Screen Depictions of the Mutiny on the Bounty


Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

DIRECTOR
Frank Lloyd
RUNNING TIME
132 Minutes
COLOR OR B & W?
Black & White
YAHOO RATING
A-
IMDb RATING
7.8 out of 10
FLETCHER CHRISTIAN
Clark Gable
LT. WILLIAM BLIGH
Charles Laughton
JOHN FRYER
DeWitt Jennings
ROGER BYAM
Franchot Tone
COMMENT
Bligh is depicted, at least on the Bounty, as a raving sadist, although he was in fact far from  that.  A powerful movie, although the simplistic in its good vs. evil storyline. The historical inaccuracies in this movie are too numerous to mention.
TRIVIA
James Cagney, vacationing near the location of filming on Catalina Island and looking for a few extra dollars, played a sailor for one day....Gable, Laughton, and Tone all received Oscar nominations for best actor--a movie industry first.


Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

DIRECTOR Lewis Milestone
RUNNING TIME 178 Minutes
COLOR OR B & W? Color
YAHOO RATING B+
IMDb RATING 6.8 out of 10
FLETCHER CHRISTIAN Marlon Brando
LT. WILLIAM BLIGH Trevor Howard
JOHN MILLS
Richard Harris
ALEXANDER SMITH
Hugh Griffith
COMMENT
More historically accurate than the 1935 film, but Bligh is still presented unfairly.  The  movie concludes with scenes from the court-martial of William Bligh for the loss of his ship.  (Bligh was acquitted.)...There are lots of beautiful sunsets and lush island scenes, where great efforts are made to hide the frontal nudity of natives.
TRIVIA
Brando was at his most outrageous in Tahiti, ordering changes to the script (e.g., he wanted the final scenes on Pitcairn Island reshot to include his ideas about man's inhumanity to man), demanding that film crew members prepare for a friend's wedding, and insisting that planeloads of champagne and other goodies be flown in for his consumption.  He married a Tahitian actress in the film (his third wife) and bought an atoll on which he created a posh resort and an environmental reserve.


The Bounty (1984)

DIRECTOR Roger Donaldson
RUNNING TIME 125 Minutes
COLOR OR B & W? Color
YAHOO RATING B+
IMDb RATING 6.7 out of 10
FLETCHER CHRISTIAN Mel Gibson
LT. WILLIAM BLIGH Anthony Hopkins
ADMIRAL HOOD
Laurence Olivier
JOHN FRYER
Daniel Day Lewis
COMMENT
The movie opens with scenes from Bligh's court-martial for losing the Bounty....This is the most historically accurate of the three Bounty movies (Bligh is more sympathetically portrayed than in earlier versions), although the pre-voyage relationship depicted between Christian and Bligh is largely fiction...The movie's main  focus is on the relationship between Bligh and Christian...Fryer becomes the Bounty's tyrant in this film.
TRIVIA
One of the last film appearances of Laurence Olivier and one of the first of Daniel Day Lewis....Liam Neeson plays Master-at-Arms Charles Churchill.

THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS TRIAL HOMEPAGE