Stars: Charles Laughton (Captain Bligh), Clark Gable (Fletcher Christian), Franchot Tone (Ensign Byam), Maria "Movita" Castaneda (Tehani), Mamo Clark (Maimiti)
Director: Frank Lloyd
Awards / Honors
- 1 Oscar win - Best Picture
- 7 Additional Oscar nominations in 5 different categories - Best Director, Best Actor (Charles Laughton), Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actor (Franchot Tone), Best Writing (Adpated Screenplay), Best Music (Score), Best Film Editing
- #86 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (1997)
- #19 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains - Captain Bligh, Villain (2003)
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 2 Hours, 12 Minutes
Format: DVD (not yet available on Blu-ray)
Odyssey Rating: 3 Stars (John - 4 Stars, Beth - 2 Stars)
John's Take
This was a film that neither Beth nor I had seen before we started our little Odyssey. Now that I have seen it, I am left with a single question: Is it possible to really like a movie, but not have anything to say about it? Because when it comes to Mutiny on the Bounty, I got nothing.
I have been thinking about what I was going to write about this movie for some time now. I thought I might write about how this was the first movie where Beth and I really had divergent opinions. I really liked it. She really didn’t. I could write about that. As I started putting words to paper, however, I remembered that her response to the question, “Why didn’t you like it?” immediately after watching the film was “I don’t know. I just don’t”. That didn’t really leave me a lot to write about, so I sort of ditched that idea.
Then I thought that it might be interesting to write about how Movita, one of the female leads of this film, ended up becoming getting to married to Marlon Brando in the late 50’s and they remained married until Brando starred in the 1962 re-make of Mutiny on the Bounty. Marlon would go on to marry his co-star Tarita Teriipia, who was played Fletcher Christian's Tahitian wife in the ’62 version of the film. An odd little coincidence to be sure, but I couldn’t figure out how to stretch that out to 1000 or so words.
It then occurred to me that I could write about how this is first time I had ever seen Clark Gable without a mustache. I think it is pretty safe to say when most people picture Mr. Gable in their minds; they see him with a mustache – ala Gone with the Wind, It Happened One Night, etc.. But then, while a clean-shaven Clark Gable is a strange little aberration, it is hardly worth a thousand words.
There is also the fact that Mutiny on the Bounty was the last movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture without winning an Oscar in any other category. This is despite the fact that Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone were all nominated for the Best Actor award, yet the trophy still managed to end up in the hands of Victor McLaglen for his role in The Informer. Again, a weird occurrence, but I wasn’t sure how to stretch that out to a full post.
I could always just fall back on the old “stand-bys”; how the acting is great, the cinematography is spectacular, the writing superb, etc., etc.. The problem is that none of those things are really true. They are all executed well, mind you, just not spectacularly. You can find better examples of any of those cinematic elements in the movies that preceded this one in the list. So, I guess that idea is out as well.
So where does that leave us? I guess that leaves us with the answer: Yes, it is possible to really like a movie, but not be able to say much about it. That is because it is possible that the film does all the little things just well enough to make the whole endeavor an enjoyable experience, but does not do anything well enough to make any one element truly stand out. Mutiny on the Bounty is one of those films. It is a film has lots of little flourishes and interesting little facts surrounding it, which all combine to make for a great movie, even if you might not be sure why it is great. I give Mutiny on the Bounty a rating of 4 Stars.
John
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