Best Picture Winner: #8
Original Release Date:
Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 2 hours, 12 minutes
Director: Frank Lloyd
Quick Impressions:
“Have you seen this movie before?” my daughter asked as we started.
“I’ve definitely seen Bugs Bunny do it,” I replied. Surely at some point during my childhood, I must have seen at least part of Mutiny on the Bounty. The film seems to come up in every classic film star’s biography as if actors in those days did nothing but talk of it constantly (and have “secret” affairs with Joan Crawford). But I swear, all that comes to mind is Bugs Bunny imitating Charles Laughton, intoning tyrannically, “Mr. Christian!”’
As we began to watch, all I knew about the historical incident on which the film is based is 1) It happened and 2) Something about Pitcairn Island. Now I know that although the film is based on documented historical events, it is more directly based on a novel.
During the opening credits, I was excited to notice that this nautical adventure is helmed by Frank Lloyd, who also directed Best Picture winner #6, Cavalcade. Then the movie started, and I asked, “Hey isn’t that ol’ what’s his name who starts a tavern and gets run over by horses?” Sure enough, Hebert Mundin, a supporting actor from Cavalcade also appears in this film. And obviously, Clark Gable stars as Fletcher Christian, everybody’s favorite mutineer.
“He looks so different without his mustache,” my daughter complained. “All these guys look too much alike to me!” (Is that what happened between Gable and Crawford? He shaved his mustache, and then she kept mixing him up with her husband Franchot Tone?) Even stacheless, Gable looks quite distinct from Tone to me. But you know who really stands out? Charles Laughton as the sadistic Captain Bligh! As played by Laughton, Bligh is, at best, an aloof sadist. That’s why I was so surprised to discover three-fourths of the way through that he had become my favorite character in the movie! As far as I’m concerned, Bligh is the only character. He’s not a good man by any means. But he sure is one heck of a sailor! I walked away from the film thinking, “Anyone with a handsome face and a pleasant demeanor can charm women and steal a ship, but there is only one Captain Bligh.” I’m not sure that was the lesson of the film. (In fact, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.) But that was my takeaway.
That Captain Bligh—what a guy! (I imagine that in the inflection my older son always uses when he tosses out the phrase.) For better or worse, Bligh distinguishes himself. He’s awful, yes, but you certainly notice him. In fact, he’s the only character in the film whose adventures I would like to continue to follow. What a guy, indeed!
The Plot:
In the late 1780s, the HMS Bounty sets sail from Portsmouth harbor on a mission to bring back breadfruit trees from Tahiti to provide a cheap food source for slaves. The voyage will be long and arduous. Commanding the ship is Captain Bligh, an unforgiving sadist who seems to get a thrill from breaking men’s spirits through physical and psychological torture. First mate Fletcher Christian, popular with nearly everyone, can’t stand the way Bligh treats the officers and (especially) the crew. Midshipman Roger Byam, meanwhile, just wants to write a Tahitian dictionary and imagine beautiful mermaids. When tensions on the Bounty mount to a breaking point, Mr. Christian leads a mutiny to take control of the ship, but the story doesn’t end there.
The Good:
Mutiny on the Bounty becomes immensely compelling the moment Charles Laughton’s Captain Bligh steps on deck. He’s so awful. Right away, he forces the men in his command to take up a cat o’nine tails and lash the back of a man who is already dead (from too many lashes). He’s really just odious. You watch and think, “Why would anyone agree to sail under this man?” The trick is, they haven’t exactly agreed. Most of these men have been impressed into the navy. Even first mate Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) would have preferred not to sail with Bligh (who pointedly requested him). Very early on, Bligh remarks to Mr. Christian that he specifically requested him as a first mate because Christian comes from a prominent family, and self-made man Bligh gets a thrill out of bossing him around. Captain Bligh himself explains this to Mr. Christian with perfect transparency and evident delight.
There’s “mutiny” in the film’s title, and mutiny on everyone’s minds (in the film and in the audience) from practically the moment the ship leaves the harbor. My daughter and I watched in eager suspense, stunned that the mutiny wasn’t happening sooner. Practically everything Captain Bligh says or does seems destined to incite mutiny. In fact, it’s hard not to watch and think he’s not trying to incite mutiny for the sheer pleasure of punishing the guilty. At a certain point, Bligh does begin overtly attempting to provoke Mr. Christian to act against him. To me, Bligh is an utterly fascinating character. Thinking back on the movie now, I wonder, “Is he the one who decided there would be a mutiny on the Bounty? Did the captain want mutiny? Is he an unthinking sadist or a calculated manipulator of men?” I don’t think he expected to lose control of his ship, but I do think Bligh hopes to drive others to lose their tempers.
Throughout the early part of the film, Gable’s Fletcher Christian is easily the most sympathetic character in the story. Bligh is horrible right from the start. Franchot Tone’s Byam is a pleasant enough fellow, but he clearly has no business going on a multi-year sea voyage. Christian, on the other hand, is an experienced sailor who gains the trust and loyalty of the crew through his effortless charm. We watch him watching Bligh’s cruelty and think, “Act now, Mr. Christian! Act soon! Act fast! Take the ship! He’s a monster. You’re a good man!”
By the time the Bounty finally arrives in Tahiti, we can see plainly that there will be no ordinary return voyage. Frankly, I’m amazed that anybody agreed to get back on the ship in the first place. Of course, some officers do remain loyal to Captain Bligh, some a bit too eager to carry out his severe punishments, and some obedient to Bligh only because they are loyal to the king.
