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Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable based on the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the "Bounty".
The film was one of the biggest hits of its time and remains a classic today and, although its historical accuracy has been seriously questioned (inevitable as it is based in a novel about the facts, not the facts themselves) it is considered by film critics to be the best film inspired by the mutiny.
movie chronicles the real-life mutiny aboard the Bounty led by Fletcher Christian against the ship's captain, William Bligh.
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Quotations
A Thousand Hours of Hell For One Moment of Love!
Clark Gable as the daring mutineer in the screen's most exciting adventure story!
to a crewman who begs for water I'll give you water. Mr. Morrison. Keel haul this man.
to Bligh I'll take my chance against the law. You'll take yours against the sea.
to Bligh Now you've given your last command on this ship. We'll be men again if we hang for it.
to Christian They respect but one law - the law of fear...I expect you to carry out whatever orders I give, whenever I give them.
Encyclopedia
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable based on the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the "Bounty".
The film was one of the biggest hits of its time and remains a classic today and, although its historical accuracy has been seriously questioned (inevitable as it is based in a novel about the facts, not the facts themselves) it is considered by film critics to be the best film inspired by the mutiny.
Plot
The movie chronicles the real-life mutiny aboard the Bounty led by Fletcher Christian against the ship's captain, William Bligh. Like the novel, it portrays Captain Bligh as an abusive villain whose cruelty towards the crew and most of the officers leads Christian to mutiny. It contains scenes of the trials of those who had been put off the ship on the launch. It also deals with the aftermath.
Historical inaccuracies
The movie does contain a few historical inaccuracies. Captain Bligh was never on board HMS Pandora, nor was he present at the trial of the mutineers who stayed on Tahiti. At the time he was halfway around the world on a second voyage for breadfruit plants. Fletcher Christian's father had died many years before Christian's travels on board the Bounty—the movie shows the elder Christian at the trial. It should be noted though, that the movie was always presented as an adaptation of the Nordhoff and Hall trilogy, which already differed from the actual story of the mutiny.
Bligh is depicted as a brutal, sadistic disciplinarian. Particular episodes include a keelhauling and flogging a dead man. Neither of these happened. Keelhauling was used rarely, if at all, and had been abandoned long before Bligh's time. Indeed the meticulous record of the Bounty's log reveals that the flogging rate was lower than the average for that time. Prior to the Mutiny the "Bounty" had only two deaths—one seaman died of scurvy (not keelhauling) and the ship's surgeon died apparently of drink and indolence and not as a result of abuse by Bligh. Likewise the movie shows the mutineers taking over the ship only after killing several loyal crewmen when in fact none died—although one crewman came very close to shooting Bligh until stopped by Christian. Lastly Christian is shown being inspired to take over the ship after several crewmen have unjustly been put into irons by Bligh; this is fictional license.
However, some historically accurate aspects exist in the film. Clark Gable had to shave off his famous moustache because the sailors in the Royal Navy in the eighteenth century had to be clean-shaven. Gable was reluctant to shave it off, though.
In the final scene of the film Gable gives a rousing speech to his fellow mutineers speaking of creating a perfect society of free men on Pitcairn away from Bligh and the Navy. The reality was very different. Free from the restraints of Naval discipline the mutineers proved incapable of self-government. Pitcairn degenerated into a true hell on earth of drunkenness, rape and ultimately murder. Apart from John Adams all the mutineers perished, most of them by violence. Whether the film intended the irony is not known.
Production
Filming locations
- French Polynesia
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA (studio)
- Monterey Bay, Monterey, California, USA
- Monterey Harbor, Monterey, California, USA
- Sailing Ship Restaurant, Pier 42, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, California, USA (ship "Ellen" as "The Bounty")
- San Miguel Island, California, USA
- Santa Barbara Channel, Channel Islands, California, USA
- Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, California, USA
- South Beach Harbor, South Beach, San Francisco, California, USA (ship "Ellen" as "The Bounty")
- South Pacific, Pacific Ocean
- Tahiti, French Polynesia
Awards and honors
Academy Awards
This film is, as of 2008, the last Best Picture winner to win in no other category.
Awards the film missed out on.
Other honors
American Film Institute recognition
Gallery
Image:Charles_Laughton_in_Mutiny_on_the_Bounty_trailer.jpg
Image:Clark_gable_mutiny_bounty_9.jpg
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Image:Mutiny_bounty_5.jpg
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Image:Mamo_clark_gable_mutiny_bounty.jpg
Image:Clark_gable_franchot_tone_mutiny_1.jpg
Remakes
A 1962 three-hours-plus widescreen Technicolor remake, starring Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as Captain Bligh, was a disaster both critically and financially at the time, but has come to be reevaluated by critics. In 1984, Mel Gibson played Christian opposite Anthony Hopkins as Bligh in a lavish remake called The Bounty. This final version, which gives a far more sympathetic view of Bligh, is considered to be the closest to historical events.
The 1935 version was itself not the first film account of the mutiny. In 1933, an Australian film entitled In the Wake of the Bounty, with the then-unknown Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian, was released, but was not successful and received few bookings outside of Australia.
Parodies
- Friz Freleng's cartoon Mutiny on the Bunny casts Yosemite Sam (called Shanghai Sam) as a foul-tempered skipper who shanghais Bugs Bunny, only to see Bugs rebel. Also, in one scene in Freleng's earlier Buccaneer Bunny, Bugs dresses up as Capt. Bligh and barks out orders to Sam (called Seagoin' Sam).
- In The Simpsons episode "The Wettest Stories Ever Told" features the family telling stories set on ships. The second segment is a parody on Mutiny on the Bounty and casts Principal Skinner as Capt. Bligh, brutalizing the crew members (played by Bart, Milhouse, Martin, Nelson, Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney).
Miscellany
External links
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