Mutiny on the Bounty

Plot synopsis:
One night in Portsmouth, England in 1787, a press gang breaks into a local tavern and presses all of the men drinking there into naval service. One of the men inquires as to what ship they will sail on, and the press gang leader informs him that it is the HMS Bounty. Upon inquiring as to who the captain is, another of the men is told the captain is William Bligh (Charles Laughton), and attempts to escape, as Bligh is a brutal tyrant who routinely administers harsh punishment to officers and crew alike who lack discipline, cause any infraction on board the ship, or in any manner defy his authority. The Bounty leaves England several days later on a two-year voyage over the Pacific Ocean. Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), the ship's lieutenant, is a formidable yet compassionate man who disapproves of Bligh's treatment of the crew. Roger Byam (Franchot Tone) is an idealistic midshipman who is divided between his loyalty to Bligh, owing to his family's naval tradition, and his friendship with Christian.
During the voyage, the enmity between Christian and Bligh grows after Christian openly challenges Bligh's unjust practices aboard the ship. When the ship arrives at the island of Tahiti, where the crew acquires breadfruit plants to take home, Bligh punishes Christian by refusing to let him leave the ship during their stay. Byam, meanwhile, sets up residency on the island, living with the island chief, Hitihiti (William Bambridge), and his daughter, Tehani (Movita Castaneda), and compiling an English dictionary of the Tahitian language. Hitihiti persuades Bligh to allow Christian a day pass on the island. Bligh agrees but quickly repeals the pass out of spite. Christian disregards the order and spends his one-day off the ship romancing a Tahitian girl, Maimiti (Mamo Clark). Christian promises her he will be back someday.
After leaving Tahiti the crew begins to talk of mutiny after Bligh's harsh discipline leads to the death of the ship's beloved surgeon, Mr. Bacchus (Dudley Digges), and Bligh cuts water rationing to the crew in favor of providing water for the breadfruit plants. Christian, although initially opposing the idea, decides he can no longer tolerate Bligh's brutality when he witnesses crew members shackled in iron chains, and he approves the mutiny. The crew raids the weapons cabinet and seizes the ship. Bligh and his loyalists are cast into a boat and set adrift at sea with a map and rations to ensure their survival. Due to Bligh's steady leadership, they are able to find their way back to land.
Meanwhile, Christian orders that Bounty return to Tahiti. Byam, who was in his cabin during the mutiny, disapproves of what Christian has done and decides the two can no longer be friends. Months later, Byam is married to Tehani and Christian has married Maimiti and has a child with her, while the rest of the crew are enjoying their freedom on the island. After a long estrangement, Byam and Christian reconcile their friendship. However, when the British ship HMS Pandora is spotted approaching, Byam and Christian decide they must part ways. Byam and several crew members remain on the island for the ship to take them back to England, while Christian leads the remaining crew, his wife and several Tahitian men and women back on board Bounty in search of a new island on which to seek refuge.
Byam boards the Pandora and, much to his surprise, discovers that Bligh is the captain. Bligh, who suspects that Byam was complicit in the mutiny, has him imprisoned for the remainder of the journey across the sea. Back in England Byam is court-martialed and found guilty of mutiny. Before the court condemns him, Byam speaks of Bligh's cruel, dehumanising conduct aboard Bounty. Due to the intervention of his friend Sir Joseph Banks (Henry Stephenson) and Lord Hood (David Torrence), Byam is pardoned by King George III and allowed to resume his naval career at sea.
Meanwhile, Christian has found Pitcairn, an uninhabited yet sustainable island that he believes will provide adequate refuge from the reach of the Royal Navy. After Bounty crashes on the rocks, Christian orders her to be burned.

Tags: action

Review:
Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard, he was initially reluctant to play , because he felt he was far too old for the part, the real life Lieutenant William Bligh was 33 when the Bounty set sail) will do anything to get there as fast as possible , utilizing any means to keep up a rigid discipline .
This account of the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian against captain Bligh is highlighted thanks to glamorous cinematography by Robert Surtees , as the last Ultra Panavision film to be shown in the extremely wide screen.
Interesting portrayal of Fletcher Christian's Marlon Brando and Bligh's Trevor Howard who bears little relation to Mel Gibson-Anthony Hopkins version .
Other renditions based on these historical events are the followings : Old and black and white take on titled 'Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)' by Frank LLoyd with Clark Gable , Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone and revisionist storytelling titled ¨Bounty¨ by Roger Donalson with Mel Gibson , Anthony Hopkins , Bernard Fox and Liam Neeson .The real deeds are the following : In 1787, Captain Bligh was chose to command HMS Bounty on a voyage to Tahiti, where he was to collect breadfruit trees with the object of introducing them to the Caribbean .
