The Bounty [DVD] (1984)

This version of the infamous mutiny on HMS Bounty is an absolutely magnificent film. It is first class in every respect.

The camera work is wonderful - fittingly, the shots of the Tahitian shoreline and Vangelis' typically atmospheric music conjure up both an image of paradise as well as a premonition of doom.

The cast is first rate. Hopkins is on great form as Lt Bligh. Mel Gibson, not one of my favourite actors, is also great as Fletcher Christian. It would be easy to praise every single cast member - there are so many familiar faces from TV it's nice to see them in such a great film. Two worthy examples are Liam Neeson as the Irish ruffian Churchill, and Daniel Day-Lewis as a rather unpleasant John Fryer.

The action alternates between the voyage and the Admiralty hearing where Bligh has to account for his actions and persuade the Board that the loss of the Bounty was indeed a mutiny. This works vey well as the hearing is kept brief, concentrating mainly on the fateful voyage itself.

Of course, the main issue is whether Bligh led his men to mutiny by driving them too hard. In my opinion, this film treats this issue ambivalently. There are signs at the beginning that Fryer and Christian are not going to get on with Bligh - Fryer questions Bligh's route and gets sharply rebuked, while Christian refers to the voyage flippantly as a greengrocery trip, which Bligh decides to ignore. The real conflicts occur in Tahiti, where ship discipline evaporates into thin air when the men are confronted with the sensual pleasures of Tahitian life. Bligh does not know how to deal with this, until he falls out with Christian, decides to set sail and take a very hard line, a strategy that he thinks necessary but which appears completely foolish, as the men have been seduced by life in Tahiti. Christian, who, like most of the crew, left his heart behind in Tahiti, is easily persuaded into taking the ship.

The rest of the film shows Christian just about retaining control of the mutineers, and Bligh nobly leading his loyalists to safety in a sailing boat - no mean feat. The taking of the ship is confirmed as mutiny, and the mutineers end up on Pitcairn Island, where they burn the Bounty.

The film ends on a similarly atmospheric note with Fletcher Christian staring at the Bounty in flames.

A wonderful film.

This is by far the best version the story of the mutiny on the Bounty that I have seen. It tries to dispell the myth of Bligh and portrays him as a Royal Naval officer of the period (actually fairhanded compared to contemporaries). A great cast, full of British talent (Olivier, Edward Fox, Day-Lewis, Bernard Hill and more) and Gibson was great as the infatuated Fletcher Christian. For me, Anthony Hopkins steals the film and brings Bligh back to life on screen. I found the film thoroughly convincing.

How could a film with Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day Lewis and Liam Neeson sink without trace? That was the fate of Roger Donaldson's 'The Bounty' back in 1984 when none of them were exactly box-office certainties. Indeed, the third dramatization of the British Navy's most infamous act of piracy (excluding the semi-documentary 'In the Wake of the Bounty') and is perhaps best remembered today as the flop that David Lean nearly directed before falling out with Dino De Laurentiis (UA studio boss Steven Bach infamously greenlit 'Heaven's Gate' instead of a Lean version!). It certainly deserves to be better remembered, boasting a superb screenplay by Robert Bolt (originally intended as two films: the second, dealing with the aftermath was quietly dropped after this tanked) that owes a lot more to history than previous versions despite its occasional inaccuracies.

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.

Sadly, Prism's extras-free DVD is a less than impressive transfer: if you have a multi-region player you'd probably be better off seeking out the US or French DVDs instead.