The Bounty [DVD]

The Bounty is the third screen version of one of the best-known stories in naval history, here with Anthony Hopkins as Lieutenant William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian heading an extraordinary cast including Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill and Dexter Fletcher. HMS Bounty's voyage to Tahiti of 1787-9 and its infamous consequences are recounted with far greater historical accuracy than in the 1935 or 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty. The movie is gorgeously shot on location in Tahiti, England and New Zealand as well as on a full-size recreation of the original Bounty.

Roger Donaldson's film benefits from a literate screenplay by Robert Bolt, who here as in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), brings real insight into the English institutional mind in conflict. Hopkins is at his complex best and Gibson offers more depth than his usual two-dimensional hero persona; here Bligh and Christian emerge as complex men gripped by circumstances beyond their control. The haunting score by Vangelis contributes immensely to a very underrated film which deserves to be considered a modern classic.

On the DVD: There is an excellent 52-minute "making of" documentary that mixes historical information with on-location interviews. A 12-minute overview of previous screen versions of the story is narrated by the film's historical consultant, Stephen Walters, who also provides a somewhat stilted but nevertheless informative audio commentary. The second audio commentary is from director Roger Donaldson, Producer Bernie Williams and Production Designer John Graysmark, who genuinely appear to enjoy reminiscing and have real enthusiasm for the movie. Also included is a fascinating 28-page booklet.

This is the stuff Special Editions should always be made of, and this would be one of the finest DVDs on the market were it not for the transfer of the film itself, which appears to be a reprocessed version of the same NTSC anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer found on the bare-bones Region 1 DVD, with no sign of PAL speed-up. The picture not only shows considerable grain in some scenes, but also demonstrates marked compression artefacting and enhancement shimmer on all horizontal lines, making some scenes extremely ugly. For such a beautiful film it is a most disappointing transition to the digital format. Most unusually for a UK release, the disc is region free.--Gary S Dalkin

DVD Special Features:

Audio Commentary 1: from Director Roger Donaldson, producer Bernie Williams, and production designer John Graysmark.
Audio Commentary 2: from the Bounty's historical consultant Stephen Walters.
Original "Making of the Bounty Documentary", narrated by Edward Fox
The Bounty on Film: A gallery of stills & trailers detailing the previous film adaptations of "The Mutiny on the Bounty" narrated by Stephen Walters
Extensive Cast and Crew Profiles
28 page booklet with extensive liner notes by Stephen Walters giving an account of David Lean's involvement with the The Bounty. Includes storyboards for the propsed sequel to the film.

Language: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish and French
Widescreen Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio
No regional restriction
DVD 9

Anthony Hopkins is magnificent --Sight and Sound

Robert Bolt's screen adaptation of Richard Hough's book "Captain Bligh & Mister Christian" is directed here by Roger Donaldson ("No Way Out", "Species", "Dante's Peak") and it's a mark out of the screenplay's quality that it was originally written for David Lean to direct. Donaldson's intelligent version of the famous 18th Century mutiny boasts a stellar cast led by Anthony Hopkins (Captain Bligh) and Mel Gibson (Fletcher Christian), that also features Liam Neeson, Daniel Day Lewis, Edward Fox, Bernard Hill, and Sir Laurence Olivier.

Telling the story of "The Bounty" and her crew's ill fated voyage very much from a psychological perspective, "The Bounty" is as much a thriller as it is a gripping tale of the high seas. Handsomely photogrpahed by cinematographer Arthur Ibbetson, the film is presented here on DVD anamorphically in its original widescreen aspect ratio. END