Mat here. We were in the mood for some swashbuckling, and Mutiny on the Bounty fit the bill. This historical drama on the high seas retells the rebellion by the crew of the HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), against the tyrannical Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton).
The film opens with a bunch of average guys being brutally press-ganged into the Navy to serve on Bligh's latest voyage. Things go from bad to worse as Bligh cruelly punishes any misdemeanours with the cat o' nine tails, a freezing stint in the crow's nest or a brutal keel-hauling.
Fletcher finally reaches breaking point and wrests control of the ship, dumping Bligh and his loyalists into a longboat and setting sail for some downtime in Tahiti. Amazingly, Bligh makes it back to England and then heads back for his mutinous crew.
One of the mutineers ends up on Bligh's boat and is taken to England for court martial. The film ends with his trial, and covers some of the changes to nautical practice that were set in place to ensure the sailors' treatment that resulted in mutiny wouldn't happen again.
Despite being a very old film, Mutiny on the Bounty had a lot of modern sensibilities. The action was fast-paced and the editing brisk. The pacing is a little uneven once the men get to Tahiti as we jump forward several years with little appreciation of the time passing. The rivalry between Bligh and Fletcher was more than acting as the two actors reportedly despised each other. Gable was a well-known homophobe and Laughton was openly gay, even bringing along his buff boyfriend to their island location shoot as his 'personal masseur'.
Rather than being based strictly on the real events, Mutiny on the Bounty was based on the novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Thus there are some historical inaccuracies (such as Bligh is present at the court martial, or several men being killed in the mutiny) that follow the story of the novel rather than recorded history.
Mutiny on the Bounty was an enjoyable, if at times brutal (well, for the 30's) adventure, but if I was casting around for a fun swashbuckling movie to watch on a Saturday afternoon, I'd pick Treasure Island over this!
Danielle gave it 67/100 and I gave it 70/100 when I scored it quickly straight after we watched it and then 64/100 once I’d had time to reflect and score properly! So overall we'll say we agree and both gave it 67/100!
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