Mutiny on the Bounty part of The Marlon Brando Collection Mutiny on the Bounty Warner DVD 1962 / Color / 2:40? anamorphic 16:9 / 185 min., with Overture and Entr'acte / Street Date November 7, 2006 / 26.98, or in The Marlon Brando Collection with Julius Caesar, Teahouse of the August Moon, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Formula at 59.98 Starring Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith, Richard Haydn, Tarita, Percy Herbert, Duncan Lamont, Gordon Jackson, Chips Rafferty, Noel Purcell Cinematography Robert L. Surtees Art Direction George W. Davis, J. McMillan Johnson Film Editor John McSweeney Jr. Original Music Bronislau Kaper Written by Charles Lederer from the novel by Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall Produced by Aaron Rosenberg Directed by Lewis Milestone
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Despite a rocky filming history and a negative critical reception, the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty is a fine and exciting adventure film. Marlon Brando's interpretation of Fletcher Christian as a foppish aristocrat was heavily criticized, and considered inferior to Clark Gable's Oscar-nominated performance three decades before. This MGM remake of its own Best Picture winner ran wildly over budget, even after figuring in the expense of building a full-sized replica of the original Bounty from the keel up and maintaining a filming company for months in Tahiti. The film's original director Carol Reed was fired and replaced with the 65 year-old Lewis Milestone, whose previous film assignment had been to play babysitter to the Rat Pack in Ocean's Eleven. But along with its glorious Ultra Panavision scenery, this version benefits from a literate and thoughtful script by Charles Lederer which examines the self-imposed exile faced by Fletcher Christian's mutineers. Among the extras on Warners' DVD are the original opening and closing of the movie, cut before its Road Show run and only seen once -- pan-scanned -- on a network television showing. Synopsis: The preening and flamboyant Fletcher Christian (Brando) and the unyielding Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) do not see eye-to-eye on their voyage to Tahiti to pick up breadfruit trees to transplant to Jamaica. Christian's subtle disapproval only makes Bligh more cruel in his handling of the men, as when he has Seaman John Mills (Richard Harris) flogged to cover up his own petty theft. In his first command, Bligh is obsessed with getting to Tahiti and wastes weeks in a futile effort to take a short cut round the Cape Horn; when he fails he blames it on his crew. Tahiti turns out to be four months of paradise, as Royal Gardener William Brown must wait for the right time to pot his breadfruit plants. The Tahitians encourage fraternization between the sailors and their willing women. Bligh tries to forbid Christian from taking part until the Tahitian Chief Hitihiti (Matahiarii Tama) insists -- his daughter Maimiti (Tarita) and Christian have fallen in love. On their way back to England, Christian watches as Bligh's continued abuses result in the deaths of two men. Bligh then withholds water from the crew so that the precious breadfruit plants can have more. When Bligh sadistically puts a third man's life in danger, Christian can take no more. Mutiny on the Bounty came at a time when Hollywood was under scrutiny for being wasteful and inefficient; millions of dollars in delays made for good news stories when the Liz Taylor-Richard Burton Cleopatra was reportedly bankrupting its studio. Serious film critics also took offense when Carol Reed was fired soon into production; the great director's career was severely affected. Lewis Milestone's work is certainly adequate, and the movie's dramatics have nothing to be ashamed of. The press made fun of Marlon Brando's fussy Fletcher Christian, adding it to a growing list of supposed "failures" like his ambitious One-Eyed Jacks. Even Mad Magazine got into the act in a cruel parody titled Mutiny on the Bouncy in which Brando and Trevor Howard have a spat over fashion. The thousand breadfruit trees were all dubbed "Arthur," in keeping with one of the magazine's in-jokes. This Fletcher Christian is written as an historically-accurate aristocratic naval officer, to better contrast with Bligh's up-from-the-ranks martinet. Christian gives forth with the courtly manners, sly asides and preening attitude. When we see him sleeping in an amusing nightgown with a tasseled cap, we're not going to confuse him with Clark Gable. Perhaps audiences thought Marlon was having cynical fun with the role, which seems to be the case at several other moments. Fletcher makes Bligh squirm at the notion that he's being 'ordered' to make love to the Princess, and anticipates his shore leave by choosing that moment to peel a banana! The ocean voyage has an extremely impressive storm scene for the failed attempt to navigate the Cape Horn, with excellent model work and convincing physical effects. The script handles the growing discontent among the crew by assigning rebel status to Richard Harris, well cast as a complaining sea-lawyer. Brando sulks and seethes at the injustices he witnesses, but is always composed in his