Review of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) by Lisa M — 03 Aug 2017

You can't really go wrong with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable as the headliners of your cast. These guys are great and truly elevate Mutiny on the Bounty. You can see authority in both characters but with different philosophies that make them unique from one another. Some of the other guys in the cast blended together for me. There are a lot of character intros in the beginning and keeping every single guy straight was a challenge. There were some that stood out but through their personalities, not their appearance.

Mutiny on the Bounty does a good job of making you hate Captain Bligh. They continuously hammer home his cruelty and so I was just counting down the minutes until the mutiny would occur. I was surprised it actually took so long for Christian to reach his breaking point. I'm not sure the turn made sense for his character, at least not as abruptly and dramatically, but I went with it. I couldn't help wondering, though, would it be more interesting if Bligh wasn't such a hateful character and we saw things from both sides?

The story for Mutiny on the Bounty was very straightforward. It seems like there's something lacking when I can guess most of the plot just from the title of the movie. There are a few small subplots but most of the runtime is spent on establishing why a mutiny is going to occur and what the consequences of that mutiny will be. The ending was easily the worst part of the film. While one character gets a satisfying end the rest just kind of disappear. There isn't proper judgement, forgiveness, punishment, or redemption for most people. I think, in general, Mutiny on the Bounty is a well-made film, but I probably won't revisit it anytime soon.