The Bounty [DVD]

It was here that the seeds of the imfamous mutiny on the Bounty was sewn. And in particular, the relationship between once friends Bligh and masters mate Fletcher Christian breaks down entirely. The film tells the great story of the Bounty voyage, from the time of it's first vision, to collect Breadfruit plants from Tahiti and transport them to the West Indies for food to feed the slaves, the time spent on Tahiti, the mutiny, Blighs long boat voyage, right through to the founding of the first settlement on Pitcairn island of the Bounty mutineers.

Added to that this DVD has a making of documentary, a 50 minute film tracing the Bounty story, both in cinema, and the actual voyage, and interviews with Anthony Hopkins, who gives his thoughts on Bligh. Even an extensive booklet, which interestingly, relates plans for a sequel, featuring the aftermath of the story, in particular, what happened to the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn, a story long over due, in view of the popularity of the Bounty story. But, as this film goes back to 1984 and so far no sequel, don't hold your breath!

All in all, on the surface, a great buy DVD, but for one thing only; The quality of the DVD transfer is very poor indeed, quite the worst DVD quality I have seen so far. It is out of synch, with the voices ahead of the actors mouths, and in places, grain is prevalent. For a film of such stunning beauty, this is a dissapointment, to say the very least.

A young Mel Gibson impresses as the weak-willed Fletcher Christian, drawn into rebelling more by place and circumstances as well as by a crew of thugs with dirty mugs than a clichéd catalogue of tyranny, but it's Anthony Hopkins' film all the way. Before his irretrievable descent into ham he was a much more restrained screen actor, and his Captain Bligh is a much more interesting creation than you suspect he'd manage today. Fighting his own demons in a permissive place that rips away the moral repressions of his crew and creates a culture of defiance and inertia that he is unable to combat by either understanding or discipline (if anything, Bligh's fault here is that he is too slack on the men for too long before disastrously overcompensating on the return voyage), the film is punctuated by images of his desperately haunted face as he is faced with the realization of his escalating failure and impotence. Yet it is ultimately Bligh who triumphs and is vindicated in this version, with Christian and his mutineers left at each other's throats as they are cast out of paradise and stranded on a barren shore.

It's impressive, powerful stuff, even more so today for its reality. No cgi, few model shots, they built a real ship and took it to sea for real (even 'Master and Commander' was almost entirely shot in a studio tank in Mexico), and the hardships and efforts pay dividends on screen. Donaldson's direction is better than anything he's done since, Arthur Ibbetson's cinematography impressive and even Vangelis' much maligned score has some of the psychological savagery you can find in Alex North's work on 'Spartacus'. Only a hammy Edward Fox (sparingly used, thankfully) and a superannuated Laurence Olivier strike the odd bum note in the court of inquiry scenes that provide the film's solid framework. I for one would love to see the second Bolt script, 'The Long Arm,' finally make it to the screen some day - hard to believe, but it's a much better tale by far.

Sanctuary's DVD is problematic. An NTSC transfer, it's a squeezed transfer that cannot be played in 2.35:1 on widescreen TVs (but can on older square screen models by pressing the anamorphic setting), so for print quality the US or French MGM/UA transfers are distinctly better (both are in 2.35:1). However, while the MGM versions boast only a trailer, the sanctuary version has some excellent extras dealing with the troubled history of the film - but if you're interested in these, avoid Prism's R2 release, which has no extras at all!