![Viavision [Imprint]](https://cinesavant.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/6750imprint0522.png)
Viavision’s special edition Blu-ray of the Anthony Hopkins – Mel Gibson The Bounty strikes one as a disc producer’s labor of love. This third major version of the famous maritime incident of 1789 did not attract critical praise, and both of its stars voiced grave dissatisfaction. Hopkins vowed to never again relinquish control over his character; and Gibson confessed that he didn’t try hard enough to give a good performance.
As finished The Bounty certainly meets its requirements as entertainment — it’s beautiful and reasonably accurate in its design. The performances are much more than adequate. It’s far truer to the historical events and characters than the impressive previous productions, the Laughton/Gable 1935 version and the 1962 Howard/Brando version. Written by Robert Bolt and directed by Australian Roger Donaldson, the ’84 Bounty de-mythologizes the fateful voyage. Neither William Bligh nor Fletcher Christian emerge as faultless in the mutiny. Neither character is given emotional ‘closure.’
The big-scale movie was filmed in London, Tahiti, New Zealand and an island called Moorea. We’re told that everything below decks was studio work and everything above on location, yet a strong sense of at-sea realism is felt at all times, even when special effects are used. The two stars acquit themselves well, and the supporting cast features two future stars names, Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson.
The story is told as flashbacks from the court-martial of Lt. William Bligh (Anthony Hopkins), presided over by Admiral Hood (Laurence Olivier) and Captain Greetham (Edward Fox). Three years before, Bligh set sail in the ship Bounty to transport breadfruit trees from Tahiti to Jamaica, as an economical way of feeding slaves. He eagerly invites his associate and friend Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson) to serve under the Admiralty-appointed Ship’s Master, John Fryer (Daniel Day-Lewis). The ship tries and fails to navigate Cape Horn, and Bligh resigns himself to a much longer voyage around Africa.
They’re welcomed in Tahiti, where Bligh’s mission to grow breadfruit seedlings goes well. Most of the crew ‘go native,’ sleeping with the willing Polynesian women, getting tattoos, etc.. Christian takes up with Mauatua (Tevaite Vernette), the daughter of King Tynah (Wi Kuki Kaa). When he tries to reestablish seagoing discipline on the way home, Bligh runs up against increased insubordination. The mutiny is launched when he announces his intention to try the Cape Horn route again.
Although expert Stephen Walters’ commentary tells us that this version also changes history concerning the mutiny, Robert Bolt’s adaptation feels more credible than the two earlier films. The main conflict is not simply a clash of personalities between Captain and Ship’s Master. The mutiny is not a ‘revolution’ against inhumane conditions in the Royal Navy — Bligh is actually more lenient than the norm. Instead, we’re shown that the crew is so affected by the sexual paradise of Tahiti that they’re no longer willing to put up with their lives of servitude. Instead of a straight clash between good and bad, or a vague tale of injustice, Bounty ’84 shows a more believable, and more depressing, muddle of causes and motives.
The 1962 Brando version presented the island encounter as a romantic meeting of two worlds. The sailors of Bounty ’84 forget everything when confronted by a society where love is free, where beautiful & willing maidens seek them out for lovemaking. The prospect of leaving Paradise for the misery of life back in England alters everyone’s mindset. Sailor Churchill (Liam Neeson) seems incapable of finding happiness anywhere, and is severely punished for trying to run away.
When Christian leads the mutiny, he openly expresses his misgivings — he already knows that failure is certain, that nothing will work out. He’ll forever be an outlaw with a price on his head. King Tynah disavows the mutineers as well. The romantic finale for Christian and Mauatua is darkened by what we are told was their fate on Pitcairn’s Island. The mutineers are lost between two worlds. They think they can defy the unforgiving social order back home, but are also incapable of adopting the Tahitians’ free and open ways.
William Bligh comes off as the better man, and not just because he has the weight of Navy authority behind him. He eagerly takes a command that the better-born Fletcher Christian dismisses as a ‘grocery run.’ Stubborn ambition sometimes gets the better of Bligh, as when he refuses to admit that conditions at Cape Horn won’t permit their passage. As an up-through-the-ranks officer, Bligh must suffer the disdainful second-guessing of John Fryer, who nevertheless turns out to be more reliable than the easy-going ‘popular’ Fletcher Christian.
Bligh isn’t a sadistic authoritarian (Charles Laughton) or a repressed Puritan (Trevor Howard). He accepts the Tahitians’ ‘savage’ ways to expedite his mission. And what commander could get 60 men, penned up for months, to resist the native allure?
Lt. Bligh’s remarkable exploit, cast adrift in a small boat with 19 men, surely cemented his reputation in the King’s Navy. Hopkins plays Bligh as eternally grateful for his exoneration . . . he knows full well that as commander, he shares the responsibility for everything bad that happened.
At only a little over two-hours, Bounty ’84 isn’t a drawn-out roadshow epic. The flashback framework enables some time-saving narrative ellipsis. Everything is staged exceedingly well — the departure from Portsmouth, the storm of Cape Horn, and the awesome welcome they receive in Tahiti. Is that reception perhaps a bit exaggerated? Donaldson and company’s corps of Polynesian maidens are uniformly tallish beauties with Anglo-positive features. The scene plays like a special swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, but without the swim suits.
King Tynah sends one of his daughters to sleep with Bligh, as a greeting gift. She’s relatively short, plump and amusingly open with her feelings. In no way willing to have sex with her, Bligh paces the floor and waits for ‘rescue’ by Fletcher. She’s still sulking when Christian intercedes with an ‘urgent’ call to deck: “The ship is sinking, sir.” ↑
The adaptation has a good sense of detail. A fight below decks is standard stuff, but a ‘gagging’ punishment is genuinely scary. Bligh’s indulgence of the alcoholic ship’s doctor points up the limit of his authority — the worse-than-useless sawbones probably outranks him. The ship’s youngest officer is barely more than a teenager; instead of learning his duties, he identifies with the crew early on, and even abets Churchill’s escape. A scene in which Christian gets tattooed is a nice touch, especially when it shows that his competitor Fryer bears him no specific ill will. This version finally depicts the fate of loyal crewman Cole (Bernard Hill) at the hands of less-friendly islanders, a historical fact skipped over in other versions.
[Imprint’s] commentaries, featurettes and docus include plenty of learned history about the mutiny. Robert Bolt’s screenplay stresses the mind-blowing carnal experience of the British sailors, and the production conjures up a pagan fertility dance-ritual scene, the first to top the hot gyrations of Dolores del Rio in the pre-Code sizzler Bird of Paradise. What isn’t well communicated is the asymmetrical mixing of two worlds. The Tahitians are indeed a culture of natural love, open and receptive to the foreign voyagers. But the white sailors consider themselves superior to their island hosts, and take Tahitian generosity for granted. The film doesn’t tell us that their sleeping partners were not all volunteers. When the historical mutineers fled the island for the last time, they tricked a number of island women into coming with them.
Until now we’ve questioned the final scene in all three major versions: Fletcher Christian burns the Bounty, when its timbers could be used to build on shore. The disc commentaries clear up that question — Pitcairn had no harbor or cove on which the Bounty could be beached, limiting their options. The mutineers first landed everything they could from the ship, including some of its wooden beams.
