Few adventure epics can approach MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY for its excitement, drama, thrills, and the classic confrontation of good against evil. A truly great film in every important respect, the picture made box-office history and established Clark Gable in the minds of cinema audiences as the epitome of everything manly and noble. It also established Charles Laughton as an arch-villain for his convincingly hateful interpretation of a role that would be linked forever to his amiable real-life person. Adding substantially to the power of the high-seas action tale was the film's basis in fact, presenting as it did the historical mutiny on board the British ship Bounty in the year 1788.

The film has been criticized for presenting an inaccurately harsh portrait of Bligh. But history seems to bear out Laughton's characterization of a self-important, vindictive brute. Following the mutiny, Bligh fought in naval battles and was cited for bravery, but by 1805, as governor of New South Wales in Australia, he was back to ordering men's backs whipped to the bone. His tyranny caused another revolt, this time among the land garrison, and he was shipped back to England in disgrace, although he was again vindicated by his ruling-class peers. The real Bligh, his own pompous memoirs to the contrary, was indeed the brutish, profane, and contemptible creature that Laughton portrayed him as being; and his inhuman treatment of seamen brought about radical reforms in the British maritime laws.
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY was remade in 1962, and again in 1984 as THE BOUNTY.

(from Cinebooks Motion Picture Guide Review)

What do you think of this movie and the other versions ?

As the opening paragraph of this film which appeared on the screen eluded to; there are certain instances and events in the history of mankind which forever alter laws and the way people act in certain situations. What happened on board the Bounty in the South Seas in 1789 is an example of that.

The film paints Captain Bligh; played by Charles Laughton, as a murderous, abusive, hated tyrant; and the ship's first mate Fletcher Christian; played by Clark Gable, as a brave man torn between loyalty to the crown and his own morals. The Bounty's mission was to go to Tahiti (Now part of French Polynesia) and bring back breadfruit trees to the West Indies as food. One of the Bounty's officers, Midshipman Byam's, played by Franchot Tone, job is to inscribe a dictionary of the Tahitian language. In Tahiti, Chief Hitihiti, played by William Bambridge, treats the men as welcome guests. The crew finds the island as a tropical paradise; especially the females. But Bligh harshly gives the men little shore leave. Constant mistreatment of the crew and other circumstances, which I will describe below, eventually leads Christian to mutiny and take command of the vessel. He orders Bligh and the men loyal to him to be released and set sail in a small boat; and proceeds to look for a safe place to settle down with the men and start a new life. After temporarily hiding out in Tahiti; where the Bounty priorly docked; they are chased away after spotting Bligh chasing after them on a new ship, the Pandora. Eventually Christian settles on the island of Pitcairn and sets the Bounty afire.

I suppose the first obvious question is should Christian have mutinied and taken command of the Bounty? The way I see it (and according to this film), three deaths take place under Captain Bligh's watch. The first one takes place before the Bounty even sets sail. A man who is about to be flogged (or whipped) dies while tied up hanging in the sun. Christian quietly asks Bligh if he should dismiss the men (for it was customary for the entire ship's crew to witness a flogging); but Bligh responds otherwise. While the actual death was not Captain Bligh's fault in my estimation ( for flogging was customary and a common practice in the British fleet at this time); this, right off the bat, is a haunting character description of Bligh within itself. One would think that Captain Bligh would show sympathy and have respect for the dead; but he does not. Hell bent on instilling discipline; Bligh orders the punishment to commence and the dead man is whipped as scheduled.

The second death occurs when an overworked sailor, whose knees are badly scraped and actually bleeding from scrubbing the floor, asks for water. Bligh's answer? To tie the man up and have the rope violently dump him in the sea; then slowly lift him. Upon hoisting the sailor back into the boat; the crew discovered the man was dead. Once again; the Captain shows no remorse.