This also is a re-make from a 1935 version of the famous storyI liked this 'Mutiny On The Bounty' better than the critics did, who got annoyed at Marlon Brando's British accent.
Brando gave a solid performance.Trevor Howard was convincing as the sadistic "Captain Bligh" and Tarita was fair as the love interest "Maimiti." The cinematography might have been the best feature of the film, a definite movie for widescreen as a lot of these mid '50s-to-mid '60s films were.
Sumptuous production, good screenplay, excellent performances, beautiful cinematography and a majestic musical score.Story follows the crew of British Naval vessel 'The Bounty' on its mission to transport 'bread fruit' plants from Tahiti to Jamaica, as food for the slaves there.
Not only boasting a wide variety of colourful locations, from breathtaking, sun-drenched sea vistas to exotic beachscapes on Tahiti, it also includes some great actors, such as Marlon Brando, Richard Harris and Trevor Howard as the despicable captain Bligh.
The real Fletcher Christian was only 22 years of age when the Bounty sailed and he was a renowned ladies man.Trevor Howard's performance of the rogue Captain William Bligh is masterful, even if he was another over-aged star to take on the role (The real Bligh was only 33 years old).
The 1962 version of 'Mutiny On The Bounty' is not a testament on the problems of remaking of a classic adventure movie but of the real fact that critics really do get their facts wrong..
Nominated for seven academy awards [1962] including Best Picture, "this spectacular movie of grandeur and intimacy, sex and humor, cruelty and nobility" (The Hollywood Reporter) stars two-time best actor winner Marlon Brando (The Godfather, On the Waterfront) as Fletcher Christian, a high-born English aristocrat and elegant gentleman turned Naval Lieutenant and able first officer, whose honor is inseparable from his humanity.
"Mr. Brando's steel-spring vigor when the patience of Fletcher Christian snaps and he whiplashes into the fateful incitement of mutiny is truly electrifying." (New York Times)Complete with furious storms at sea, exotic native ceremonies, magnificent South Pacific island scenery, 6000 Tahitian extras, and a larger-than-life performance by the legendary Brando, this remake of the 1935 original Mutiny on the Bounty is one of the most exciting and visually astonishing adventures ever made.
The movie potrays the two key characters in the story, Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard), and Fletcher Christian (Marlon Brando), as real men, and not like the cardboard cutouts as was the case in the 1935 version.Howard's Bligh is brilliant, and not at all like the prancing cartoonish Charles Laughton version in '35.
And when it comes to Christian, the protaganist of the mutiny, Brando makes an admirable effort to capture the essence of the the fopish and aristocratic character as portrayed in the Nordhoff and Hall book upon which both MGM "Bountys" are based.
Richard Harris as crew member Mills, is another solid portrayal in the 1962 movie.Don't get me wrong, the 1935 movie's fun, but the 1962 movie is infinitely more impressive in all respects, especially its use of a real ship made just for the film, the awesome "shots" of life at see in the late 1700s, and of course the spectacular location filming in Tahiti.1935's Mutiny on the Bounty, was a fine film in its day, but it doesn't stand the test of time, 1962's film stands that test.
I'm sure Brando was peevish and nettlesome at times during production, Trevor Howard says as much in his biography, but to blame Brando for the film's bloated final cost and its lack of epic earnings is ludicrous.I love 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty, it should have been better, but its still one beautiful movie.
I strongly recommend it, to me calling Brando and Howard's Mutiny on the Bounty of 1962, a minor film, as one IMDb movie fan recently did, is blasphemous.
Despite MGM's poor efforts 41-years ago, movie fans today can scoop up the old lion's fumble and enjoy this exciting high seas adventure/love story.It took a better book, Richard Hough's "Mr. Bligh and Mr. Christian," to produce a better movie rendition of the true life Mutiny on the Bounty.
The story is the well-known one of how a British naval crew, while on a voyage to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies, revolt against their brutal and sadistic captain under the leadership of the humane first mate and sail off to make a new life for themselves with their Tahitian sweethearts on the remote Pacific island of Pitcairn.
Historical evidence, in fact, suggests that Captain William Bligh was not particularly brutal or sadistic, but this film, like its 1935 predecessor, is a film based upon legend rather than upon strict historical fact.The late 18th century is often described as the Age of Revolution, and as the Bounty mutiny took place in 1787, midway between the American and French Revolutions, there would have been an obvious temptation to play Bligh as a decadent aristocrat and Fletcher Christian, the leader of the rebels, as a man of the people, standing up for the Rights of the Common Man. The temptation to portray Christian as a proto-Jacobin is, however, firmly resisted.
I hardly figured that the likes of a slurring Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian and a cast of personally unfamiliar characters("who was Trevor Howard",I asked myself) could top the swashbuckling Clark Gable as Christian and the ripping story that the cast of the 1935 gem pulled off.
