BEFORE: As often happens here at the Movie Year, I arrange films based on a particular theme, and an unplanned secondary theme develops. I meant only to start the year with a number of films based on notable books, and so far what they've all had in common amounts to rebellion, revolution, treason, and heresy. So it somehow makes sense to add mutiny to that list.
(Speaking of the List, the Encore channel ran all of the Dirty Harry movies yesterday, and I've seen the first two, but not the last three, so they've now been added to my list. Since Year 5 is about follow-ups, I'm trying to complete as many film sets as possible. While adding those films I saw another connection, which led to another way that the list could be organized, so I moved a few themed sections around - yes, that's the third restructuring of the list this year. But all you really need to know is that the James Bond films have been moved up, and the Hitchcock films pushed back.)
The other connection tonight is Best Picture winners - "A Man for All Seasons" was the Oscar winner for 1966, and tonight's film took home the prize for 1935.
Since I ran out of Mountain Dew, tonight I'll be making the viewing interactive and honoring the South Seas locale by drinking a mixture of coconut rum and Sprite.
THE PLOT: Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Bounty" (Movie #1289)
AFTER: According to Wikipedia, this film was the third version of the famous novel to be filmed - the first was an Australian silent film made in 1916, and the 2nd was a 1933 Errol Flynn film called "In the Wake of the Bounty". But it is the most famous version, later followed by the Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard film and then the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins version.
It's pretty straightforward, casting most of the blame for the mutiny directly on Captain Bligh and his punishments (flogging, cutting rations, keelhauling). Of course, since many of the ship's men were "recruited" against their will, these punishments were like adding injury to insult. The Gibson/Hopkins version was a bit more sympathetic to Bligh.
He may be the Captain you love to hate, but when he and his men are set adrift in a small boat, thousands of miles from any speck of dry land, you almost want to root for the guy. There's a time and a place for toughness and tenacity, and that guy had it when he needed it.
The fate of most of the mutineers is not shown in great detail here, though readers of the novel know that they began a colony on Pitcairn Island. This film concerns itself more with the few men still loyal to Bligh who missed the boat (literally) and were put on trial after they surrendered or were captured on Tahiti. But since the novel is really a trilogy, with the 3rd book, "Pitcairn Island" concerning itself with the later island life of the mutineers, that's something of a stylistic choice, to ignore the events of the third book.
I saw one of the stars of this film - the boat, that is - when I was in San Francisco last July. Part of the film was shot there, and around Monterey and Catalina, and the boat is still moored in S.F. harbor. It was built in 1886 and called the Balclutha, and it rounded Cape Horn 17 times as a trading ship, before getting a second life bringing Pacific Northwest timber to Australia and coal back to San Francisco. Then, under the name Star of Alaska, it was in the salmon trade for a while. Finally it was renamed the Pacific Queen and became an exhibition ship and movie star.
Oddly, I also happen to know where the ship used in filming "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is moored - the Surprise, a replica of the HMS Rose, is in the Maritime Museum of San Diego, and I pass by it every year in a taxi when I'm in San Diego for Comic-Con. For a guy who doesn't know a lot about boats, I seem to know a lot about where they're kept.
Starring Clark Gable (last seen in "The Misfits"), Charles Laughton (last seen in "Spartacus"), Franchot Tone.
RATING: 5 out of 10 yardarms
No comments:
Post a Comment