The third death under Captain Bligh's watch occurs during another flogging. When calling the entire ship's crew to witness the punishment; an officer informs the Captain that the ship's surgeon cannot report for he was ill. A furious Bligh screams that the surgeon was only drunk and demands his presence at the flogging. While the surgeon was indeed more used to lifting the bottle than a surgical knife; he was legitimately sick. After stumbling to the deck; the surgeon falls dead. This causes an irate Christian to yell at Bligh, "You Killed him!"

Add these deaths to the constant flogging and imprisoning of crewmen in irons for petty, minuscule things; Bligh's gorging of food while watching his men starve; Bligh's cutting of the crew's water rations to water the breadfruit trees; and general abuse; and it eventually compels Fletcher Christian to utter one of my favorite lines from the film, "We'll be men again if we hang for it!!" and lead a mutiny to take command of the ship.

The second question is who should men answer to? All the Bounty's crew answered to their superior officers; the highest of which was Captain Bligh. Yet all men of The United Kingdom's Royal Navy answer to the crown; to King George III. Finally; all men and women must live with themselves and answer to their own morals; and ultimately answer to almighty God. I find it intriguing that while Fletcher Christian looses loyalty to Captain Bligh; he never looses his loyalty to the second two.

My first question was should Christian have taken the ship? My second question was who do men answer to? The second question answers the first one. Christian saw Captain Bligh as unfit to run one of his majesty's vessels and as a detriment to the rights of man. Christian didn't want to take command of the Bounty; but he felt he had to; and when the men wanted to whip and kill Captain Bligh after taking the ship Christian stepped in and said no. That would have been just as bad as Captain Bligh; the reason why they took the ship was to prevent that. Christian never looses sight of his own morals he runs the ship with integrity. As Midshipman Byam stated in his trial back in England; Christian is one of the finest, most honorable men around; and he has judged himself more than any court ever will.

One of the things that haunts me is that when the Bounty set sail from Portsmouth, England in 1787; none of the people aboard could have known what would happen and just how much each of their lives would change. Some would be dead; the men loyal to Bligh would go through an ordeal challenging their survival that would forever stay with them; and the mutineers of course can never go back to England; for they would be hung. They all had lives back in England. They all had homes, families, and statuses in society. Yet the moment each man decided to participate in the mutiny; they may have gained their liberty; but they lost everything about their former lives. No doubt for the rest of their days Christian and the rest of his men on Pitcairn thought about home and loved ones they will never see again. Surely every one of them, Christian included, went over and over in their heads the events and how they reacted to them and weighed the consequences of them.

One other striking thing was one character played by Eddie Quillan. He plays a sailor who, at the movie's inception, is hesitant to go on the voyage because of his wife and newborn baby boy. While the mutineers are hiding out on Tahiti; he is taken aback upon seeing the young child of one of the natives. After Bligh comes chasing them in the Pandora; he decides not to follow Christian and his men; but rather to risk the gallows and go aboard the Pandora; for he would rather die than not see his wife and son again. Upon returning to England; he is allowed to visit his wife and son while imprisoned.

After the mutiny; Bligh is a man possessed. Perhaps his grand desire to take revenge and capture Christian is fuel enough to guide the small, overcrowded boat he is cast adrift in to safe harbor with little food. Later when leading the Pandora; his quest takes precedent over all other orders and missions; as he wrecks the ship and endangers the lives of everyone aboard. Fletcher Christian is not a murderer; but it can be said that Bligh is. The court may convict certain crewmen as mutineers; and the history books will note it as such; but Bligh is the biggest criminal of all in this film. The movie left me wondering how much Bligh, if at all, changed the way he teats is subordinates and when he will get his comeuppance.

Back in England; Midshipman Byam is found guilty of mutiny and sentenced to death by hanging; even though he had no part in the mutiny (he wanted to join Bligh on the boat but Christian wouldn't allow him, ruling there was no room). The court convinces King George III to sign a pardon for him; for they believe he had no part in the mutiny. Byam continues an esteemed naval career.

The Bounty never completed its mission; the breadfruit trees never got to the West Indies; I don't believe that Chief Hitihiti's gift ever got to King George III; and I don't believe the dictionary Midshipman Byam wrote ever got to England. Yet, the Bounty accomplished a mission much greater. The enlisted men made it clear what the limitations of what they could tolerate were; and the way officers treat their men was altered as such. A lesson was learned from the events by many people for all time.