Based on a true event, Marlon Brando plays one of his best roles as Fletcher Christian - the man who risked all he had and led the mutiny against the abusive and vicious captain Bligh (an extremely nasty Trevor Howard).
The historical re-enactment of this eventful maritime voyage is superbly picturised, thereby rendering first hand knowledge of the colonial era navigational exploits.Marlon Brando as Christian Fletcher has portrayed a perfect and robust characterization of a daring and humane British officer who would not give up or back out from his moral uprightness even in the face of animalish cruelty being inflicted on the seamen by the wretched captain of the ship.
Brando is great as a foppish Fletcher Christian until Mutiny time when he becomes manly and wrestles power from Trevor Howard.
The performances are all very good, notably Brando's Fletcher Christian, and Howard's Bligh.
Marlon Brando does a splendid job of acting that, blended with all the other actors fine performances, Tarita, Trevor, Richard, Percy etc, makes this movie an unforgettable experience.We who love this film wish for it's release soon on DVD.
Now that I have finally, on TV, seen Mr. Brando attempt to play Fletcher Christian (very unsuccessfully, with a miserable English accent) I can say in all honesty that the 1935 version with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton is a thousand per cent better...better script, better acting, better direction.
Remarkable Director Lewis Milestone's last film was the Marlon Brando / Terence Howard version of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Perhaps the best of the scores of films based on the true story of this 18th century event, Milestone's epic sea adventure features phenomenal cinematography, a great script and a unique dedication to actual historical naval etiquette - despite a lack of dedication to the facts behind the actual historical mutiny.
Critics have taken Brando to task for his "bizarre interpretation of Fletcher Christian" and fellow amateur film reviewers have called his performance one-dimensional, but such comments make we wonder if we saw the same movie.
This film contains standout performances by Brando and by Trevor Howard as the captain who reveled in "the whistle of the whip." Howard is so vivid he makes you fear both him and the awful lash with which he splatters his crew's blood.The revisionist film "The Bounty" may present a more historically accurate version of Bligh and Christian, but it's hard to beat Brando's film for sheer entertainment.
Anyone who calls Brando's portrayal of Fletcher Christian "one-dimensional" has missed what he reveals here: 1) his colorful turn as lavishly-festooned dandy who thinks Bligh is someone to be trifled with via verbal sparring 2) his growing struggle with his conscience, as he weighs how much human misery and death can be tolerated before he gives in to what he terms "honor" 3) the crushing weight he bears after the mutiny, not only from his new responsibility as captain and doomed fugitive who will surely be hunted down by the British navy, but as British officer and gentleman who's made an incredible sacrifice by giving up his rank and life of privilege.Brando seamlessly and beautifully manages the character transition from fop to martyr for the cause of humanity.
Hi Gloss Gas. Marlon Brando being bombastic, Trevor Howard stern & unrelenting, a cast determined to enjoy Tahiti, this film represents a mutiny against Hollywood.
Marlon Brando (Fletcher Christian) is quite comic and tragic in turns, and Trevor Howard (William Bligh) is a determined man who's dark side is revealed by his over commitment to his mission.
It never manages to get started again, and by the time the mutiny itself actually happens somewhere around the 2:30 mark, I was hoping I could be left behind with Captain Bligh so that I wouldn't have to endure another 30 minutes of finding out what happened to the Bounty, which I had long ago stopped caring about."Mutiny on the Bounty" received seven Oscar nominations in 1962, but lost all of them, five to "Lawrence of Arabia." Its nominations included Best Picture, Best Color Art Direction, Best Color Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (only heard during the entr'acte), and Best Special Effects, for some meager sea storm scenes and another toward the end when the Bounty goes up in flames.Grade: C.
In terms of performances, despite the accent, Marlon Brando is quite handsome and dashing as Fletcher Christian, while Trevor Howard acquits himself well as the sadistic Captain Bligh and Richard Harris, Tarita and Richard Haydn give able support.
One of the issues is that it was being compared to the 1935 version with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable; another was that stories of Brando's difficult behavior while filming were followed by filmgoers seeing his unconventional portrayal of Fletcher Christian.
It's also a little unbelievable in its depiction of the love Christian had for Princess Maimiti (played by Tarita Teriipaia), but the gist is accurate, and it's a fascinating story.Trevor Howard turns in a fantastic performance as Bligh, and while Brando's foppish and almost effeminate Fletcher Christian had me scratching my head in the beginning, it really grew on me, and he's strong as well.
It's a shame they took this liberty to set up further dramatic scenes, when the real story itself is so captivating.The film was also of interest to me because as the excellent documentary "Listen To Me Marlon" explains, it marked the point at which Brando started to prioritize enjoying life - realizing that acting, even great acting - was a means, not an end for him.
