WORLD TOUR Day 53 - Tahiti / French Polynesia
BEFORE: My scheduling dilemma was: how to get across the vast span between Australia and South America? Then I found a combination of two maritime-based films that would make it possible, and this is the first of the two. I've got three versions of this story to watch, but to keep the tour moving, I'll put two of them off until next year, and go with the most recent version for linking purposes.
Yep, I was right. Danny Huston from "The Proposition" was also in the remade "Clash of the Titans" with Liam Neeson (last seen in "Les Miserables").
THE PLOT: The familiar story of Lieutenant Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny on his ship.
AFTER: This is a perfect example of "Show, don't tell". You might read this book in English class and wonder WHY the crew mutinied. You might pick up on Captain Bligh's cruelty, and your teacher will point out how this symbolizes man's inhumanity to man, and yet still there might be lingering nagging questions.
Then you may watch the film version, and see the crew struggle as they face storms at Cape Horn, but finally reach Tahiti, which is a tropical paradise filled with topless women and friendly natives. After two months on the island, the crew is told to stop sleeping with the natives, get back on the boat and start eating slop again, in order to return to (one assumes) drab, dreary England. And the film becomes a visual revelation that explains the book so well.
Christian seems to be torn the most, having essentially married a local girl - Bligh was expected to consummate a relationship with a local, but as a proper married gentleman, turned it down. So it was much easier for him to leave paradise, but the crew, not so much. It seemed like they would do anything in their power to get back there, including take over the ship and set Bligh adrift.
To be fair to other recent literary works, I've also reviewed the plot of the original novel on Wikipedia. Hmm, OK, make that historical records, since this was a true story. But then who wrote the novel we all read in high school? It seems this film version might be the most historically accurate of the three notable ones, but it also didn't do very well at the box office. It's a shame, I rather enjoyed it.
Also starring Mel Gibson (last seen in "Edge of Darkness"), Anthony Hopkins (last seen in "All the King's Men"), Daniel Day-Lewis (last seen in "A Room With a View"), Bernard Hill, with a cameo from Laurence Olivier (last seen in "Spartacus").
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 4,153 miles / 6,684 km (Winton, Queensland, Australia to Papeete, French Polynesia)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 31,449 miles / 50,617 km
RATING: 6 out of 10 breadfruit trees
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