Both Donald Crisp and Jimmy Cagney play crewmen aboard the Bounty.

My favorite part in the film takes place just after Bligh is cast adrift in the small boat shortly after the mutiny. From the boat a determined Captain Bligh yells, "Sending me to my doom, eh? Well your wrong, Christian!! I'll take this boat as she floats to England if I must! I'll live to see you, all of you, HANGING from the highest yardarm in the British fleet!!" It was Charles Laughton at his best.

Mutiny On the Bounty won Best Picture in 1935.

I give this movie an 8 out of 10.

Even though I love Charles Laughton's acting; I actually prefer the version Bounty (1984) with Anthony Hopkins as Bligh.

The best version...great performance by Laughton.

4 stars

The events took place in 1787-1789 but it would be more than a century before the account was published by authors Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall who collaborated to assemble the almost forgotten story for publication using maritime records and older notes written by John Barrows in 1831. In fact, the preliminary outline for the novel was written by the two on Tahiti; where they found refuge after the first world war and could concentrate unhindered. And descendants of the lost crew on the island relayed the legends as past down to them. The first edition was finally published in October 1932 as part of a trilogy ...

Shortly thereafter, MGM Studios began construction on two replicas of the HMS Bounty to be used in this upcoming film. One perfectly detailed inside for interior filming and one similarly outfitted for exterior shooting. The HMS Bounty was actually a rather insignificant frigate just over 90 feet from stern to bow and 24 feet broadside. It was not a completely outfitted war vessel and the extreme brutality by it's commander was entirely unwarranted but common in those days; and obviously intolerable to Christian. It was the historic nature of the rebellion by it's crew and the resulting reformation of seafaring command structure in the British fleet which ascends the name "HMS Bounty" to significance ...

Charles Laughton is brilliant as Captain Bligh, the stubbornly cruel naval commander who affords his own crew no quarter. He was perfectly cast. Franchot Tone is also outstanding in his role as Roger Byam who is the first-person narrator of the trilogy in the books. Gable is also excellent as is the whole supporting group. All three leads were nominated for Oscars. A great production on all levels and one of the finest films made in the 1930s. Directed by Frank Lloyd ...

Excellent write-up Kondor. I enjoyed reading that. I haven't watched this in some time but easily remember how great it was. I honestly don't recall seeing James Cagney in the movie. I seem to have missed him. Strange. Stranger still, it must have a bit role somewhere ...

If you like this type of film, check out "Captain Blood" someday; made the same year ... As for "Bounty", I haven't seen either redux ...

uh ... lotsa stars ... :P

Yes Jimmy Cagney just played an extra aboard the ship. I didn't even know he was there until I read it somewhere. Another interesting note is that in the movie; Christian and Byam were at odds over the mutiny; but in real life; Clark Gable and Franchot Tone were at odds over Joan Crawford! :D She had recently divorced Douglass Fairbanks Jr..

Thank you for the compliments; precoder.

Hey; doesn't this emicon look like Captain Bligh? :pirate:

:pirate:

^ You can actually feel some of the tension between them in "Dancing Lady" ...
After "Sadie McKee" it was a done deal. Joan and Clark had their weekends tho ... :wub:

I adore both versions of "Mutiny On The Bounty", to me they are both separate entities...Two completely different films The black and white version from MGM in 1935 with its American accented {?} Clark Gable has a charm of its own that I would not want changing in any way... And then the 1962 Technicolor version with all those vibrant colours and the massive ocean of blue.. and beautiful sky of blue, and the obscure 'fops' accent from Marlon Brando... and the stunning locatin photography... Mmmmmmm I just love both of them the same really... I think Charles Laughton made the best Captian Bligh... He always played the Baddy,, remember him in "The Barratts Of Wimpole Street"?? God he made my bloody turn to ice in that one, the way he treated poor old Norma Shearer...