Review of The Bounty (1984) by Sergio E — 05 Feb 2011

Maybe all there is is a Great Cast Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill....and the list goes on as you can see.The Bounty in all rights may not be a great movie. From time to time it drags on but what sets it apart from its predecessors is that its portrayal of Bligh has much more depth. The Bounty does not simply show men as good and evil but as more complex figures.

Bligh is played here by Anthony Hopkins and is done so wonderfully. In the movie he is being court-marshaled for the events that took place aboard ship. Unlike the past films here his actions seem to have more logical motivations rather than him being Captain Hitler. Yet for all the depth Hopkins puts in his performance Mel Gibson comes up short in that he is just there. He is supposed to take on the role of a leader but instead fades into the background time after time.

I like the way the movie was directed taking the flashback approach from the view of Hopkins. It gave the movie some sort of originality which is very hard to do with remakes. This film though was strictly carried by the performance of Anthony Hopkins and his complex portrayal of Captain Bligh.

Mel Gibson plays Fletcher Christian who must watch helplessly as his captain(Hopkins) demoralizes his men and drives them ever closer to the brink of mutiny. The tension builds throughout the film and in no small part to the excellent score. The disgruntled crew has many recognisable faces including Liam Neeson and Bernard Hill which makes the film all the more enjoyable. Daniel Day Lewis is particularly watchable as mr. frier, showing us a rather smug and sometimes fiery officer. The film is shot beautifully and the story is compelling. Even the script holds up in a film where the best performances come from the actors with the least to say.

The mutiny on The Bounty is another example of Hollywood revisionist history . Since so many people have seen some tyrant being cruel to the noble Errol Flynn , Clark Gable or Marlon Brando it enters their mind that it must be somehow true . What I loved about this version is that it's very much accurate where the known facts are concerned . Captain Bligh might have been an authoritarian but there's no way he could in the context of the time be described as a cruel tyrant . On British naval ships at the time the Captain's word was the word of god but unlike the British army at the time where more often than not officers bought their rank the Royal Navy was a meritocracy where Captain's started at the very bottom of the ladder and worked their way up , bumbling fools didn't get very far in this service . It's also interesting to note that Bligh had a trio of deserters flogged rather than hanged , an act of compassion that contributes to his downfall . The film doesn't go into great detail about the fate of the mutineers but it insinuates that they eventually ended up murdering one another on Pitcairn leaving just one survivor . Like thieves there's no honour amongst mutineers which history like this film should judge as being in the wrong.

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 retribution, and the epic voyage of Lieutenant Bligh to get his loyalists safely to East Timor in a tiny lifeboat.

Director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days) has breathed vibrant new life into the classic story of the mutiny on the Bounty. With a dream cast--Mel Gibson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, and Daniel Day-Lewis--and a script by Robert Bolt (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia), The Bounty takes a revisionist tack through the well-charted waters of an oft-told tale. Hopkins's Captain Bligh is no raving sadist in the Charles Laughton mode. (Laughton played Bligh in the first Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935.) Instead, Sir Anthony plays Bligh as a hard-nosed imperialist explorer simply trying to get the job done in the time-honored manner: on the backs of the poor gobs under his command. Still, when Bligh's suppressed powder keg of rage finally blows, Hopkins is formidable indeed. Mel Gibson gives one of the most soulful performances of his career as mutiny leader Fletcher Christian. He's also at the height of his blue-eyed, buff good looks, and his romance with Tahitian maiden Mauatua (lovely Tevaite Vernette) is decidedly erotic. Liam Neeson is a veritable force of nature as the scrappy seaman Charles Churchill, and Daniel Day-Lewis is sublimely hateful as Master John Fryer, a pompous toady. With special effects to rival those of The Perfect Storm, the alluring eye candy of a tall-masted schooner under full sail, lush tropical greenery, and bevies of bodacious South Sea Islands babes, plus a gripping story line, The Bounty deserves a rescue from undeserved obscurity.