exchanges with the other officers. Trevor Howard's Bligh grows to hate Christian for his impudence real or imagined. But Fletcher's even-handed attitude is made clear when he upbraids a whining Midshipman, telling him that if he feels so badly, he should go have the ship's carpenter make him a cross to drag around the deck. At one point Fletcher hands Bligh the ship's cat 'o nine tails with the remark, "Here is your flag." The screenplay gives the characters depth and bite. Tahiti turns out to be a literal island of love, and the sailors run riot with the willing natives. Fletcher partakes as well, when Princess Maimiti (Tarita) makes it clear that she's attracted to him. This entire segment of the movie takes on a deeper resonance when one reflects on the fact that Brando indeed fell in love with Tahiti and later made his home there on a private island.  1 Modern revisionists of late have re-interpreted the story of The Bounty placing Captain Bligh in a more favorable light. Screenwriter Lederer underlines the story with a modified repeat of the 1935 version's idea that Fletcher Christian and his mutineers were the real losers, doomed forever to hide on the 'lost' island of Pitcairn. Ironically, Lederer posits Fletcher Christian as a good man because he's an aristocratic elitist. Both Bligh and the lowly crewmen have been brutalized by the cruel naval system and are incapable of humanistic altruism; only the enlightened Christian thinks beyond his own selfish needs. He ends up paying the stiffest penalty of all. Curiously, the film's initial director Carol Reed had already covered the theme of Fletcher Christian's fate in his earlier Joseph Conrad adaptation of Outcast of the Islands. Trevor Howard starred as a seagoing adventurer who habitually betrays his benefactors and friends, and slowly forces himself into exile in the savage wild. The 1952 movie starred Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley and Wendy Hiller and is sadly unavailable for viewing. Despite the mostly unimaginative camera setups Mutiny on the Bounty looks great, and Brando and Tarita are a sizzling couple. 1962 seems too early for the near-nudity in the sexy dance festival and it's fun to see all the English actors (Hugh Griffith, Noel Purcell) having a ball gamboling with the native maidens. Some may have had some explaining to do to the wives later on. Adding to the possible reasons for this film's lack of runaway success is the fact that the original version was still fresh in people's minds, unlike the original silent Ben-Hur from 1926 or so. Also, the downer ending didn't exactly leave the audience laughing. Warners' two-disc Special Edition of the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty looks bright and colorful in its enhanced transfer. The Ultra-Panavision image does look a bit wider than the normal 2:35 'scope format. It has been transferred from a restored 65mm element. Bronislau Kaper's thundering score sounds great in 5.1. The three-hour movie is spread across two discs, insuring a fat bit rate for the entire show. Most of the extras are about the expensive ship The Bounty built expressly for the film. A couple of faded old short subjects discuss its construction and a post-filming tour to promote the movie. A new featurette interviews the new owner and a number of shipbuilding experts and their adventure refitting the boat when it would barely stay afloat. It ended up being used in at least one more film outing, 1990's Treasure Island. The most fascinating extras are the original Prologue and Epilogue that have never before been seen in a widescreen format. They have not been amended to the movie because Mutiny on the Bounty was never publicly shown with them intact. In the brief opening and closing, a British ship accidentally finds Pitcairn Island a number of years later. Its Captain Staines (Torin Thatcher) goes ashore and discovers that the old Royal botanist William Brown is still alive. Brown tells what happened to the mutineers and offers himself up for hanging, thus becoming the narrator for the bulk of the movie that was meant to follow. The Prologue would have helped the opening, because without it the official film starts with an ugly straight cut to a special effects optical in progress. That the shot wasn't recomposited or a fade added suggests that the filmic bookends were taken out at the last minute. I watched for the appearance of unbilled Anna Lee but she didn't turn up, a clue that an additional scene in London might have been dropped as well. Could she have been Captain Bligh's wife? On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Mutiny on the Bounty rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: Alternate prologue and epilogue sequences not seen theatrically; Featurettes, After the Cameras Stopped Rolling: The Journey of the Bounty, Marlon Brando trailer gallery Packaging: Two discs in Keep case Reviewed: November 4, 2006 Republished by permission of Turner Classic Movies. Footnote: 1. In an odd turn of events, Tarita became Brando's third wife. His second was Movita, who played the island Princess Tehanni in the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty. Return [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use