An epic retelling of the familiar story of the mutiny on HMS Bounty in the late 1700s. Trevor Howard is the now legendary Captain Bligh, meanest skipper on earth, sent from England to Tahiti to bring back breadfruit plants to feed the slaves in the Caribbean colonies. He punishes the men with what the Naval Court later describes as "an excess of zeal." His executive officer on the Bounty is Fletcher Christian, played by Marlon Brando as an aristocratic fop with an evolving humanistic streak.
The voyage to Tahiti is bad enough, what with Howard dealing out floggings as if they were going out of style. There is a restful and sometimes comic interlude while the crew gather women and plants in Tahiti. But after the ship departs for the return trip, Howard discovers that many of his precious young breadfruit plants will die without more water. The solution, as far as Howard is concerned, is simple. Cut the men's water ration and give it to the plants.
It's too much for Brando, who stages a mutiny and sets Howard and some of his supporters afloat in a whaleboat far from land. The real Bligh made an historic 4,000 mile trip to land in Timor. He was an excellent seaman and navigator. Brando and his band of mutineers return to Tahiti, pick up some extra hands and a lot of women, and make their way to Pitcairn Island, which is almost unknown.
Pitcairn was an uninhabited rough, rocky island. The mutinous band made a permanent home their descendants still live there, including at least until recently one or two people who claim to be descendants of Fletcher Christian. The swivel-hipped young lady doing the tamura on Tahiti, named Tarita, is a genuine dish and was Brando's girl friend for some years.
It's a big, splashy, epic-level Hollywood production. Most of the faces are familiar. The ship was built from the keel up expressly for the movie. It's dramatic, exciting, and beautifully shot.
Brando was evidently a bad boy during the shoot and alienated some of the other cast and crew. However, he turns in an engaging performance that's the highlight of the film. He handles the comic and serious scenes with equal skill. Trevor Howard, though, is given make ups that render him almost demonic in appearance. And he has only a single scene -- on deck at night in a brief conversation with Eddie Byrne as Frey the Sailing Master -- in which he's allowed to show any sign of an interior life. Howard Silva shows up as a Tahitian who translates. Howard Silva, of all people. Has there ever been a movie made about natives that didn't number this fellow among the cast as a Polynesian, African-American, Indian, or Mexican? As a translator he gets the few words I remember accurately enough. 'Uru is breadfruit and alu means go. The ' in 'uru represents a glottal stop, which is a speech sound English doesn't use.
Long and partly a fairy tale, it's still colorful and enjoyable.
The voyage to Tahiti is bad enough, what with Howard dealing out floggings as if they were going out of style. There is a restful and sometimes comic interlude while the crew gather women and plants in Tahiti. But after the ship departs for the return trip, Howard discovers that many of his precious young breadfruit plants will die without more water. The solution, as far as Howard is concerned, is simple. Cut the men's water ration and give it to the plants.
It's too much for Brando, who stages a mutiny and sets Howard and some of his supporters afloat in a whaleboat far from land. The real Bligh made an historic 4,000 mile trip to land in Timor. He was an excellent seaman and navigator. Brando and his band of mutineers return to Tahiti, pick up some extra hands and a lot of women, and make their way to Pitcairn Island, which is almost unknown.
Pitcairn was an uninhabited rough, rocky island. The mutinous band made a permanent home their descendants still live there, including at least until recently one or two people who claim to be descendants of Fletcher Christian. The swivel-hipped young lady doing the tamura on Tahiti, named Tarita, is a genuine dish and was Brando's girl friend for some years.
It's a big, splashy, epic-level Hollywood production. Most of the faces are familiar. The ship was built from the keel up expressly for the movie. It's dramatic, exciting, and beautifully shot.
Brando was evidently a bad boy during the shoot and alienated some of the other cast and crew. However, he turns in an engaging performance that's the highlight of the film. He handles the comic and serious scenes with equal skill. Trevor Howard, though, is given make ups that render him almost demonic in appearance. And he has only a single scene -- on deck at night in a brief conversation with Eddie Byrne as Frey the Sailing Master -- in which he's allowed to show any sign of an interior life. Howard Silva shows up as a Tahitian who translates. Howard Silva, of all people. Has there ever been a movie made about natives that didn't number this fellow among the cast as a Polynesian, African-American, Indian, or Mexican? As a translator he gets the few words I remember accurately enough. 'Uru is breadfruit and alu means go. The ' in 'uru represents a glottal stop, which is a speech sound English doesn't use.
Long and partly a fairy tale, it's still colorful and enjoyable.