Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) — A Classic High Seas Tale Told With Hollywood Panache

Sam: I was not looking forward to this one. In part due to a lack of interest in British naval history, but also because I’m against the Bounty chocolate bar. Why couldn’t we watch Mars Attacks or Galaxy Quest instead? Coincidentally those two share some major similarities.

Will: That is stupid and you should be very ashamed of yourself. British naval history is very interesting.

Sam: Well I’m coming round to it, because I really got into this film.

Will: Hooray! Heave the anchor! Run up the sails! Scrub down the poop deck! We sail this night!

Sam: So, do you want to say what the movie’s about?

Will: It’s a historically inaccurate telling of a true story — when the crew of HMS Bounty mutinied somewhere in Polynesia in 1789. Charles Laughton plays the sadistic Captain Bligh, and Clark Gable, plays the noble and sexy Fletcher Christian, one of the officers… which is a bit strange given his Americanness.

Sam: It’s a film so much about class, duty and doing things ‘the way things are meant to be done’.

Will: It’s interesting how at the start there’s some text basically declaring: ‘This mutiny happened because of too much discipline, and so the Royal Navy learnt from it, and that’s why they now keep the world’s oceans safe today!’ It’s strange to think that when the film was made the Royal Navy was still the biggest navy in the world.

Sam: It opens with a Press Gang forcibly recruiting some guys from a local tavern. I found that notion terrifying. Take some ex-convicts and some random guys with no sailing experience and tell them they’re going to embark on this hella dangerous two year expedition. I’m surprised mutinies weren’t more common.

Will: In this period the amount of shipping and long voyages was increasing exponentially, and so there was a constant demand for manpower. Hence, the press gang system — which, although it directly violated the ‘rights of freeborn Englishman’, was considered a necessity for the country’s safety and prosperity. In times of war, the Royal Navy would also stop ships and nick their best sailors, so often merchants would drop their best crew off in Ireland, just in case they got stopped as they sailed back into port. Crazy.

Sam: It wasn’t a particularly noble mission either. They were collecting breadfruit plants from Tahiti to take to the West Indies as a cheap food source for slaves.

Will: Yes, that is somewhat ignoble. It’s like in Robinson Crusoe — he only gets shipwrecked because he’s trying to become a slaver. That rather took me aback when I started the book…

Sam: Strange times, but the morality of this isn’t discussed in the film. It wasn’t particularly relevant.

Will: The focus is on life on the ship — the experience of living and working in close proximity with the same group of guys, and the use of different leadership forms: Fletcher Christian’s manly respectfulness, and Captain Bligh’s sadistic focus on discipline.

Sam: The intro to Bligh is phenomenal. It’s his custom to flog a criminal in front of the crew prior to departure to instil a sense of fear in the crew. It so happens that the criminal has died, but Bligh has him flogged anyway. I guess an even more effective method of instilling fear.

Will: Charles Laughton’s performance is utterly brilliant — it’s worth watching the film for his contemptuous sneer and punchable face. And he’s also perfectly contrasted with Clark Gable — it may be bizarre that he’s meant to be from north-west England, but his presence on the screen always elevates a film. Even if he didn’t bother to change his American accent…

Sam: He didn’t give a damn.

Will: I did like the moment when a sexy Tahitian woman remarked ‘He must be a king in his country’… in real life Clark Gable was known in Hollywood as ‘The King’.

Sam: He is inherently likeable and super charismatic. Early on he reassures one of the frightened crew members who’s leaving his wife and newborn behind. I bought into it. Clark Gable can make everything okay.

Will: What a man.

Sam: It’s certainly a film of two halves. Although Mutiny is in the title, it’s past halfway before the mutiny occurs. Which is by no means a bad thing — knowing what was coming made the first part all the more effective. It was agonising waiting for the crew to get their revenge.

Will: I disagree. I would have liked there to have been a bit of mystery. When the crew are raging against their treatment, it would have been nice to think ‘where is this going?’ Instead, I was just like, ‘Ah, they look pretty mutinous. Can’t be long now.’ Presumably, the story was/is so widely known they didn’t think it was worth hiding the fact.

Sam: Having said that. The mutiny happened quite abruptly. Gable went from saying no in one scene to handing out rifles in the next.

Will: The mutiny itself is inherently interesting. It raises questions for the audience. During the first half of the film you are willing them to resist Bligh’s sadism, but once he does it immediately feels less clear-cut. It’s not just Bligh they stick in a rowboat, it’s many of the other officers and men, who they’re essentially sending to their death. And, once mutiny has happened, everything is up in the air. They’re thousands of miles from home and all the rules have just been broken, along with any sense of central authority. I found myself very quickly wishing they hadn’t mutinied and had just dealt with Bligh’s brutality until they got home. Toppling central authority — however unjust it is — has dangerous repercussions. Like Iraq in 2003.

Sam: During the mutiny itself I was asking myself how I’d react. There was something about the speed with which it swept over the ship that would mean my impulse would have probably been to resist. Deep down though, I’d just like to fight for the winning side.

Will: What did you think about the scenes in Tahiti? They spent a long time there, hanging out with beautifully, sexually-liberated Polynesian goddesses. It felt like such an interesting contrast to the discipline-girded intensity of Anglo-Saxon, Royal Naval life.

Sam: It certainly felt a relief when they arrived after months at sea. I could only imagine how the crew felt.

Will: Especially when we consider just how filthy and hard life would have been back home. 18th century England was not an easy place to be. I did find it confusing why the Tahitians were so friendly to the British visitors. I think Captain Cook made a good impression when he visited a few years prior. Man, I’d love to watch a film about Captain Cook’s expedition.

Sam: It was portrayed as this uncomplicated paradise. But I imagine there would be some hardships living there.

Will: Indeed. I wouldn’t have minded giving it a pop though.

Sam: Definitely preferably to being under the command of Bligh. Although he does get a sort of heroic moment when he successfully navigates a lifeboat for over 40 days to the nearest friendly port after the mutiny.

Will:… which was a true story. Amazing really. And it works well thematically — do you judge him as a seaman, or as a man? Because the perils of the sea demand the former, but the requirements of leading a tightly-knit group demand the latter. The film is about the tension between the two.

Sam: I’d mutiny.

Will: Remind me never to accept you as a…

Sam: THIS IS A MUTINY.

Will: A historical saying almost as badass ‘STAND AND DELIVER!’

Sam: Alright, that was Mutiny on the Bounty. We both liked it. What’s next?

Will: Hud, from 1963, with the eternally beautiful Paul Newman.

Films Referenced

Mars Attack (Tim Burton, 1996)

Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999)

The Next Film: Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)