Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Mutiny on the Bounty was chosen as the Best Picture of 1935. It's Hollywood filmmaking from the 1930s at its best. It's the story of a revolt by many of the men aboard the HMS Bounty, whose Captain Bligh uses punishment and intimidation to keep his men in line. After witnessing numerous incidents of Bligh's petty and tyrannical ways, Fletcher Christian leads a revolt and seizes the ship in the South Seas. Bligh, through a remarkable series of events, makes it to safety and devotes himself to seeking out the men responsible for the mutiny in order to see them punished.

Everyone in the cast is first rate. In fact, three of the leads were nominated for Best Actor: Charles Laughton as the spiteful and jealous Bligh, one of his signature roles in a long career; Clark Gable as Christian, a man who never lets his sense of decency be overwhelmed by Bligh's bad behavior; and Franchot Tone as the naive Byam, who is new to his position as a midshipman and is learning just how bad conditions can be. Oddly enough, all three of them lost to Victor McLaglen in The Informer; he was the only other nominee, by the way. My guess is that Academy members had a difficult time discerning which of the three men in Mutiny on the Bounty gave the better performance; they are uniformly excellent here, each one intriguing to watch.

The scenes aboard the ship are particularly interesting for their depictions of the day-to-day existence of sailors. These men would sign on or be forced to sign on for voyages that would take them away from their families and lives back in England for as long as two years. You get a real sense of the drudgery of their lives on board, and you'll feel the desperation they have to return to their homeland. When you add the nastiness of a Captain Bligh, who was apparently a remarkable navigator but an incredibly unpleasant human being, you begin to understand the unrest that develops.

My favorite sequences involve the ship's landing in Tahiti. Charged with obtaining 100 breadfruit plants, the crew soon fall in love with the island and its people. Christian and Byam, in particular, seem to relish their days in the sun with two of the beautiful Tahitian women. After such an idyllic time, why wouldn't Christian be more inclined to object to the harsh conditions aboard the Bounty? And it's hardly surprising that after the mutiny, he would take the ship back to the island to enjoy more of the beauty that he found there. Those scenes in Tahiti certainly must have served to increase tourism.

I wouldn't watch Mutiny on the Bounty to learn the truth about what happened on the ship. Movies aren't really history lessons anyway. But if you want a sense of adventure and some thrills and if you'd like to see some dynamic interaction between talented actors, this movie has it all. It's a good example of the old cliche that "they don't make them like that any more."