Mutiny On The Bounty (Special Edition) [DVD] [1962]

I have to disagree with Amazon's review of this amazing film. To say the film simply isn't there is ludicrous. This is one those films you watched by accident on BBC2 during a rainy Saturday afternoon and never forgot. Trevor Howard is ice cold as the notorious Captain Bligh with Marlon Brando as the self styled Fletcher Christian with, in my opinion, a near flawless English accent and gushing with wit and charisma. Although the running time is a whopping 178 minutes, it's a very short three hours. It's absorbing from the very beginning and just makes you wonder how they made such a massive picture. The aspect ratio is annotated as 2.40:1 but it looks more like 2.70:1. I've never seen anything like it. If you love high adventure, sharp-dialogue, amazing visuals and a fine cast then you will absolutely not be disappointed. This is the best version of Mutiny.

Detractors of this film and of Marlon Brando always state the same things; Brando's English accent isn't accurate, Bligh wasn't a tyrant and Brando deliberately sabotaged this film to try and make more money. Who cares? All that matters it that the film is dramatic and entertaining and it is.

By the standards of the day, Captain Bligh probably wasn't a cruel man. Two centuries later, however, the methods of discipline on the Bounty would be seen as inhumane. It's hard enough working with people in an office. Can you imagine being cooped up for years on a ship with people you don't like and NEVER being able to get away from them? It's no wonder they mutinied!

You can see why Brando wanted to do this movie. Apart from the hefty sum he was given, he would also get to shoot in Tahiti and the script touched on things personal to him like the confrontation and subsequent subjugation of authority and the oppression of ethnic peoples. (It's worth seeing this film purely for the slyly lascivious look Marlon Brando gives his future wife, Tahitian beauty Tarita, as she dances for him.)

The film has been given a brand new digital transfer and it looks magnificent, especially the gorgeous vistas of Tahiti. Frustratingly though, the film comes in two parts on separate discs and it is annoying to have to stop the film, eject the first disc and insert the second one. They could have easily used one dual-layer disc and solved that problem.

The special features on the disc all concern the building and voyages of the exact replica of the HMS Bounty that the studio commissioned. The documentary on the construction of the ship is fascinating. It details how difficult it was to find people with the rare skills to actually build a wooden sailing ship long after such methods had become obsolete and forgotten. It then goes into the painstaking effort that was necessary to bring the Bounty to life again. Incredible stuff and a story from movie history you don't hear much about but should. Sadly, there are no commentaries or interviews with cast or crew and no documentaries about the making of the film. Not one. Very strange.

A good film, well-restored and well worth the very reasonable price.

It has been a long time coming but the underrated 1962 version of 'Mutiny on the Bounty' has finally arrived on DVD. I have previously commented on amazon that this version had been unfairly savaged by the critics over the years. Criticisms has included over-length, poor acting (not forgetting Brando's accent) and an over-dramaticised death scene finale. As I had published in 1999: "After the release of the original 1935 version, many critics were quick to applaud this Frank Lloyd classic as the epitome of modern film-making. However, it can now be regarded as a slackly told adventure, although still very entertaining.

During the making of this version, leaks to the media of the problems which beset the production has not been helpful to its cause. Problems alerted included directorial conflicts (the resignation of Carol Reed for Lewis Milestone), delayed and rewritten screenplays, Marlon Brando becoming difficult onset etc.. It became quite clear that the knives of the critics were beginning to sharpen at the prospect of this remake of a universally acknowledged classic. It would also have been professional suicide for any of these original critics to think that this movie was to be anything other than a "turkey".

The main point of scathing by the critics was Brando's accent. I am Irish and I have had to endure dreadful "oirish" accents in movies throughout the years. So, when a main Hollywood star tries to make an eccentric interpretation of a real life English hero with an English accent, suddenly everybody gets particular to what part of England it is from. What Marlon Brando did was make a spirited if unsuccessful attempt at creating a different and more realistic Fletcher Christian.

The production was fine. The other performances are excellent, especially Trevor Howard's Captain Bligh (much more realistic than Laughton's interpretation) and most importantly, this version entertains. I accept that it could have been better but I do enjoy watching this version than the other two versions. It is not perfect and I appreciate that it is overlong - but even if you hate this remake you must admit that there is no way it deserves the scathing reviews it has received throughout the years".