Mutiny on the Bounty 1936

This week has gone pretty fast. Got the movie in last week but didn't get around to watching it till Friday, but I did clear most of my shows off the DVR and now that most shows have ended either for the summer or for good (RIP Lost and Flashforward) I have more time to watch movies. When I finally did get around to watching Mutiny on the Bounty I found out that the disc had some scratches on it so it skipped some parts. But I don't think I missed that much.

I was talking to someone earlier in the week and told them I was going to watch Mutiny on the Bounty and they asked me what it is about. I was like its right in the title theres a mutiny on the Bounty. Sums up the whole movie, what else needs to be said. But, just in case you haven't read the book, or seen any of the movies (I think there have been at least 3 versions)here is a quick plot synopsis. Basically the Bounty leaves from England to go to Tahiti to get breadfruit trees. The captain of the ship is William Bligh who is very harsh to his men and believes strict discipline is the only thing to keep them line. Fletcher Christian is the 1st Lieutenant and after witnessing one too many beating he organizes a mutiny and takes the ship back to Tahiti. Back on Tahiti the men live in relative peace with the natives and many men marry Tahitian women. When they see another British ship coming they know they are going to be hung for their mutiny so they take the Bounty and find a deserted island to live and burn the Bounty so no one will find it.

The movie was pretty good. The acting was excellent and the three main characters Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian, Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh, and Franchot Tone as Byam all got nominated for Best Actor. The only time 3 actors all got nominated for the same movie oddly enough none of them won the winner was Victor McLaglen in The Informer. It was soon after this that the Academy added the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories to prevent it from happening again. It was also the last movie to win Best Picture without winning any other awards and the second Best Picture winner in a row to star Clark Gable. Along with the acting everything else in the movie was well done too. The action sequences were pretty good. The love story was quick but just enough. Although I might have missed some of the love story because that is where the DVD skipped the most, but it worked for me.

What I didn't know till after watching it that the movie is based on true events. While a lot of liberties were taken the basic plot is true. The fact that Captain Bligh managed to sail his life boat through open waters using only a sextant and a pocket is pretty amazing. And then I was reading about the mutineers who lived on Picairn Island. There were 9 Britons, six Tahitians and 11 women who landed there. And at first it seemed like a tropical paradise but there were a lot of fighting and dislike between the Tahitians and Britons. Eventually after most of the original men had died there was peace on the island. Obviously with lots of inbreeding there were some health problems but today there are about 50 people that live on Pitcairn Island which oddly enough is now a British Overseas Territory.