The HMAS Bounty sails to Tahiti with the purpose of
collecting and transporting numerous breadfruit trees for transplantation in
the West Indies. The ship’s lower crew is made up of conscripts who sail under
the tyrannical order of Captain Bligh who starves and flogs them in an
ever-constant attempt to break their spirit. But when Bligh’s reign becomes all
too much, first officer Fletcher Christian leads the mistreated men in a mutiny
that not only sees the liberation of the lower order, but changes the politics
of the sea for good.
There is something about sea-faring movies done in black
and white that just make them irresistible! It doesn’t matter if it’s a
swashbuckling pirate adventure like Captain Blood or a tender and moving story of growth like Captains Courageous: done in black and white, these movies are
beautiful! Mutiny on the Bounty sits
well within the company of these aforementioned films, being a movie that
depicts all manner of things from politics, to tyranny, to good will toward
men, to conflicts of patriotism. It’s a captivating film that has a little bit
of everything in it.
The HMAS Bounty sails to Tahiti with the purpose of
collecting and transporting numerous breadfruit trees for transplantation in
the West Indies. The ship’s lower crew is made up of conscripts who sail under
the tyrannical order of Captain Bligh who starves and flogs them in an
ever-constant attempt to break their spirit. But when Bligh’s reign becomes all
too much, first officer Fletcher Christian leads the mistreated men in a mutiny
that not only sees the liberation of the lower order, but changes the politics
of the sea for good.
Aside from the soundtrack, which is wonderfully grandiose
and wholly satisfying, Mutiny on the
Bounty offers its audiences all manners of joys. The first is a wonderful
script that has all these little stories and vendettas culminating in this one
fantastic adventure. Amidst the stories of distress, mistreatment, and mutiny
are stories and notions of equality, conflict in loyalty between one’s friends
and one’s country, romance, and freedom. There is so much more to this than
just the story of a tyrannical captain who gets mutinied against!
Applause has
to go out to Clarke Gable and Charles Laughton who play the butting heads of
Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh beautifully. The friction that these two
have with each other is wondrous and you can tell, just by looking at them,
that things could get very tetchy very quickly. Gable with his obvious good
looks minus the moustache is the epitome of liberation and Laughton with his
large belly and bee-strung lips is the last word in pompousness. The two play
off each other beautifully.
Starring Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin, Eddie
Quillan, Dudley Digges, Donald Crisp, Henry Stephenson, Francis Lister, Spring
Byington, Movita, Mamo Clark, Bryon Russell, Percy Waram, and David Torrence, Mutiny on the Bounty is a great
sea-faring movie packed with action, mutiny (obviously), drama, romance, and
comedy. With its multiple and ever-jagged camera angles, brilliant
performances, and beautiful soundtrack, it’s a film that I quite enjoyed. I was
intrigued right up to the last shot.
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