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| First Mate Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) clashes with Capt. Bligh (Charles Laughton). |
Release Date: Nov. 8, 1935. Running Time: 132 minutes. Screenplay: Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman, Carey Wilson. Based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Producer: Frank Lloyd, Iving Thalberg. Director: Frank Lloyd.
THE PLOT:
The HMS Bounty embarks on a two-year voyage to transport breadfruits from Tahiti to the West Indies. The ship is under the command of Capt. William Bligh (Charles Laughton), with Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) as his First Mate.
The journey is not a happy one. Bligh is not merely a rigid disciplinarian; he is cruel and corrupt, responding to minor infractions with relentless floggings and even worse punishments. The compassionate Christian does what he can to protect the men, but it isn't long before the enmity between the two men threatens to boil over.
After an idyllic, months-long break in Tahiti, the ship resumes its voyage. But as Bligh grows ever more unreasonable, Christian finally decides he has had enough. He declares he will take the ship from Bligh, vowing: "You've given your last command! We'll be men again if we hang for it!"
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| The tyrannical Capt. Bligh (Charles Laughton). |
CHARACTERS:
Capt. Bligh: Charles Laughton's Bligh is nothing short of mesmerizing. His eyes dart about, taking in the disapproval of officers and men. Insecurity and resentment radiate from him, and you can see in his face how he feels every slight, real or imagined. Ironically, after the mutiny, he proves to be an ideal captain, piloting an open boat roughly 3,600 miles to land while displaying all the qualities he lacked on the ship: resilience, selflessness, and courage. On that boat, he earns the unwavering loyalty of men who have every reason to believe themselves doomed in a way that a thousand floggings never managed on the Bounty. It's a lesson he doesn't learn; once in command of a new ship, he returns to being a sneering tyrant, never realizing that if he just behaved as he did in that tiny boat, he would rarely have to administer any punishment at all.
Fletcher Christian: Clark Gable is the hero to Charles Laughton's villain, his Fletcher Christian doing his best to keep up spirits even as Bligh tries to ground the men to dust. Gable reportedly later felt he was miscast, but I disagree. He may not be able to match Charles Laughton's dramatic range, but he certainly was a match for him in screen presence. Thanks to that, the battle of will between Bligh and Christian feel like a contest of equals long before the mutiny itself occurs.
Midshipman Byam: Franchot Tone plays Byam, a young midshipman from an upper-class family who is clearly modeled after real-life Bounty midshipman Peter Heywood. Byam is the audience surrogate for the film. This is his first voyage, and as such it feels entirely natural when information about life at sea is passed to us through him. Tone gives a good performance, and is convincing both in his friendship with Christian and the leadership role he assumes late in the film among the other court martialed mutineers... though there are large patches of the movie when he gets lost against the stronger screen presences of Gable and Laughton.
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| Christian and Midshipman Byam (Franchot Tone) enjoy the island paradise of Tahiti. |
THOUGHTS:
The Mutiny on the Bounty is poor history, amounting to a feature-length character assassination of the historical William Bligh. Most historical accounts portray the real Bligh as very restrained in physical discipline. The historical Bounty experienced only two deaths before the mutiny, neither of them a result of punishment. That's not to completely absolve Bligh; he appears to have been a poor leader, an ill-tempered micromanager with a tendency toward taking things personally, and it showed in the multiple mutinies across his career. But he was in no way the murderous martinet portrayed here.
None of which in any way changes that this is an excellent motion picture. Performances are strong across the board, and the production values are outstanding. There's a vivid sense of how cramped the quarters are, and the extras and supporting actors feel absolutely authentic as seamen on a long voyage with greatly restricted food rations. I was struck by a moment when the ship reaches Tahiti. As one shirtless sailor struggles to stand, you can actually see his ribcage beneath his skin.
The script is expertly structured. Before the ship leaves port, it takes part in a punishment that sees a sailor whipped across the fleet. When the sailor is brought to the Bounty, he is already dead. Bligh orders him to be flogged anyway - earning the first dark whispers from the crew, something he clearly notices. The next hour sees the tension between Bligh and Christian gradually rise, until open conflict seems inevitable - though the first potential open confrontation is interrupted when they reach land.
We spend about twenty minutes with the sailors in Tahiti, enjoying an extended reprieve from the grim confines of the ship... which makes returning to that ship all the more intolerable. The mutiny itself provides a release as much for the viewers as the characters, but then the last forty minutes provides an extended epilogue that deals with the aftermath and consequences.
All three stars ended up nominated as Best Actor, and all three lost. It's debatable as to whether they split the vote; John Ford's The Informer beat out this film for plenty of other Oscars, so it's entirely possible that Victor McLaglen would have won anyway. Regardless, the next year's ceremony introduced a new award: Best Supporting Actor, thus avoiding a repeat of this circumstance.
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| Bligh and his loyalists are set adrift at sea. |
REMAKES AND RETELLINGS:
There have been several retellings of this story on both large screen and small. Indeed, the 1935 version was preceded by a 1916 silent film and a 1933 Australian film starring Errol Flynn. The silent film, which is sadly lost, was well-regarded; the Flynn version was not.
Ultimately, the two most notable retellings of this story were:
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962): A direct remake, with a superb Trevor Howard providing a calmer and more intellectual take on the cruel captain. Unfortunately, Marlon Brando seems out-of-place as Fletcher Christian, and fails to be an effective foil the way that Gable was for Laughton. The movie also looks bizarrely artificial, despite a budget that dwarfed the 1935 version. Watching the 1935 film, I believe I am watching sailors on a ship at sea. Watching the 1962 remake, I believe I am watching actors delivering lines on a sound stage - and that's in spite of extensive location filming.
The Bounty (1984): Not actually a remake, this instead attempts to dramatize the true story of the Bounty. The lashings dished out by Anthony Hopkins' Bligh tend to be tongue-lashings, while he's mostly restrained when it comes to actual physical punishment. Bligh and Christian are portrayed as friends (which they were), and much of the dialogue is taken directly from historical accounts, including Christian lamenting, "I am in hell." The movie suffers from one of the problems of the 1962 version, in that Mel Gibson's Fletcher Christian fails to match Anthony Hopkins' Bligh, and the movie is unevenly paced. It's still well worth a watch, and boasts a fantastic cast that also includes Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, and young up-and-comers Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson.
OVERALL:
1935's The Mutiny on the Bounty holds up brilliantly. It's not the most historically accurate telling of the historic mutiny - but with its sterling production values, excellent script, and outstanding performances, it remains the most entertaining version.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
Outstanding Production - 1934: It Happened One Night
Outstanding Production - 1936: The Great Ziegfield
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