Mutiny on the Bounty | film by Milestone [1962] | Britannica.com Mutiny on the Bounty Trevor Howard Mutiny on the Bounty, American epic film, released in 1962, that recounts the 1789 mutiny on the HMS Bounty . The movie, a lavish remake of the 1935 classic , became perhaps best known for its production difficulties, many of which centred on star Marlon Brando . Trevor Howard (left) and Marlon Brando (centre) in Mutiny on the Bounty … © 1962 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. The story begins in Portsmouth, England, in 1787. The Bounty, under the command of Capt. William Bligh (played by Trevor Howard ), sets sail on an arduous voyage to Tahiti to bring back precious supplies of breadfruit . Bligh’s second in command is Fletcher Christian (Brando), an aristocratic dilettante who immediately offends the stern Bligh with his mannerisms and levity. During the journey, Christian becomes increasingly appalled by Bligh’s disregard for, and cruel treatment of, his crew.

Nevertheless, when the ship finally reaches Tahiti, even Bligh cannot keep his men from indulging in the island’s pleasures. By the time the Bounty is ready to sail back to England, the men are in a foul mood that only worsens when, facing a shortage of water, Bligh allocates most of the remaining supply to the breadfruit. After a violent confrontation with Bligh, Christian mutinies. He and his supporters take control of the ship and set Bligh and his followers adrift in a longboat. Incredibly, Bligh guides his men to safety and immediately sets out to bring the mutineers to justice. Christian and the remaining crew return to Tahiti for supplies, and they then take refuge on a remote island. However, the crew becomes alarmed by Christian’s suggestion that they return to England to stand trial. They decide to burn the Bounty, but in doing so, Christian becomes trapped in the wreck and dies on the seeming island paradise he had come to disdain. Tarita and Marlon Brando in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), directed by Lewis … © 1962 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

The Incredibles Mutiny on the Bounty proved to be an out-of-control production, and its failure at the box office nearly bankrupted Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . Much of the blame fell on Brando, whose uncooperative and difficult behaviour delayed filming and led to cost overruns. Director Lewis Milestone , with whom Brando frequently clashed, called the movie “The Mutiny of Marlon Brando.” When finally released, the film was largely dismissed by critics, who compared it unfavourably to the 1935 version starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton . However, the 1962 movie found an appreciative audience in later years. Although Brando’s portrayal of Christian as an elitist fop was much criticized, some claim it is more daring and effective than Gable’s Americanized portrayal. In addition, Howard was compelling as Bligh, and the cinematography was as captivating as the score. Production notes and credits Mutiny on the Bounty - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) The American epic film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) recounts the 1789 historic mutiny on the HMS Bounty.

The movie was a lavish remake of the 1935 film classic, which starred Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. The 1935 film was based on the Bounty novels (see Mutiny on the Bounty) by American authors Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty faced exorbitant production costs and was a failure at the box office, leaving the studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, nearly bankrupt. Nevertheless, the film earned seven Academy Award nominations, including one for best picture. Article Contributors Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) | Movie Review [ m u t i n y o n t h e b o u n t y : m o v i e r e v i e w ] Classification: M U T I N Y If Mr Brando would care to tell me beforehand what he's planning to say, then I might know when he's going to finish! - Trevor Howard on location during the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) BETWEEN The Men (1950) and The Godfather (1972) Marlon Brando was arguably the brightest and most original star in movies.

He put method acting on the map and gave it respectability. Trevor Howard 's involvement with Brando began one day when the director Carol Reed telephoned him to ask if playing Captain Bligh in a remake of Mutiny on the Bounty appealed to him and what changes he would make to Charles Laughton 's 1935 portrayal. Howard, who knew Laughton well, thought that Hollywood had ruined the story of the mutiny by trying to depict the conflict between Bligh and Fletcher Christian, the mutineers' leader, as a simple black-and-white struggle between good and evil. Bligh had been less evil than portrayed by Laughton, and the real-life Christian, played by Clark Gable , had been no saint. Howard felt that there was sufficient meat in the true story to make fictionalization unnecessary. It could be dramatized for the screen without jettisoning the facts. Although he and Reed had no previous discussion of the subject, their views were similar. Howard thought nothing more about the conversation until Reed phoned him two months later with the news that the green light had been given, that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would produce it and that the role of Captain Bligh was his.

Howard was told that he was everyone's first choice for the role, including Brando's, who would play Christian. Howard accepted immediately, elated at the thought of working again with Reed and for the first time with Brando. What he did not know at the time was that, in order to attract the moody star, MGM had caved in to several of Brando's demands which would stretch relationships beyond breaking-point and send the production costs spiralling. Desperate to repeat the success of its remake of Ben Hur (1959), which scooped up eight Oscars, the studio decided to film the exteriors in Tahiti where the Bounty collected its cargo and where the sun and the sand and the tropical vegetation would provide an authentic backdrop. The cast and crew thus assembled on Tahiti in readiness for the arrival of a full-size replica of the Bounty, built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, at a cost of $700,000. Work began on the three-masted ship in February 1960. It was as faithful a replica of the original as circumstances would allow, although additional space was needed for securing and moving the cameras during filming.

The total height from the deck to the top of the mainmast was 103 feet. More than 10,000 square feet of canvas was used for the sails. Severe weather delayed the delivery of large quantities of oak from New Jersey which were needed for the planking. Careful planning failed to avert costly delays and disappointments. From the beginning, one disaster followed another. The design modifications and extra weight (of a diesel engine, camera mounts and so on) seriously affected the buoyancy and steerability of the ship, which meant that it not only took longer than planned to reach the South Seas from Nova Scotia via the Panama Canal but that it almost capsized several times and caught fire twice during the 7,327-mile voyage. It finally reached Tahiti on 4 December 1960, two months after the film's planned starting date. Tahiti is the largest of a group of islands known as the Society Island group, which include Moorea and Bora Bora. Scenes were filmed on all three islands.

The total population of Tahiti is around fifty thousand, more than half of whom live in the only town of any size on the island, Papeete, which became headquarters for the unit. The interior of the island is rugged and beautiful, with lots of crags and peaks, palm trees and plunging waterfalls, but hardly any inhabitants. The bulk of the population hugs the coastline. The first scene that Reed filmed was the stone fishing sequence, in which hundreds of native women wade offshore and, beating the water with their hands, drive the fish towards their menfolk in canoes. Almost every inhabitant of the island appeared in the shot, each of whom was paid $10 a day. The eight hundred who used their canoes to catch the fish earned a further $ 10, and they were allowed to keep whatever they caught. The scene depicting the arrival of the Bounty at Matavaii Bay was filmed with more than six thousand Tahitians milling around on the sea and on the shoreline. These scenes were not only spectacular to watch; they recreated the original event with uncanny accuracy. The true story of the Bounty is well documented.

It set sail from Spithead in England on 23 December 1787 under orders to proceed to Otaheite (later renamed Tahiti) to collect breadfruit for transport to the West Indies. Early explorers such as Captain Cook had reported that breadfruit, the staple diet of the South Seas, produced strong, healthy islanders. Colonists in the British West Indies wanted an inexpensive, nourishing food for their African slaves, and they petitioned the King, George III, to have it introduced to the colonies. The Bounty, under Captain Bligh, was commissioned to transport a cargo of young breadfruit samples to Jamaica, where they were to be replanted, grown to full size and harvested. While passing through Endeavour Strait, off the island of Torfua, en route for Jamaica, the mutiny erupted. Its leader was Fletcher Christian. The trigger was Bligh's curtailment of drinking water for his crew, because the plants needed more of it than he had allowed for. There was only so much to share around, and if the choice was between saving the men or the cargo Bligh was under orders to safeguard the breadfruit first and foremost. Every drop of water had to be rationed.

Not surprisingly, the crew mutinied and seized control of the ship. Bligh and eighteen crew members who remained loyal to him were set adrift in an open boat no more than twenty-three feet long. They were expected not to survive. But forty-one days later, against overwhelming odds, they waded ashore at Timor in the Dutch East Indies, having rowed a distance of 3,618 miles with the loss of only one life. And that man had not been lost at sea. He had been killed by hostile natives on a small island after the boat had pulled up on the beach for an overnight rest. In an effort to keep their whereabouts secret from the Admiralty, Christian and his followers left Tahiti and sailed 1,300 miles southwards to the uninhabited island of Pitcairn, which is only two miles long and a mile wide. They burned the Bounty so that it could not be seen from a passing ship. The island became their home, and also their prison, since they had destroyed their only means of getting away from the island. It was a story that lent itself to numerous interpretations. Brando disagreed with the slant British screenwriter Eric Ambler had put on the story.

He wanted something 'more meaningful'. Ambler endured the star's moody criticisms for several weeks and then quit. With replacement writers the same arguments persisted, and while this was going on filming ground to a halt. Papeete became a transit camp for the hundred-strong disgruntled unit, although it was generally felt that being paid regularly for taking life easy was nothing to grumble about. Reed was wary of upsetting Brando unnecessarily, but he wanted the story told truthfully, and what emerged from Brando's daily tinkering with the script was a storyline that departed from the truth at several critical points. Reed was also annoyed at the ease with which Brando subverted the procession of screenwriters who displaced each other with clockwork precision. Charles Lederer, for example, incorporated all Brando's impromptu mutterings into the script, whether or not they made narrative sense. Mostly they did not. Between them they turned Bligh into a one-dimensional bad guy, a scowling ogre better suited to a B-movie.

The real-life Bligh was bull-headed and had a notorious bad temper, but he was not a sadistic megalomaniac, and the sailors under his command, while treated harshly, suffered no worse than others in naval service during the eighteenth century. When Reed pointed this out Brando went into one of his prolonged sulks, and the atmosphere between them which had begun so promisingly took an abrupt nose-dive. Howard and Richard Harris, who was playing a character called John Mills, promptly took Reed's side, and, gradually, a split emerged. It was not serious to begin with, but, as views became entrenched and professional pride entered the equation, the divisions widened. One faction comprised Brando, Lederer, the producer Aaron Rosenberg, a front office executive called J.J. Cohn and the cinematographer Bob Surtees. The rival group that formed behind Reed included most of the British and Irish actors on the film. Howard promptly emerged as their most articulate and respected spokesperson. He also had the most to lose among the British and Irish contingent if the film turned out to be a flop. While genuinely in awe of Brando's talent, this group were puzzled by his wilful conduct.

He had hijacked the production and appeared accountable to nobody. With a growing sense of helplessness Reed's supporters retreated to their favourite bar in Papeete, Quinn's, and briefly contemplated a mutiny of their own. Then, suddenly, a new problem swept in from the sea: heavy rain. Solid, unrelenting rain. In MGM's eagerness to get started, nobody had considered how bad the weather can be in the South Seas at the end of the year. Cloudbursts forced everyone to dash for cover, strong winds put the small boats out of action and, at times, almost toppled the replica of the Bounty where it rested, top-heavy, in shallow water. Illness was another delaying factor. One by one key members of the unit collapsed with dysentery and other debilitating tropical conditions. Finally, demoralized after four months of relative inactivity, and with the bills mounting at the rate of $50,000 a day, the studio was forced to switch production to Hollywood where the sound stages were equipped and waiting. Back in Hollywood Brando and Reed continued their disagreements.

Rumours that a vast amount of money had been squandered with barely anything to show for it caused shares in MGM to plunge several points. Panic and gloom engulfed Culver City. The press stopped believing it would be 'Ben Hur Part Two' and began calling it 'Cleopatra on Water'. Brando, of course, could not be sacked, but Reed had no safety-net. Before the director had unpacked his suitcase the knives were out for him. The head of production, Sol Siegel, accused Reed of mishandling the Tahitian shoot and insisted that every effort be made to catch up with the original schedule. The director agreed but could not give Siegel a completion date. Siegel lost his temper at Reed's refusal to provide the answers he wanted to hear. 'You have a hundred days to finish the job,' said Siegel flatly. Reed shook his head. 'I won't say "yes" because I know I can't do it in that time,' he said.

'One hundred and fifty days, maybe.' This statement fell on deafer ears than Reed's earlier plea to keep the story factual - a request that had Siegel on his feet shouting, 'Nobody goes to the movies to watch history! We have museums for that!' Siegel and MGM's vice-president Ray Klune decided that the only solution was to cut their losses, and, reluctantly, they told Reed that his services were no longer required. Honesty, bad weather and a star actor who would not behave had cost Reed his job. Howard and Richard Harris were angry when they heard the news. Harris groaned, 'We're in the hands of bloody philistines.' They wanted Siegel to reconsider. By then Siegel was sick of all of them. He told them: 'Gentlemen, before you say anything, I want you to understand one thing. A star is a star. Everyone else is expendable. Reed doesn't want the job, and I don't want him doing the job. Now what was it you wanted?' Howard later recalled, 'Carol's departure, for reasons that I quite understand, was a terrible shock.

Without him, they made a different film.' Earlier he had told Cecil Wilson of the Daily Mail: 'When Carol offered me the part, the idea was that we should bring out the good side of Bligh as well as the bad. We had talked this over. But the Americans thought that the public wouldn't be interested. They wanted as big a villain as Charles Laughton had been in the old picture. It's wrong to show a real person like Bligh in a false light.' But the studio was not interested in historical accuracy. It was desperate for a box-office smash hit. It really did seem to think it was making 'Ben Hur Part Two'. It was the same basic formula. Swap the chariots for a galleon and roll the cameras. Reed's replacement was Lewis Milestone, a veteran director who had made the granddaddy of all anti-war movies, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). Brando nodded through his appointment, because by then it scarcely mattered to him who picked up the reins after Reed.

He would film it the way that he wanted, and a director nearing seventy with the same recent track record as Greta Garbo - in that he hadn't made a film for thirty years - suited his plan perfectly. After several weeks in Hollywood, filming the departure of the Bounty from Spithead at the start of the voyage, Bligh recounting his misfortunes to the Admiralty and the subsequent court martial of the captured mutineers (which was cut in the final edit because Brando wanted the film to end with Christian's death), the unit returned to Tahiti on 22 April 1961 to restart location work in improved, although less than ideal weather conditions. Filming the mutiny on board the Bounty, when Christian and Bligh have their violent confrontation, took most of the month of June. Half of the cast and crew became seasick as the ship was battered by strong offshore winds. Howard later said that every evening, after he had returned to dry land, he continued to feel the ground heaving beneath his feet. 'And that was before I'd had a fucking drink!' he joked. Lewis Milestone was on a completely different wavelength to Brando.

While Carol Reed had been receptive to the star's constant revisions to the script, Milestone wanted none of it. He had no patience with method actors. He distrusted their preoccupation with meaning and motivation. The only meaning that an actor needed was in the script. Milestone expected them to learn it, perform it and not ask questions about it. But Brando was too sharp for him. Within days he had circumvented the veteran director and was giving the orders. Milestone battled on for a while, growing more and more exasperated, but the writing was on the wall or, in this case, on a fresh batch of script pages which Brando distributed each morning. Before long Milestone was pointedly omitted from the circulation list. Nobody was sure why Brando decided to play Christian as a laughable fop; but nobody had the authority to stop him. Brando's bizarre performance did not go down well with Harris. In the scene in which Christian slaps Mills, the sailor played by Harris, to show his opposition to the idea of a mutiny, Brando merely brushed Harris's face with the back of his hand. It was an effete, almost girlish slap.

Harris responded with a mock curtsy and waggled a limp wrist in the air. Everybody saw the joke except Brando. They tried the scene once more, and again Brando's blow was almost non-existent. Everybody waited to see how Harris would react. He did not fail them. He thrust his chin forward and said, 'Come on, big boy. Why don't you fucking kiss me and be done with it!' Brando stared at him, white with rage. The Irishman decided that he had had enough. He turned his back on Brando and marched off the set. The next day they returned to the scene, but despite further barracking from Harris Brando would not change the way that he landed the blow. When the shot was completed to his satisfaction he calmly walked off the set. Harris had to be restrained from going after him. According to Peter Manso, Harris told an American reporter that when he returned, three days later, Brando approached him and said: 'Dick, you shouldn't have done that. I'd like you to know this. I'm the star of this picture and you're opposing me.

Remember that, please.' Brando's insistence on multiple takes was a further irritation for the British actors, who were used to working much faster. In another scene with Harris, after a dozen or more takes Brando appeared suddenly to lose interest and walked away muttering, 'I don't know if it's going to work or not.' Harris was left standing with his mouth open, without any hint of an acknowledgement from Brando. The anger boiled up inside him again. 'Damn you! Look at me! Act! Who the hell do you think you are?' he shouted at the retreating star. Howard, less truculent than Harris but equally disenchanted, griped about his co-star's demands to rewrite everything just before a take. The rewriting, of course, was intended for everyone except Brando, who never took the trouble to learn lines because it drained energies which he preferred to disperse off the set. He had words chalked on large boards from which he read whenever he felt like it and ignored at other times. A dispassionate observer would deduce that Brando saw other actors' lines as merely convenient spaces for him to think up what he would say or do next.

Howard complained, 'You never know where the hell you are. You don't know for ten minutes what you're playing because the next scene contradicts it.' After one disagreement with him, Howard began to call him 'Mr Brando', partly to mock the fact that Brando had taken charge but also because of the continuous references made throughout the script to 'Mr Christian'. When Milestone tackled Howard for being slow to respond to Brando's lines, Howard's impatient roar echoed around the set. Milestone said: 'Trevor, I'm just trying to get to the root of the problem.' Howard pointed a baleful finger at Brando. 'There's your fucking problem,' he roared. 'If Mr Brando would care to tell me beforehand what he's planning to say, then I might know when he's going to finish!' Most of the time, though, he managed to keep a lid on his frustration. Sometimes he paid Brando back in his own currency. One stiflingly hot day a scene had been set up on the shoreline at Bora Bora showing the natives' welcome for the sailors off the Bounty. It was a massive scene, with thousands of extras spread around the beach and waiting in the shallow water.

Howard took his place in the baking sunshine, clad in a heavy ceremonial uniform and hat. Brando could be seen twenty or so yards along the beach, shaded by a palm tree, chatting with three Polynesian girls. Ridgeway ('Reggie') Callow, the assistant director, called everyone to order through a loud-hailer. Brando made no movement. He continued to talk to his lady friends. Once more Callow called out, 'Mr Brando, we're ready for you.' The amplified voice carried easily to where Brando stood, but again he pretended not to hear. Howard, meanwhile, continued to sweat under a hat which grew hotter by the minute. A further call to Brando got no response. Had there been water in Howard's headgear by this time he could have brewed himself a coffee. At the fourth invitation Brando broke off his conversation and strolled towards Howard as if he had all the time in the world. When he arrived at his marks, there was no sign of Howard. The British actor had disappeared and was cooling off, in more ways than one.

Callow put the loud-hailer to his lips again and announced, wearily, 'Mr Howard, if you wouldn't mind, we're ready for you . . .' As filming progressed, Harris learned that the most effective way to deal with Brando was not to be drawn into a confrontation with him. The star seemed to relish confrontation, which from his position of absolute authority was a form of bullying. The simplest way to turn the tables on him was to ignore him. If you didn't react, there was little he could do. On one occasion Brando moved the marks where Harris, an onlooker during a tense scene on deck, was supposed to be standing. Three times the cameras began turning, and three times Brando halted them to move the Irishman to a fresh spot. But Harris had learned his lesson well. He refused to be provoked into the angry response Brando expected. Taking his latest position, Harris turned to the other actors and said with a tolerant smile, 'Forget your grand ideas, lads. We're just cabbages in this man's cabbage patch.' But the star ultimately got his revenge. In a scene before the mutiny Mills accompanies another crew member to the Captain's cabin to spell out their grievances.

In his cabin Christian overhears their conversation. As written, the scene belonged to Howard and Harris. Brando had no lines. He had nothing to do except lie back and look thoughtful. But expecting Brando not to steal a scene is like expecting the Pope to change the Vatican into a five-star hotel. When the camera picks him up he is dressed in a silk night-gown and matching night-cap, with a huge clay pipe clenched between his teeth. While the audience wonders why suddenly he looks like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and something out of a mail order catalogue, they miss the explanation as to why the mutiny is about to erupt. Whether Brando was playing power politics, relieving boredom or just being plain cussed is anybody's guess. But it demonstrated again what a power he was in the industry. Few other actors could hijack a key scene, cynically drain its dramatic potential and knock a hole in its narrative structure by just lying back and looking silly. The film was completed during October 1961. Clifton College had taught Howard that grievances should be left behind on the playing field, but the goings-on in Tahiti had affected him so profoundly that for once he lowered his guard while talking to American journalist Bill Davidson.

He called Brando 'unprofessional and absolutely ridiculous'. But his criticisms were mild compared with those of Lewis Milestone, who accused Brando of costing the production at least $6 million and months of extra work. He is quoted as having said: 'The movie industry has come to a sorry state when a thing like this can happen, but maybe the experience will bring the executives back to their senses. They deserve what they get when they give a ham actor, a petulant child, complete control over an expensive picture.' The article appeared in New York's Saturday Evening Post under the headline 'Six Million Dollars Down the Drain: The Mutiny of Marlon Brando'. The subhead read, 'A petulant superstar turns paradise into a movie maker's nightmare. How Brando broke the budget in a marathon remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.' It accused him of making outrageous demands, of colossal self-indulgence, of squandering vast sums of MGM revenue, of lacking professional judgement and of putting on forty pounds in weight between the start and completion of the film. Brando and Elizabeth Taylor, following the disastrously overpriced and delayed Cleopatra (1962), were accused of jeopardizing the future of the entire industry.

The article suggested that a suitable penalty might be to send them both to Tahiti to make 'epic pictures of each other'. If Tahiti would not tolerate them they should try 'nearby Bora Bora, an island whose very name onomatopoeically suggests our reaction to both stars'. Brando was outraged. He flew to New York to confront Joseph Vogel, head of MGM, who backed down and issued a statement on 25 June to the Screen Actors' Guild as well as to the press that Brando had cost the studio no extra money and that the production problems were not of his making. Instead, Vogel blamed the delay in receiving the Bounty replica, the weather, the script, the clashes between directors and cast, the abrupt departure of Carol Reed - everyone and everything, it seemed, had conspired to create the mess except Brando, whom he said had: 'performed throughout the entire production in a professional manner and to the fullest limit of his capabilities, resulting... in the finest portrayal of his brilliant career'. Handed this giant tub of whitewash, Brando promptly filed a libel suit against the Saturday Evening Post, demanding $4 million in general and special damages and $1 million in exemplary and punitive damages.

Howard did not escape his wrath either. Brando wrote him a personal letter describing his anger and sorrow at being labelled 'unprofessional' by someone whom he had trusted, a 'fellow-professional, of all people'. He also claimed that for him, too, making the Bounty film had been an exhausting and frustrating experience, although he did not expect anyone to believe him. Howard certainly did not. 'Damn fool,' he growled, two decades later. 'Kicks up an almighty bloody stink and then he's the first to complain about the smell!' Helen (Howard's wife) flew to Papeete for short holiday with Howard at the start of the production before the tempers became frayed. She told me, 'Driving from the airport I saw Hugh Griffith in a lurid-coloured shirt. He had gone native.' She recalled the Bounty moored in a picturesque bay and her meeting with Brando. 'Trevor introduced us,' she said. 'They were both in costume. I didn't recognize Brando at first. He was a lot shorter than I'd imagined.' Brando switched on the charm for her, and it worked. 'He was very nice to me,' she said.

'He wanted to learn about our aristocracy. He wanted to know how the peerage in Britain was created and who were allowed to wear coronets. He seemed fascinated by English protocol.' Helen was aware that there was a less charming side to Brando, too. She said: 'Trevor was sure that he got Carol [Reed] sacked. He always denied it, but Trevor wasn't convinced. Brando had the power to get rid of anybody. Even Trevor would have been sacked if Brando decided that he didn't want him, although as time went on it would have been more difficult to explain, after they had done a lot of scenes together.' When filming was completed, the replica ship was promptly dispatched on a world trip to publicize the forthcoming epic and also to allow audiences to see for themselves the craftsmanship that had gone into its construction. It sailed from Tahiti to California, to the port of San Pedro near Los Angeles, where thousands of spectators lined the wharves to greet it. Then it went northwards to Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia where, once again, the well-wishers turned out in their thousands.

At Seattle it became the centre of attention at the 1962 World Fair, and from there the route taking it to Britain and Europe was via San Francisco, the Panama Canal, New Orleans, Miami, then northwards up the Atlantic Seaboard and finally across the Atlantic itself. When the Bounty reached London Howard was the guest of honour at a reception hosted by MGM officials. The sight of the ship arriving between the elevated bascules of Tower Bridge dragged him back, momentarily, to the broken promises, personal slights and tetchy arguments of the previous year, but these were easy to set aside, because Howard had a fondness for the ship that dwarfed the bad memories. As it sailed past their vantage point, an MGM publicity officer noticed Howard looking a bit misty-eyed, savouring the moment. He approached the actor and said to him: 'Beautiful, isn't it?' Howard nodded. 'Yes, it is,' he said. 'And it was once mine!' After brief stop-overs in Europe the Bounty sailed back across the Atlantic, and its arrival in New York was scheduled to coincide with the joint premiere of the film in New York and California.

In Hollywood the opening at the Egyptian Theater was a star-studded occasion, with tickets nominally priced at $100, and many of the cast and their guests and other celebrities attended, including Brando and Howard. The New York showing, at Loew's State Theater, was comparatively low-key. Brando also put an appearance in at Loew's and probably wished that he hadn't. The audience did not know what to make of his performance and booed the film. The reviews displayed puzzlement and disappointment in almost equal measures. Critic after critic wondered what Brando was playing at. Bosely Crowther, the New York Timers respected critic, wrote: 'There is so much in this picture that is stirring and beautiful that it is painful to note and call attention to the fact that it also has faults. The most obvious of them is the way that Marlon Brando makes Fletcher Christian an eccentric . . . Brando puts tinsel and cold cream into Christian's oddly foppish frame.' Crowther added that Howard's Bligh was 'really quite a fearful and unassailable martinet'.

The New Republic's Stanley Kauffmann asked: 'Is it all a talented actor's revenge on a big studio for snaring him inside an empty, spectacular film? Only in a few moments of fury does life touch the part and Brando burn through. The rest is like an all-American half-back imitating Leslie Howard as the Scarlet Pimpernel.' In the year following its release Mutiny on the Bounty earned only about $10 million in the United States and the same amount abroad - a disastrous take given the fact that iit needed to make $60 million to recoup the $30 million it cost. As a result, in April 1963 MGM reported a drop of $3.39 per share on the stock market. A clean sweep of the executive offices followed. Studio head Sol Siegel, who had fired Carol Reed, lost his job along with Joseph Vogel, the chairman who had been browbeaten into praising Brando's part in the fiasco. Furious stockholders cited the letter of exoneration as sufficient reason for getting rid of him. Richard Harris's fears proved well founded - the film did nothing at all for his international career.

But at least he had the satisfaction of knowing that although Brando made money out of it, following closely on the heels of two other flops - The Fugitive Kind (1959) and One-Eyed Jacks � his damaged reputation would ensure that never again would he have the authority, or the freedom to misuse it, that he had enjoyed on Mutiny on the Bounty. Extract from the book: available: amazon.co.uk Oscars: 1962: Nominations: Best Picture, Color Cinematography, Color Art Direction, Editing, Original Music Score, Song (Follow Me), Special Effects Click here to buy posters!

<table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='300' height='300'><tr><td><A HREF=' target=_blank><img src="" width=300 height=300 border="0" access=regular></a></td></tr></table> <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='300' height='300'><tr><td><A HREF=' target=_blank><img src="" width=300 height=300 border="0" access=regular></a></td></tr></table> � 2013 by the appropriate owners of the included material <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='468' height='82'><tr><td><A HREF=' target=_blank><img src="" width=468 height=82 border="0" access=regular></a></td></tr></table> Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film) - Wikiquote Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film) From Wikiquote Directed by Lewis Milestone .

Written by Charles Lederer , based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall . The mightiest excitement that ever swept across the sea or the screen! taglines Contents 7 External links Captain William Bligh[ edit ] Now don't mistake me. I'm not advising cruelty or brutality with no purpose. My point is that cruelty with purpose is not cruelty - it's efficiency. Then a man will never disobey once he's watched his mate's backbone laid bare. He'll see the flesh jump, hear the whistle of the whip for the rest of his life. It is a matter of super-natural indifference to me, whether you contaminate the natives or the natives contaminate you. I have but one concern - our mission. Let any one of you provoke an incident which endangers it and I shall cause that man to curse his mother for giving him birth. Midshipmen - be a dull navy without them. Now get that slut off my ship. While our mission remains unfulfilled I'm not in any port, Mr Fryer, I'm in command - where you may find one day - it's always lonely. You see, command allows no intimacies.

You can hardly expect unquestioning obedience from last night's partner in a debauch. I'm not leaving you Mr Christian, not ever. Go to the dirtiest little corner of the world I'll be there, right behind you, with a rope in my hand. The King's navy will not rest until every mutineer is captured and executed. Wherever you go, wherever you hide a thousand ships will search you out. 1st Lt. Fletcher Christian[ edit ] We need only persuade the British people of something they already know - that inhumanity is its poorest servant. [to Captain Bligh] But I assure you, sir, that the execution of my duties is entirely unaffected by my private opinion of you. Others[ edit ] John Mills: There's no chance for people like us to go back to England, give Bligh a bad name and walk free men ourselves. And anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't got the sense that God gave geese. Court-martial Judge: The court considers it has obligation to add comment to its verdict. By the force of evidentiary conclusions you, Captain William Bligh, stand absolved of military misdeed.

Yet, officers of stainless record and seamen voluntarily all were moved to mutiny against you. Your methods, so far as this court can discern, show what we shall cautiously term an excess of zeal. We cannot condemn zeal. We cannot rebuke an officer who has administered discipline according to the articles of war but the articles are fallible, as any articles are bound to be. No code can cover all contingencies. We cannot put justice aboard our ships in books. Justice and decency are carried in the heart of the captain, or they be not aboard. It is for this reason that the Admiralty has always sought to appoint its officers from the ranks of gentlemen. The court regrets to note that the appointment of Captain William Bligh was, in that respect, a failure. Dialogue[ edit ] Fletcher Christian: I was just thinking, sir, that our little errand for groceries might wind up in a page of naval history if we succeed in negotiating The Horn in the dead of winter. Captain Bligh: Why shouldn't we succeed? Admiral Anderson did. Fletcher Christian: Yes, but of course he didn't choose to attempt it in a ninety-one-foot chamber pot.

In any event, his was the only ship to do it and I believe he lost fifty percent of his crew. Captain Bligh: I wonder why an alleged gentleman should give his first loyalty to ordinary seamen. Fletcher Christian: Instead of to other alleged gentlemen? Captain Bligh: Impertinence noted. It shall be logged. Do you care to enlarge the entry? Fletcher Christian: Yes, only with this observation, which I will report to the Admiralty in any case: in my years of service I have never met an officer who inflicted punishment upon men with such incredible relish. Sickening. Captain Bligh: Then go and be sick in your cabin, Mr Christian. I have never met a naval officer who was so proud of a weak stomach. Captain Bligh: In a civilised soceity, certain lewd intentions towards the female members of one's family would be regarded as a, well, as an insult. Do you follow me? Fletcher Christian: I think so, sir. Captain Bligh: But in Tahiti, the insult lies in the omission of those lewd intentions. Manners that would offend a dock-side harlot seem to be the only acceptable behaviour to King Hitihiti.

Captain Bligh: Mr Christian! Kindly give me an explanation.. Fletcher Christian: Williams is been drinking sea water sir.. I was giving him some fresh water..I'm afraid he'll die without it. Captain Bligh: You'll give no one water without my permission Mr. Christian! Take that ladle below! Fletcher Christian: Aye-aye sir.. [Christian gives water to Williams and Captain Bligh knocks his hand.. Mr. Christian then knocks down Captain Bligh] Fletcher Christian: You bloody Bastard...You'll not put your foot on me again! Fletcher Christian: There'll be no more killing aboard this ship, not even Captain Bligh. Captain Bligh: If that's an attempt to earn clemency, I spit on it. Fletcher Christian: You remarkable pig. You can thank whatever pig god you pray to that you haven't turned me into a murderer. Midshipman Young: Fletcher, I'm proud to be with you. Fletcher Christian: Well you've done rather well, Ned. Promoted to the rank of criminal. Not even 20 and a death sentence on your head. The mightiest excitement that ever swept across the sea or the screen!

TRUE...TURBULENT...TREMENDOUS! Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Mutiny on the Bounty ( 1962 ) Unrated | In 1787, British ship Bounty leaves Portsmouth to bring a cargo of bread-fruit from Tahiti but the savage on-board conditions imposed by Captain Bligh trigger a mutiny led by officer Fletcher Christian.

Directors: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Visit our Awards Central section Related News a list of 45 titles created 23 Jul 2013 a list of 30 titles created 25 Apr 2014 a list of 30 titles created 05 May 2015 a list of 46 titles created 4 months ago a list of 30 titles created 2 months ago Title: Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) 7.2/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations. See more awards » Videos Midshipman Roger Byam joins Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian aboard HMS Bounty for a voyage to Tahiti. Bligh proves to be a brutal tyrant and, after six pleasant months on Tahiti, ... See full summary » Director: Frank Lloyd The familiar story of Lieutenant Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny on his ship.

This version follows both the efforts of Fletcher Christian to get his men beyond the reach of British ... See full summary » Director: Roger Donaldson An intelligent, articulate scholar, Harrison MacWhite, survives a hostile Senate confirmation hearing at the hands of conservatives to become ambassador to Sarkan, a southeast Asian country... See full summary » Director: George Englund The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz The rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France. Director: Henry Koster The destiny of three soldiers during World War II. The German officer Christian Diestl approves less and less of the war. Jewish-American Noah Ackerman deals with antisemitism at home and ... See full summary » Director: Edward Dmytryk Two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a small town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail. Director: Laslo Benedek Man tries to recover a horse stolen from him by a Mexican bandit. Director: Sidney J.

Furie The escape of Bubber Reeves from prison affects the inhabitants of a small Southern town. Director: Arthur Penn A US air force major in Kobe confronts his own opposition to marriages between American servicemen and Japanese women when he falls for a beautiful performer. Director: Joshua Logan A war pacifist is blackmailed to pose as an SS officer and to disable the scuttling explosives on freighter carrying rubber cargo to be captured by the Allies. Director: Bernhard Wicki The story of two gigolos who vie to see which is the best at their profession. Director: Ralph Levy Edit Storyline The Bounty leaves Portsmouth in 1787. Its destination: to sail to Tahiti and load bread-fruit. Captain Bligh will do anything to get there as fast as possible, using any means to keep up a strict discipline. When they arrive at Tahiti, it is like a paradise for the crew, something completely different than the living hell aboard the ship. On the way back to England, officer Fletcher Christian becomes the leader of a mutiny.

Written by Mattias Thuresson 8 November 1962 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Motín a bordo See more » Filming Locations: 178 min Sound Mix: 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System)| 4-Track Stereo (35mm release) (some prints)| Mono (35 mm prints) Color: Did You Know? Trivia The scene where the ship arrives in Tahiti to be rapturously greeted by the natives was filmed in exactly the same spot where the real Bounty dropped anchor in 1788. 6000 local extras were used for the sequence. See more » Goofs During the mutiny and boarding the rowing boat, Bligh is wearing a shirt, yet later in the rowing boat he wearing his blue officer's coat. See more » Quotes Captain Bligh : I'm not leaving you Mr Christian, not ever. Go to the dirtiest little corner of the world I'll be there, right behind you, with a rope in my hand. A Superb Example of Classic Movie Making!

11 December 2001 | by diegosantti – See all my reviews 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. Also in an impeccable performance, Trevor Howard's steely, sadistic Captain William Bligh commands by contempt, as malevolent toward his officers as to the crew he tortures. In idyllic Tahiti, exquisitely captured by Academy Award winner (Best Cinematography) Robert L. Surtees, Christian is seduced by Miamiti. She is portrayed by "enchanting Tarita, a 19 year-old native whose swaying hips find their own varying levels of audience appreciation." (Daily Variety). "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. "A superb blending of direction [Lewis Milestone], photography and special effects" (Variety) this movie became an instant classic and still lives to this day as the best rendition of the re-telling of this true story. Very rich in visual imagery and complimented by a mesmerizing original music score (Bronislau Kaper), this film features some of the best dialogue and character portrayals of recent memory (too many to name here, but worthy of note is Hugh Griffith, Richard Harris, and Noel Purcell). Truly a classic in the true sense of the word, and a must see film for all connoisseurs of fine movie making! A superb motion picture! Excellent!

20 of 25 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Too Busy To Eat You will receive an email shortly to confirm your email address. Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Too Busy To Eat title details and video sharing options now playing Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Too Busy To Eat Marlon Brando (as Fletcher Christian) with a close eye on Maimiti (Tarita, who became Mrs. Brando) then chat among the sailors (Gordon Jackson, Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith) during island festivities in Mutiny On The Bounty, 1962. View the TCMDb entry for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) share video Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Too... Marlon Brando (as Fletcher Christian) with a close eye on...

Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Too Busy To Eat Marlon Brando (as Fletcher Christian) with a close eye on Maimiti (Tarita, who became Mrs. Brando) then chat among the sailors (Gordon Jackson, Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith) during island festivities in Mutiny On The Bounty, 1962.> Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) - (Original Trailer) Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) Marlon Brando is mutineer Fletcher... Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) - (Original Trailer) Marlon Brando is mutineer Fletcher Christian in the Technicolor, Ultra-Panavision version of Mutiny On The Bounty (1962).> Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Join... In a storm at sea, Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) awakens and...

Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Join My War In a storm at sea, Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) awakens and overrides the orders of Christian (Marlon Brando) causing the death of a sailor and a big spat, in the director Lewis Milestone's remake of Mutiny On The Bounty, 1962.> Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip)... The somehow spectacular first meeting of Captain Bligh... Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie... Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Lieutenant Christian The somehow spectacular first meeting of Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) and his newly-assigned aide Fletcher Christian (Marlon Brando), as directed by Lewis Milestone, in the large 1962 remake of Mutiny On The Bounty.> Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Their... As Tahiti comes into view, Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard)...

Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Their Ignorance As Tahiti comes into view, Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) lectures Mr. Christian (Marlon Brando) and crew on the natives, followed by spectacle, in Mutiny On The Bounty, 1962.> Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Two... Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) passes judgment and oversees... Mutiny On The Bounty (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Two Dozen Lashes Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) passes judgment and oversees punishment of sailor Mills (Richard Harris), Quintal (Percy Herbert) with the whip, Christian (Marlon Brando) among observers, in Lewis Milestone's remake of Mutiny On The Bounty 1962.> Mutiny On the Bounty (1962) on iTunes Open iTunes to preview, buy, and download this movie. About the Movie Oscar-winner Marlon Brando ("Streetcar Named Desire," "On The Waterfront," "The Godfather") takes to the high seas in this Academy Award-winning true story.

Based upon a real 1759 mutiny, Brando leads the crew of the HMS Bounty in a mutiny against the sadistic Captain Bligh, portrayed by Oscar-nominee Trevor Howard ("Ghandi," "Superman"). Directed by the great Lewis Milestone ("All Quiet On the Western Front"). Nominated for Best Picture, it received three Oscars, including Best Color Cinematography, Score, and Song. Credits Average Rating: 6.5/10 Top Critics' Reviews Rotten: ...Marlon Brando makes Fletcher Christian an eccentric who dominates the entire dramatic scheme. – Bosley Crowther, New York Times, Jul 16, 2008 The Tall Ship 'Bounty' - Homepage HOME PHOTOGRAPHS OFFICIAL HOMEPAGE WIKI MORE... The Tall Ship 'Bounty' His Majesty's Armed Vessel (HMAV) Bounty was a British ship, most well known for the infamous mutiny aboard her in 28 April 1789. The mutiny was the subject of novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.

