The Bounty

Please note this posting discusses the entire film (and the story behind it) so if you are not familiar with the story it will be discussed in full here.

When I high school I read the book Mutiny on The Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall about the famous mutiny that took place on the HMS Bounty in 1789.  After seeing the movie the class saw the 1935 film starring Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian and Peter Laughton as Captain William Bligh.  In both the book and the film (I never saw the 1962 version with Marlon Brando) Fletcher Christian is presented as righteous, since Bligh is portrayed as monstrous.  Bligh redeems himself with his leadership of his officers during the trip across the Pacific in a rowboat but I left both feeling more sympathy for Christian. 

Recently I saw the 1984 version with Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian.  This version is more daring and according to more than one source, a little closer to the truth of the actual events.  Bligh is portrayed as strict and daring but human.  Christian is a little more complex than in other versions.  Christian overthrows the ship more to cure his heartsickness than out of any true hatred for Bligh.  I found this version much more compelling.

One of the notable things about The Bounty is its cast at the time.  Hopkins at the time had been in many well known films, such as The Elephant Man and Lion in Winter but this was years before he played Hannibal Lecter.  Gibson had been in a couple of the Mad Max films but this was before he became a superstar in the Lethal Weapon films.  Liam Neeson has a colorful part as a crew member who is a little too impulsive.  Daniel Day Lewis plays the first officer Stephen Fry (before being replaced by Christian) as a strict officer young officer, an obvious successor to Bligh.  Edward Fox and Lawrence Olivier play members of Parliament leading an inquisition into the events of the mutiny after Bligh has returned to England.  It is fun to see all these actors, many who were at the start of big careers, in the same film.  The two characters who are the furthest apart in dynamic are Day Lewis and Neeson’s characters so I find it a little odd that they both were attached to play Abraham Lincoln at different times in the same film, Lincoln (2012).  When I heard it was being planned I thought Neeson would be perfect but he eventually dropped out and made way for Day Lewis, who won his third Best Actor Oscar for that fantastic film.  Neeson, who has done many films I have liked and of whom I am a big fan, did Taken 2 at the same time, a slightly less ambitious work.

Hopkins is fantastic as Bligh and largely carries the film even though Gibson has top billing.  Bligh starts off the journey as friends with Christian and Bligh has even helped Christian, who is only maybe 25 or so, advance his career.  The mission is to go Tahiti and grow and collect breadfruit to grow and bring to the Caribbean (to feed slaves, a detail not given much attention). Bligh, a veteran sailor hoping to leave a mark on the naval world, opts to go to Tahiti around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.  The trip starts off optimistic and but the attempt to cross Cape Horn is harrowing and Bligh, after trying for a little too long, painfully gives up his goal and takes the eastern route to Tahiti.  Bligh is a little harsh with his crew during this stage, perhaps in part due to his own frustration of not accomplishing his goals and in reaction to the crew’s frustration to the ultimately ten months at sea.  The ship starts to feel very small during these sequences and Hopkins effectively portrays Bligh’s growing weariness.

Christian, up to this point of the film, is mostly shown as loyal and playing second fiddle to Bligh.  He follows his orders and only once quietly suggests directly to the captain, during one of Bligh’s punishments to the crew that Bligh may be going a bit too far.

When the Bounty arrives in Tahiti Bligh is offered a gift from the chief of the island.  He is offered the right to bed one his wives but Bligh, married with children and a proper English gentleman, is nothing but uncomfortable with the prospect but also does not want to insult the chief.  Christian’s excuse to get Bligh out of the room is one of the few moments where Mel Gibson’s well known sense of humor comes into the film.  Bligh's discomfort is a nice contrast to how we have usually seen Bligh up to this point in the film, completely in command.

The crew has to stay for several months to grow the fruit and Bligh recognizes the eagerness of the young island women is overly tempting to his many members of his young male crew.  There are scenes of him in bed, sweating.  He may be fighting the temptation himself or sensing the losing battle for control of his crew.   

However the landing at Tahiti has an effect on Christian when he falls hard for one of the chief’s daughters, Mauatua (played by Tevaite Vernette) and there is a sequence where he chases her and starts kissing her before they have said a word to each other.  Christian learns to speak Tahiti and gradually grows enchanted with the lifestyle, even coming to dress like a native.  These scenes are presented not as if Tahiti were some sort of paradise but more as though Christian were under some sort of drug influence.  The film makes use of Gibson’s physique by showing many scenes with his shirt off.  Bligh is absent during many of these scenes representing a lack of authority.

Bligh eventually calls Christian to an officers’ dinner on board the ship (still docked in Tahiti) and humiliates Christian in front of everyone by painfully making him wear his officer’s jacket right after getting a tattoo. The jacket and the tattoo represent the clash between the different lifestyles.  As the audience we want to see Christian happy but we also understand that Bligh wants to keep his crew in line. 

