No matter what you think of Marlon Brando, no matter that 1962’s magnificent version #4 of the true story of 1787’s mutiny of The H.M.S. Bounty was Oscar-nominated for six categories and won none, and no matter that I only found one professional review dedicated seriously to the movie online (and was sympathetic), I contend heartily that it is a much-neglected, mesmerizing piece of cinema any man, woman or child could also enjoy as I did (twice!).

More historically accurate than the former versions, even the 1935 Oscar winner for Best Picture (Mutiny on the Bounty), yet less so than the rather boring 1984 version (The Bounty), the Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front)-directed Mutiny on the Bounty distinguishes itself by demanding the answer to the question posed in the beginning confrontation between Captain William Bligh, extraordinarily captured by Trevor Howard (The Third Man), and First Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, most intriguingly brought to the helm by Marlon Brando (On The Waterfront). When Christian arrives at the launch in a fancy carriage, red cape and with two French courtesans, speaking as a British fop, Bligh warns him that high-borne status doesn’t relieve him of hard work and Christian replies with his hope that he can be both an officer and a gentleman.

Bligh hardly looks or acts impressed with the effeminate man and his talk. Christian already has begun mocking in his subtle way the business-like captain. The question posed: can Christian be both an officer and a gentleman under such an unfeeling bastard’s command? The stage has been set for the mutiny that develops a year later on their voyage to Jamaica.


The Story


Remember Max from The Sound of Music? Before that charming role the actor Richard Haydn played Brown, a royally-appointed botanist and our narrator with the charge of apprehending breadfruit from Tahiti, where the H.M.S. Bounty is headed, and then replanting it in Jamaica to cheaply feed the British slaves starving there. Unfortunately the plant has a dormant period beginning around October and so the Captain wants to arrive earlier than that.

They pull out at the end of December and immediately a quantity of cheese is found missing and two men, one of them passionately played by Richard Harris, come to blows, but Bligh takes care of the situation by flogging the Harris character, Mills, half to death. Flogging, “keyholing,” leaving a Midshipman friend of Christian’s up on the mast all night, cutting food and drink rations, throwing men in a dungeon in chains for weeks: these tortures, summarily explained by Bligh that he is at war with time or the sea or incompetent fools.

For about fifteen minutes we are treated to ferocious waves tossing the 91-foot Bounty as they attempt to cut time by the Horn, but must resort to sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. In Tahiti they are warmly greeted by the hundred or so natives and here it becomes hilarious many times.

The jolly island king’s daughter, Maimiti, a Cybill Shepherd-lookalike if I ever saw one, though with dark hair, seduces Christian with her hip-shaking dance and later he follows her, loses her, then finds her in some Tahitian flora. When all she wants to do is rub noses and he struggles to steal a kiss on her lips, I started smiling. When Bligh notices his boot sticking out and orders him to find his lust elsewhere than the king’s daughter and then later must command Christian to make love to that damned king’s daughter to retain the king’s good will, I was rolling with laughter. Not to be missed either is Bligh’s idiotic attempt at dancing the obligatory good will dance with that same girl!

After the death of the breadfruit that Brown digs up and pots, they are compelled to stay in paradise with beautiful women who worship fair skin for five months until the breadfruit blooms again, but Bligh never shared the crews’ pleasure in the delay and really shows it on their voyage to Jamaica in more frequent flogging and the other tortures mentioned earlier.

To Bligh’s credit, he does vacillate a few moments before deciding that water for the thousand-plus breadfruit plants aboard takes priority over water for his crew. Now you must rent this filabuster and watch how the mutinineers rise to the occasion, restock back in Tahiti and figure out where to live. Christian refuses to be made a murderer by Bligh, but the monster’s shadow never leaves him, as ominously predicted.


Final Comments


It’s true I haven’t watched any of the other versions of this adventurous tale, nor read the 1932 book by Charles Nordhoff and James Hall that this version is loosely based on. Still I can’t imagine being better entertained for just under three hours of stunning color cinematography by Robert Surtees (Ben-Hur, The Sting etc), rousing, full orchestral music by Bronislaw Kaper (The Brothers Karamazov) with an overture and such, and masterful screenwriting with biting dialogue by Charles Lederer (His Girl Friday). You might wonder that John McSweeney Jr.’s editing skills were poor because of the two-tape length, but he also was nominated for an Oscar.

Not to be left out, of course, is the acting, which was just riveting from the officers to the disgruntled crew. It’s a shock that the DVD has gone out of print. It well deserves to be viewed in all its glory as much as any of the other dramatic versions of the eighteenth-century incident. My only minor complaints are the fake-looking eyebrows on Maimiti and how well she picked up basic English, a little too much perhaps editing in a couple of places and that there’s no DVD.

I wish I could impress you with some of the memorable dialogue, but my memory wouldn’t do it justice. However, let me share these. When Bligh commands Christian to make love to that girl, Christian nonchalantly asks, “Is that an order, sir? Could I have it put in the log?” and after Bligh punishes the Midshipman for finding his walk funny, he tells Christian to “Let that be a warning. I am not a figure of fun” and Christian murmurs, “Indeed you are not, sir.”

There was no question in my mind as to whom was the gentleman, no longer a foppish one, I might add, who strove to be a good officer despite his mutiny. I predict the same for you upon watching it.

For more information on the lore and controversy of the H.M.S. Bounty, a book on Christian by a descendant and miscellaneous stuff, follow this link:

http://www.lareau.org/bounty.html

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS