a day of rest.

This is either a case of bad research by the filmmakers or a willful omission.