When the crew finally leaves Tahiti, Bligh orders the Neeson character to endure a painful whipping for desertion.  The whipping struck me as an external presentation of the pain the many of the ship mates (and particularly Christian) were feeling inside.  Bligh attempts to make peace with Christian at the first dinner after they leave but Christian, bitter, rebukes him and brings out the worst in the captain’s nature. 

Bligh, barely in control and eager to reestablish discipline,  forces Christian and his men them into difficult labor and publicly berates them several times.  When Bligh announces his intention to return to England via Cape Horn the crew is ever more disheartened and the intent seems purely to satisfy the captain’s vanity.  I wonder in what direction the ship had been going in the days since it had left Tahiti since presumably they would have been turning west toward England and would have to backtrack to go east again (this strand of the plot was an invention by the filmmakers).  At this point Christian is hurting enough that he plots to escape via rowboat back to Tahiti and has no thoughts of mutiny until one of the men suggests it to him. 

When Christian warns Bligh that the men may not stand for the plan to cross Cape Horn Christian tries to address Bligh by his first name, though Bligh brushes it off.  After Christian leaves the room Bligh tilts his head slightly and clenches his teeth.  As Lecter years later Hopkins used that same pose, usually when threatening to bite someone.  

During the mutiny, which is the centerpiece scene of the film, some interesting things happen.  When Bligh is surprised in bed Hopkins has him wake up slowly and only when he is standing up does he realize what is happening.  It is notable that it is the Neeson character, who received the brutal whipping earlier is the one holding onto him. 

As the scene moves aboveboard it is clear that the plan was hastily conceived as Christian really has little idea how to control the chaos he has created and himself.  I think he hates himself for what he is doing.  These two things are at conflict in the scene in which he threatens to kill both Bligh and some of the members who are supporting him but also himself.  Gibson has always played hurtful rage well (see the first two Lethal Weapons,  Braveheart, even certain scenes in The Patriot) and the handheld camera work in this scene makes him seem like an uncaged animal.  Christian eventually puts Bligh in the boat but also ensures Bligh is wearing his captain’s uniform.  Somehow I get the feeling Christian thinks Bligh will be able to survive this ordeal or at least he hopes that he will be as a way to assuage his own guilt.

When the row boat pulls away and the sailors start throwing Bligh’s breadfruit out at the rowboat Bligh at this point has regained his composure and stands tall in the boat and does not let the crewmen see a reaction.

When the mutineers return to Tahiti the happiness of the reunions with the women is short-lived before they realize they cannot stay because now it is dangerous for them and the Tahitians. 

The film does some interesting crosscutting as Bligh navigates the Pacific from memory in the rowboat with several men living on meager rations while simultaneously Christian is on The Bounty searching for an uncharted and uninhabited island, Pitcairn, where they can hide.  In many ways, their struggles are similar.  Bligh has to focus on survival but has the respect of his men.  Christian has enough food but is losing control of the ship since the increasingly edgy men already rebelled once against a much stronger leader.   During this sequence I found myself much more interested in Bligh’s plight. 

Bligh and his small crew eventually reach what is now Indonesia and then secure passage back to England.  Afterwards Bligh speaks at a hearing describing the events of how he came to lose the Bounty.  The hearing scenes are cut throughout the film so the audience knows what has happened and that Bligh survived (though there are no hearing scenes during the rowboat scenes).  It is an interesting choice but it does show Bligh in a more sympathetic light since he is forthright during these sequences.

Christian finds Pitcairn around the same time in the film that Bligh reaches Indonesia (though in the real story it was about seven months later).  We do not see much of the island but it looks unwelcoming.  The final scene of the film shows the crew burning The Bounty which indicates they will probably never be able to leave since they would be executed if ever caught by an English ship.

I think this version of the film is superior to the other in many ways.  First, as I have discussed the film portrays both Bligh and Christian as more human and complicated than the earlier version.  Christian is far less sympathetic and changed by his experiences in Tahiti.  Also in the other film I do not remember a scene of the hearing but I do remember Bligh captaining another English ship that finds a few of the crewmen who eventually stay in Tahiti.  In real life while Bligh did captain other ships he did not go to Tahiti searching for the mutinous crew. 

Many of the newly ungoverned crew members apparently turned on each other which suggest that the crew truly traded one difficult situation to another.  Bligh is exonerated of any responsibility in provoking the mutiny which in a film that portrays Bligh as the main character is probably as upbeat an ending as the audience could expect.

The Bounty did not fare well at the box office.  I suppose in 1984 audiences may have expected a more upbeat adventure but this film is more interested in the character dynamics and the mutiny scene is hardly a moment to cheer. It consistently held my attention and I highly recommend it. ****