A replica of the ship was built for the 1962 film of the same name, and remained active until sinking on October 29, 2012 is the wake of Hurricane Sandy - taking her captain Robin Walbridge and one of the crew with her. And in a twist of history, the crew woman who died, Claudene Christian , was reportedly a direct descendent of Fletcher Christian, the lead mutineer aboard the original Bounty. The original Bounty began her career as the collier Bethia, built in 1784 at the Blaydes shipyard near Hull. Later she was purchased by the Royal Navy for £2,600 on 26 May 1787 (JJ Colledge/D Lyon say 23rd May), refit, and renamed Bounty. She was a relatively small sailing ship at 215 tons, three-masted and full-rigged. After conversion for the breadfruit expedition, she mounted only four four pounders (2 kg cannon) and ten swivel guns. Thus she was very small in comparison to other three-mast colliers used for similar expeditions: Cook's Endeavour displaced 368 tons and Resolution 462 tons.

The ship had been purchased by the Royal Navy for a single mission in support of an experiment: she was to travel to Tahiti, pick up breadfruit plants, and transport them to the West Indies in hopes that they would grow well there and become a cheap source of food for slaves. The experiment was proposed by Sir Joseph Banks, who recommended William Bligh as commander, and was promoted through a prize offered by the Royal Society of Arts. In June 1787, Bounty was refitted at Deptford. The great cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and gratings fitted to the upper deck. Her complement was 46 officers and men. On 23 December 1787, Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti. For a full month, she attempted to round Cape Horn, but adverse weather blocked her. Bligh ordered her turned about, and proceeded east, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the width of the Indian Ocean. During the outward voyage, Bligh demoted the ship's Sailing Master, John Fryer, replacing him with Fletcher Christian, whom he appointed acting Lieutenant.

This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and Fryer would later claim Bligh's act was entirely personal. Though commonly portrayed as the epitome of abusive sailing captains, this portrayal has recently come into dispute. Caroline Alexander, in her book The Bounty, points out that Bligh was relatively lenient compared with other British naval officers. Bligh received the appointment because he was considered an exceptionally capable naval officer—an evaluation that would prove to be correct. He enjoyed the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, a wealthy botanist and influential figure in Britain at the time. That, and his experience sailing with Cook and familiarity with navigation in the area and local customs, were probably prime factors in his appointment. Bounty reached Tahiti on 26 October 1788, after ten months at sea. Bligh and his crew spent five months in Tahiti, then called 'Otaheite', collecting and preparing a total of 1015 breadfruit plants. Bligh allowed the crew to live ashore and care for the potted breadfruit plants, and they became socialized to the customs and culture of the Tahitians.

Many of the seamen and some of the 'young gentlemen' had themselves tattooed in native fashion. Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married Maimiti, a Tahitian woman. Other warrant officers and seamen of the Bounty were also said to have formed 'connections' with native women. After five months in Tahiti, the Bounty set sail with its breadfruit cargo on 4 April 1789. Luis Marden discovered the remains of the Bounty in January 1957. After spotting a rudder from this ship in a museum on Fiji, he persuaded his editors and writers to let him dive off Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been found. Despite the warnings of one islander - 'Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!' — Marden dived for several days in the dangerous swells near the island, and found the remains of the fabled ship. He subsequently met with Marlon Brando to counsel him on his role as Fletcher Christian in the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Later in life, Marden wore cuff links made of nails from the Bounty.

Some of her remains, such as her ballast stones, are still partially visible in the waters of Bounty Bay. Her rudder is still displayed in the Fiji Museum in Suva. The Royal Navy's Bounty has been reconstructed twice. MGM commissioned a replica of Bounty for their 1962 film, named the Bounty II. This vessel was built to the original plans and in the traditional manner in a shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. However, all the dimensions were increased by approximately one third to accommodate the large 70 mm cameras used. Though the ship was scheduled to be burned at the end of the film, Marlon Brando threatened to walk off the set, so MGM kept this vessel in service. When Ted Turner bought MGM he used this vessel for entertaining. Eventually MGM donated the vessel to a charity. Although lack of expensive maintenance caused the vessel to lose her United States Coast Guard license for a time, Tall Ship Bounty was restored, initially at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in 2002, with restoration of the vessel's bottom planking. Moored in its winter home in St.

Petersburg, Florida, it again became available for charter, excursions, sail-training, and movies (most recently in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,. and the adult film Pirates). In April 2006, the Bounty again arrived in Boothbay Harbor for further renovation, a refurbishing of the ship's front end, and topside decking. Following this renovation, the Bounty is scheduled to repeat the famous voyage of the original Bounty On 9 August 2007, the Bounty made an unscheduled stop at Derry, Northern Ireland. The ship has just completed a $3m restoration and is making a seven week UK tour prior to embarking on a world tour via South Africa and New Zealand to Pitcairn and Tahiti. The UK tour begins with her arrival at the birthplace of mutiny leader Fletcher Christian in Maryport, Cumbria, at midday on Tuesday 14 August 2007. The ship was about three days ahead of schedule which is why it sought out Derry for a 'quiet' stopover before completing the journey to Maryport.

On 23 August 2007 the ship docked in Torquay, Devon, for several days. The second Bounty replica, named 'H.M.A.V. Bounty', and informally known as 'Bounty III', was built in New Zealand in 1979 and used in the 1984 Dino De Laurentiis film The Bounty. The hull is constructed of welded steel oversheathed with timber. For many years she served the tourist excursion market from Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia, before being sold to HKR International Limited in October 2007. She is now a tourist attraction at Discovery Bay, on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, and has an additional Chinese name 'Chi Ming'. The Bounty was never referred to as 'HMS Bounty' or 'HMAV Bounty' while she was afloat. The abbreviation H.M.S. only came into common usage around the 1790s, transforming into the initialism HMS in the twentieth century. Although she was ship-rigged, and commonly referred to as a ship, in the formal vocabulary of the Admiralty the Bounty was not called a ship because she was unrated.

Equally, there was no organisation formally called the Admiralty -- that name is a colloquialism for 'The Commissioners for Executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain and Ireland, etc.'. In the transcript of the 1792 trial of the ten crewmen returned on HMS Pandora the Bounty is referred to as His Majesty's Ship 'Bounty' or His Majesty's Armed Vessel 'Bounty' three times each, and twice as His Majesty's Armed Vessel the 'Bounty'. In the drawings for the 1787 conversion she is referred to as the 'Bounty Armed Transport'. The Contents page of the Bounty's medical book is inscribed 'His Britannic Majesty's Ship Bounty: Spithead 29th December 1787'. The title of William Bligh's 1792 account of the mutiny refers to 'His Majesty's Ship the Bounty'. Sir John Barrow's 1831 publication refers to 'H.M.S. Bounty'. Academic institutions such as Britain's National Archives ,National Maritime Museum, Royal Naval Museum, and Australia's State Library of New South Wales generally use 'HMS'.

