“Mutiny on the Bounty” is based on a true story of an English ship in the South Pacific in 1787 where crew members were experiencing severe abuse from their captain. To make a long story short, the situation leads to mutiny aboard the ship. The heavy drama was well handled by director Lewis Milestone (“Ocean’s 11” 1960), who instilled the movie with outstanding production values, good performances, and great writing by Charles Lederer, who adapted the screenplay from the 1932 novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
The cast includes Marlon Brando as First Lt. Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as Captain William Bligh. Many critics consider Brando’s performance as the weak link of the film, especially with his English accent appearing a bit labored, coming across as fake. It might have been better for Brando to just speak in his native American English. At any rate, Brando muddled through and most performances are top-rate, such as Howard as Bligh, the antagonist the audience quickly learns to despise.
Co-stars include Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith, Richard Haydn, Percy Herbert, Duncan Lamont, Frank Silvera, Torin Thatcher, Henry Daniell, and Tarita as Princess Maimiti. This was Tarita’s only film role; she was married to Brando from 1962-1972. (Their marriage and children amounts to a full-blown soap opera, too much to cover in this space.)
The watchable “Mutiny on the Bounty” experienced larger than expected production costs, blowing up the budget to twenty million dollars, a lot of money in the early 1960’s. It needed to make at least double that amount in theatrical release to be considered profitable, but garnered only about twenty million. This means “Mutiny on the Bounty” was a huge box office bomb for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning none, including Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Special Effects, Best Cinematography/Color (Robert Surtees), Best Musical Score (Bronislaw Kaper), and Best Song (“Follow Me,” music by Bronislaw Kaper, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster). Other major movie versions of this story have been “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935) starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, and “The Bounty” (1984) with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
cinema
My Review
“Mutiny on the Bounty” is based on a true story of an English ship in the South Pacific in 1787 where crew members were experiencing severe abuse from their captain. To make a long story short, the situation leads to mutiny aboard the ship. The heavy drama was well handled by director Lewis Milestone (“Ocean’s 11” 1960), who instilled the movie with outstanding production values, good performances, and great writing by Charles Lederer, who adapted the screenplay from the 1932 novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
The cast includes Marlon Brando as First Lt. Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as Captain William Bligh. Many critics consider Brando’s performance as the weak link of the film, especially with his English accent appearing a bit labored, coming across as fake. It might have been better for Brando to just speak in his native American English. At any rate, Brando muddled through and most performances are top-rate, such as Howard as Bligh, the antagonist the audience quickly learns to despise.
Co-stars include Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith, Richard Haydn, Percy Herbert, Duncan Lamont, Frank Silvera, Torin Thatcher, Henry Daniell, and Tarita as Princess Maimiti. This was Tarita’s only film role; she was married to Brando from 1962-1972. (Their marriage and children amounts to a full-blown soap opera, too much to cover in this space.)
The watchable “Mutiny on the Bounty” experienced larger than expected production costs, blowing up the budget to twenty million dollars, a lot of money in the early 1960’s. It needed to make at least double that amount in theatrical release to be considered profitable, but garnered only about twenty million. This means “Mutiny on the Bounty” was a huge box office bomb for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning none, including Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Special Effects, Best Cinematography/Color (Robert Surtees), Best Musical Score (Bronislaw Kaper), and Best Song (“Follow Me,” music by Bronislaw Kaper, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster). Other major movie versions of this story have been “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935) starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, and “The Bounty” (1984) with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.