Until the moment the mutiny happens, Clark Gable owns this movie. It’s easy to daydream of mutiny. Not only is Captain Bligh so awful, but Mr. Christian is so attractive an alternative. Everybody loves Mr. Christian. He’s both affable and capable. He deserves command of the ship. Gable does shine in the pre-mutiny part of the film (which must comprise most of its total runtime). Not only is he charming and charismatic, but he also lets us see Fletcher’s torment as he wrestles with the idea of what to do. He’s a career sailor who has always served in the Royal Navy with pride, so obviously, mutiny is not a choice he makes lightly. Gable was nominated for Best Actor for his work here, and it’s easy to see why.
But when the mutiny comes, suddenly Laughton’s Captain Bligh becomes star of the show. For me, the real movie began at this (late) moment. What happened after the mutiny took me by surprise. We get to see unexpected dimensions of Captain Bligh. Plus the story suddenly becomes fascinating, gripping, and above all improbable. What Bligh accomplishes late in the film seems almost superhuman. His early cruelty for no apparent reason makes him odious. But late in the film, he has a very good reason indeed for his Ahab-like descent into monomaniacal revenge mode. (I honestly started rooting for him. I thought, “Well, you aren’t good. But you’re the one with the most compelling story here.” What a character! It’s easy to imagine him as the creation of a great novelist, but Bligh was a real man.) Laughton was also nominated for Best Actor, and it’s easy to see why.
Franchot Tone (nominated for Best Actor, too, believe it or not) gets his chance to shine very late in the film. (His character gets a compelling scene early on, but it’s Gable who makes the most of this moment.) During the trial phase of the story, in the film’s final act, Tone gets the opportunity to make a number of immensely compelling speeches.
“I like this guy,” my daughter decided. I learned after the film that Byam is a fictionalized version of real crew member Peter Heywood. He probably gets such fantastic speeches in the end because his character narrates the 1932 novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. In Hollywood terms, Tone is pretty clearly playing a (prominent) supporting role in this movie, so it’s not surprising to learn that the Best Supporting Actor category was created after all three of these men earned Best Actor nominations for the same film.
The supporting cast is good, too. Especially compelling are Eddie Quillan (whose face looks so familiar) playing Ellison, a young man impressed into the navy who wants nothing more than to remain at home with his wife and infant son, and Dudley Digges as the fittingly named Dr. Bacchus, a perpetually inebriated peg-legged fellow who has so many different stories about how he lost his leg that he must have originally been a centipede. Every time he was onscreen, I thought of Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse.
The scenes of storms at sea and mutiny on the ship are well filmed and surprisingly exciting. I haven’t seen anything more recent that looks any better.
Best Scene:
The mutiny itself is extremely exciting. We’ve certainly been waiting for it. And for a movie made in the 1930s, it manages to be quite violent. (I wonder now if I’m surprised by the violence of 1930s films because I first saw many of them slightly sanitized to re-air on television.)
A scene anticipating this violence is also excellent, the moment when Christian and Byam refuse cheese when dining with the captain. All three stars give excellent performances in this tense moment.
Best Scene Visually:
Probably most memorable is the scene when Tone’s character is forced to remain up in the crow’s nest during a shockingly violent storm at sea. The storm itself looks so intense (and shows us quite effectively just how difficult it is to survive in such turbulent seas, which helps us form expectations later). On the verge of death up there, hanging on for dear life, Tone also manages to look somewhat like a crucifix.
Best Action Sequence:
I’m a fan of Bligh’s catastrophically executed stab at revenge which at moments looks so similar to scenes in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise that I’m convinced the makers of those movies watched Mutiny on the Bounty for inspiration.
The Negatives:
The movie loses energy during the sojourn on Tahiti. I realize that 1) This movie is based on historical events, and 2) The idyllic moments spent on shore give the crew time to reflect on how much they hate to return to an intolerable situation. Still, this is the dullest part of the story.
The romance between Gable and Mamo Clark feels weirdly empty and forced. It pointedly annoyed my daughter who kept yelling, “Why are there so many scenes of them kissing? We get it!” If anything, this romance made me more sympathetic to Tone’s character since he seemed to behave with more thoughtfulness, consideration, and honor.
My daughter asked again and again if this was an accurate depiction of Tahitian culture and behavior at the time. I honestly don’t know (though given Hollywood’s track record with such things, I will admit that I doubt it).
The scenes on Tahiti almost seem designed to make the movie audience long to visit the South Pacific, as if there’s a tourism commercial interrupting the movie. (To my daughter, I joked, “And now for the night show at Disney’s Polynesian resort!”)
I also find the ship’s actual mission a bit odd. We want a cheap, convenient source of food for slaves, so take a ship from England around the Cape of Good Hope, all the way to the South Pacific, pick up some trees, and then grow them on the way back. For whom exactly is that cheap or convenient? (I guess for the people who impressed the crew, the same people who own the slaves.) But I’m not critiquing the movie now, I know. I guess I’m just registering a complaint about Western civilization.
Overall:
The best part of Mutiny on the Bounty begins after the mutiny. I was so surprised and thrilled by the unlikely ending. Captain Bligh is an odious character whose adventures I would watch endlessly. I’d love some insight into this strange man. Has anyone made a prequel? My daughter said at the end of the film, “That movie was surprisingly good.” It’s now her third favorite of our project so far, behind Wings and It Happened One Night.