27 years after the classic precursor, a new "Mutiny of the Bounty" movie was to be directed by the same MGM studio, becoming one of the most expensive movies of its time if you consider the budget it took to a/ build a size-by-size replica of the iconic ship (and even a smaller one for some particular shots), b/ shoot the film in Tahiti, in the very spot where the ship set ashore less than two centuries earlier, and c/ get Marlon Brando to play Fletcher Christian.
It was this casting that undermined the film's release and reception, which makes "Mutiny of the Bounty" an authentic case of failure that shouldn't have happened.This is a film that benefited from the long experience of director Lewis Milestone who made the groundbreaking "All Quiet on the Western Front", it benefited from Trevor Howard who as Captain Bligh, though older than his character, managed to make him tough, rough and far above the cartoon-version (though enjoyable) Charles Laughton played in 1935.
I'm a fan of Brando, "The Godfather" is my all-time favorite movie and "Bounty" was my first Brando movie but God, I never realized how an actor could be unfit for a role, vocally and visually, until I saw this film again, as an adult.The problem comes right from the start when we're introduced to his Christian, he's dressed like a dandy, coming with two women and an irritatingly snobbish printed on his face.
This debonair and seductive attitude worked perfectly in his later film "The Ugly American" but in "Mutiny on the Bounty", it was the most puzzling angle because it made Christian the least likely man to care for Bligh's tyrannical tantrums.
The basics are here - the voyage of the Bounty to Tahiti to collect breadfruit, the mutiny led by Christian and the escape of the mutineers to Pitcairn Island.Visually, this movie is stunning, which is probably due at least in part to the fact that unlike the '35 version it's obviously filmed in colour, which gives an entirely different feel to the scenes shot in Tahiti especially.
The scene between Howard and Brando where Bligh is trying to order Christian to return to Tahiti to make love to the Tahitian king's daughter (because the Tahitians were insulted that Bligh ordered an end to their encounter when he found them on the island, perceiving that as an insulting suggestion that Englishmen were too good for Tahitian women) - with Christian feigning ignorance of what he meant, forcing Bligh to finally give him a direct order to do the deed, so to speak - had me smiling.This movie was too long.
I don't think that this films cast are genuinely bad actors, I just had conflicting options with them, a lot of them didn't seem to know what they were talking about or even truly understood their characters, and others didn't suit their roles one bit, I think Marlon Brando is one of the greatest actors who ever lived and he tries his very best with Fletcher Christian, but there's no taking away from the fact that this part wasn't right for him, he butchers the accent and he really isn't right for film epics like this, he's better off with deep, dialogue based dramas, although his scenes with Tarita Teriipia are probably the best parts as they were genuinely in love at the time.
Nitpickers grumble about historical inaccuracies, but the entire gist of the story is accurate: Fletcher was born to an aristocratic family who were losing their wealth (why do you think he takes the mission?); two cheeses did come up missing and Bligh was the culprit who unjustly blamed others; they did fail to sail around Cape Horn after only going 85 miles in a month; they did spend five months on Tahiti and Fletcher did fall for Maimiti; after the mutiny Fletcher and his crew did end up stranded on Pitcairn where they set The Bounty ablaze; and Christian did die on the island, although in real life he lived for another three and a half years before being killed by one of the Tahitian men in a conflict that broke out.However, Christian was only 23 years old when the mission started, whereas Brando was about 37; Bligh knew Fletcher and actually sailed with him twice before, whereas the film shows Bligh meeting Christian for the first time; the mutiny itself took place at night not in the daytime over a ladle of water; and, lastly, Fletcher didn't die due to wounds received from his burning ship.WHAT WORKS: Brando as Christian is captivating, and Trevor Howard as Bligh.
Christian's aristocratic remove is challenged by his growing concern regarding the Bounty's cruel captain, William Bligh (Trevor Howard), not to mention a love interest he discovers in Tahiti (Tarita).A sumptuous epic from the era of the Hollywood roadshow, "Mutiny" boasts some of the best photography of the 1960s courtesy of the masterful Robert Surtees and a rousing score by the less-remembered Bronislau Kaper.
This lavish remake, starring Marlon Brando as the mutineer Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as the cruel Captain Bligh, is not Oscar worthy,it is nowhere nearly as good as 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", but it is still an impressive, entertaining film.
Great classic with fantastic Technicolor visuals and superb performances by Marlon Brando as 1st Lt. Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as Captain Bligh - the story should be well known, in short: a two headstrong egos' clash.
Visually, with its fine cinematography and excellent costumes, this version of Mutiny on the Bounty is a pleasure to watch, but in some ways it's rather disappointing.Trevor Howard gives a fine performance as Captain Bligh, but his heartlessness is exaggerated.
Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard star in this exploding epic as Fletcher Christian and William Bligh.