Audience Reviews for Mutiny on the Bounty ½ Trevor Howard is no Charles Laughton and as a result, this remake doesn't quite have the same impact as the 30s version. Brando is the exception as Fletcher Christian. John Ballantine Super Reviewer High sea adventures with Marlon Brando, why, it's an offer you can't refuse, unless you're not really in the mood for a three-hour film. Man, even that "offer you can't refuse" allusion type of joke that I just made kind shook my desire to watch this film, and I just got done watching and liking it. Hey, if you think that that pun-esque joke is lame, you should here my one about the idea that director Lewis Milestone followed "Ocean's 11" up with this film because he was still in the mood for the "ocean". Eh, speaking of "Les Misérables", these puns about Milestone's filmography are bound to make an audience "all quiet on the western front".

So yeah, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm having trouble trying to figure out material for this opener, which is surprising, considering that Milestone has done a lot of major films to make more clever references to, with this film being about as long as, well, all of them combined, which I reckon is fitting, seeing as how this was Milestone's last theatrical film, or rather, yet another big "milestone" for him. Hey, I just spent three hours watching people hang out on the ocean, so I'm a little bit dizzy, much like the producers probably were when they saw the final gross-budget ratio of this film. Yeah, nice going for taking over Milestone's directing position and making the film go over budget, Brando, you classically talented jerk, even if you did end up helping in making a good film, which isn't to say that all runs smoothly on this sea journey.

The film is plenty entertaining, with colorful direction and plot structuring, yet it can only go so far before slipping into dry spells, which are never so cold that the film devolves into dullness, and rarely, if ever bland the film up all that much, but still stand as just pronounced enough disengage and leave you drifting away. Again, more often than not, the film does a pretty good job of holding your attention, and never really loses your investment, yet dry spells still stand through all of the entertainment value, and I can't really say that I'm all that surprised, as director Lewis Milestone must have had some trouble trying to sustain intrigue through a film this overlong. The film is enough of an epic for its sprawling three-hour runtime to not come off as punishingly unfitting, but make no mistake, the final product outstays it welcome, taking on so much excess material, if not filler, that, before too long, plotting begins to meander into limp spells, perhaps even repetition.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good long film, and sure enough, this film takes plenty of it wealth of time to flesh things out, yet for every compelling piece of expository meat, there is fat around the edges that only serves to retard momentum, generally into simple repetition, and sometimes into total aimlessness. I suppose you could call this film a character study, and you can certainly call it a dramatic epic that takes its time fleshing things out, so it's not like this film was to ever have as much momentum as your typical adventure epic, but the gaps between rises and falls in plotting are much too often blown out way too far, leaving you with more than enough time to meditate upon the thin spots in this story concept, rather than the high spots, of which there are plenty.

I must admit, almost all of the first hour of this film, while not truly excellent, is really, really good, with high compellingness that can be occasionally found through the film's body, but after a while, the story concept's kick starts to slow down, and the story concept's execution's finds itself continuing to rarely pick up all that much, leaving you to get too used to an aimless formula to be truly gripped, for although the final product is never less than good, it's not quite what it very well could have been and almost is. That being said, what the final product ultimately is is reasonably rewarding, with compellingness that isn't as fleshed out as could have been, but still stands firm, backed by a sweeping feel that is supplemented by even the lightest of artistic touches.

Bronislau Kaper's score for this film came along at a formulaic time, and sure enough, it fails to deliver all that much uniqueness as an epic score of the 1960s, yet where Kaper's efforts could have gone the way of plenty of other scores of the type and time by blandly tossing out conventions just for the sake of tossing out conventions, they genuinely celebrate the wealth of their formula, whose dynamic musical flavor and sweeping soul help in gracing the film with entertainment value, while complimenting the film's distinguished sense of sweep. Even the musical aspects of this film breathe life into a feeling of broad scope, but really, the aesthetic attribute that really does about as much as anything in defining the sweep of this epic is, of course, Robert L. Surtees' then-outstanding and still-striking cinematography, whose tasteful coloring provides plenty of consistent handsomeness, broken up by unexpectedly truly stunning moments, that attracts attention, while cleverly tight framing and dynamic camerawork truly immerses you into the grand environment, further sold on you by excellent production designs.

Aesthetically and technically, this film had to have stood out for its time, and is still worthy of praise to this day, crafting a vision of the HMAV Bounty's infamously troubled late 18th century voyage that is grandly immersive, in spite of shortcomings in storytelling that distance you a bit from the final product's substance. I wish I could say that the telling of this tale is as commendable as the look of this world, but really, when it's all said and done, there is a reason why this story, interpreted into the book upon which this film is based by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall in 1932, has stood the test of time, as it is so intriguing, with human depth and dramatic potential that could have been more thoroughly explored in this film, but is still brought to the silver screen with enough inspiration to compel quite well, with Charles Lederer putting together a script that may get to be excessive, but generally keeps tight in its fleshing out rich characterization that is complimented by strong, if a bit underwritten performances.

Whether it be Trevor Howard as the despicably harsh captain with no regard for the lives of his men, or layered leading man Marlon Brando as a strong, but humanly flawed leader whose actions will leave him to face great changes and great risks, or even a charming supporting cast, most everyone in this cast pulls weight, and while the performers can't carry the final product into the high strength that it sometimes flirts with, they join decent writing in fleshing out a worthy, epic-length character piece, further brought to life by what is, in fact, done right in Lewis Milestone's direction. Were Milestone more focused as storyteller, this film would have stood a chance of consistently sustaining strength, maybe even achieving bonafide excellence, yet his inspiration never loses so much momentum that you lose your investment, secured by dramatic efforts that were audacious at the time, and are most often than not still effective to this day in their establishing tension within the conflicts - thin though they may be - and heart within the character drama.

At the very least, Milestone keeps things entertaining, not so much so that you don't fall out more often than you probably should, but nevertheless enough so that liveliness keeps you awake enough to get a good feel for the technical proficiency, good script and charismatic performances that would have made an excellent film if they weren't so opposed by some serious shortcomings, and go into making a final product that is still worth watching. Overall, bland spells dilute engagement value, while ironically calling your attention more toward repetitious bloating and dragging that thin plotting momentum out too much for consistent high strength to be sustained, thus leaving the final product to fall short of its potential, even though it still accels enough to reward, to some degree, thanks to the strong score work, excellent cinematography, fine production designs, and inspired writing, acting and direction that make Lewis Milestone's "Mutiny on the Bounty" a compelling epic that leaves much to be desired, but still delivers on plenty that thoroughly entertains. 3/5 - Good Cameron Johnson

Question: A 1962 film was called "The Mutiny on the ... " what?
Answer: Bounty