Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)
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Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1962 American Technicolor epic historical drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, and Richard Harris. The screenplay was written by Charles Lederer (with uncredited input from Eric Ambler, William L. Driscoll, Borden Chase, John Gay, and Ben Hecht), based on the novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Bronisław Kaper composed the score.
The film tells a fictionalized story of the real-life mutiny led by Fletcher Christian against William Bligh, captain of HMAV Bounty, in 1789. It is the second American film to be based on the novel, the first being Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), also produced by MGM.
Mutiny on the Bounty was the first motion picture filmed in the Ultra Panavision 70 widescreen process. It was partly shot on location in the South Pacific. Panned by critics, the film was a box office failure, losing more than $6 million (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation/year).
Plot
In the year 1787, the Bounty sets sail from Britain for Tahiti under the command of Captain William Bligh (Trevor Howard). His mission is to collect a shipload of breadfruit saplings and transport them to Jamaica. The government hopes the plants will thrive and provide a cheap source of food for the slaves.
The voyage gets off to a difficult start with the discovery that some cheese is missing. Seaman John Mills (Richard Harris) accuses Bligh, the true pilferer, and Bligh has Mills brutally flogged for showing contempt to his superior officer, to the disgust of his patrician second-in-command, First Lieutenant Fletcher Christian (Marlon Brando). The tone for the months to come is set by Bligh's ominous pronouncement: "Cruelty with a purpose is not cruelty, it is efficiency." Aristocrat Christian is deeply offended by his ambitious captain.
Bligh tries to reach Tahiti sooner by attempting the shorter westbound route around Cape Horn, a navigational nightmare. The strategy fails and the Bounty backtracks eastward, costing the mission much precious time. Singlemindedly, Bligh makes up the lost time by pushing the crew harder and cutting their rations.
When the Bounty reaches her destination, the crew revels in the easygoing life of the tropical paradise – and in the free-love philosophies of the Tahitian women. Christian himself is smitten with Maimiti (Tarita Teriipaia), daughter of the Tahitian king. Bligh's agitation is further fueled by the fact that the dormancy period of the breadfruit means more months of delay until the plants can be potted. As departure day nears, three men, including seaman Mills, attempt to desert but are caught by Christian and clapped in irons by Bligh.
On the voyage to Jamaica, Bligh attempts to bring back twice the number of breadfruit plants to atone for his tardiness, and must reduce the water rations of the crew to water the extra plants. One member of the crew falls from the rigging to his death while attempting to retrieve the drinking ladle. Another assaults Bligh over conditions on the ship and is fatally keelhauled. Mills taunts Christian after each death, trying to egg him on to challenge Bligh. When a crewman becomes gravely ill from drinking seawater, Christian attempts to give him fresh water, in violation of the Captain's orders. Bligh strikes Christian when he ignores his second order to stop. In response, Christian strikes Bligh. Bligh informs Christian that he will hang for his actions when they reach port. With nothing left to lose, Christian takes command of the ship and sets Bligh and the loyalist members of the crew adrift in the longboat with navigational equipment, telling them to make for a local island. Bligh decides instead to cross much of the Pacific in order to reach British authorities sooner. He returns to Britain with remarkable speed.
The military court exonerates Bligh of any misdeeds and recommends an expedition to arrest the mutineers and put them on trial, but it also comes to the conclusion that the appointment of Bligh as captain of the Bounty was wrong. In the meantime, Christian sails back to Tahiti to pick up supplies and the girlfriends of the crew. Then they go on to remote Pitcairn Island—which is marked incorrectly on the charts—to hide from the wrath of the Royal Navy. However, once on Pitcairn, Christian decides that it is their duty to return to Britain and testify to Bligh's wrongdoing, and he asks his men to sail with him. To prevent this possibility, the men set the ship on fire and Christian is fatally burned while trying to save it.
Cast
- Marlon Brando as 1st Lt. Fletcher Christian
- Trevor Howard as Capt. William Bligh
- Richard Harris as Seaman John Mills
- Hugh Griffith as Seaman Alexander Smith
- Richard Haydn as Horticulturalist William Brown
- Tarita Teriipaia as Princess Maimiti
- Matahiarii Tama as Chief Hitihiti
- Percy Herbert as Seaman Matthew Quintal
- Duncan Lamont as John Williams
- Gordon Jackson as Seaman Edward Birkett
- Chips Rafferty as Seaman Michael Byrne
- Noel Purcell as Helmsman William McCoy
- Ashley Cowan as Samuel Mack
- Eddie Byrne as John Fryer (Sailing Master)
- Tim Seely as Midshipman Edward 'Ned' Young
- Frank Silvera as Minarii
- Henry Daniell as British chief court-martial admiral (uncredited)
- Torin Thatcher as British officer Staines (uncredited)
