Oscars Retrospective: Mutiny on the Bounty (8th Academy Awards Review)

  

Main Theme~Herbert Stothart - Mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty is probably the first of these Oscar winners that the average person has at the very least heard of. When I say titles like Wings (1927) or Cimarron (1931), you probably have no clue what the Hell I’m talking about. This is one that still endures in pop culture. Maybe All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) too, but we’ve already talked about that movie, we’re here to talk about this one.

True to its title, Mutiny on the Bounty tells of the infamous mutiny on the HMS Bounty, a major landmark in British naval history that raised questions about how needlessly cruel the rules of the sea were. Of course, being a romanticized 30s film from the Golden Age of Hollywood, this ain’t exactly the most historically accurate account of what actually happened on the real HMS Bounty but we’ll get to that in a little bit. What’s the plot?

The HMS Bounty has been contracted to embark on a voyage to the beautiful island paradise of Tahiti to secure a shipment of breadfruit back to jolly ol’ England. Heading the voyage is the esteemed Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton) and his lieutenant, Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable). If you know anything about this movie or the mutiny that it’s based on, then you know that Captain Bligh is a massive asshole who goes to ridiculous lengths to keep order on the ship, often flat-out torturing his crewmembers if they step out of line.

This quickly earns him the ire of not only the crew but also of Fletcher Christian who finds himself being caught between doing what he considers right but also keeping the order of the British crown. As you can guess by the title, there is eventually a mutiny when the crew gets fed up with Bligh but it actually takes a long time before we reach that point.

To put in perspective how loved this movie was when it came out, not only did Mutiny on the Bounty win the Oscar for Outstanding Production when it came out but it’s also one of the very few Oscar wins that would actually become the highest-grossing movie of that year, and even being a strong contender at the box office for a few years after that. In addition, it also occupied three of the five nomination spots for the Oscar for Best Actor as Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone, who plays Midshipman Byam, were all nominated. This happenstance is often regarded as the reason for why the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor was invented.

What lies at the heart of the story, and I think why people enjoyed it so much, is the dichotomy between Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh and, for that matter, Midshipman Byam who is the other main character. The film does acknowledge just how hard of a choice it is for these guys to actually go through with the mutiny. Sure, Bligh's a jerk, but he’s still the captain and you’re still in the Royal Navy and overthrowing him means that you’ll be an outlaw for the rest of your life.

Would you be able to do that if you were in their shoes? Or would you just grin and bear it to see your family again? Is doing that really worth putting up with such abuse every day for several years? These are all hard questions to answer and the movie doesn’t shy away from asking them.

There’s also a good cast of side-characters of all the people who live on the ship. The officers, the general crew, the crew doctor (Dudley Digges) is a lot of fun, and they’re all really defined. This also ties into the movie’s strengths because when the mutiny does happen, while Christian and Bligh are pretty black and white, the sides following them aren’t.

I mean, c'mon, just look at the two of them.

Some of the people who side with Christian are pretty mean and petty and some of the people who choose to stay with Bligh are genuinely good people.

In fact, the last third of this movie after the mutiny is the best part as it changes gears from being Fletcher Christian vs. Captain Bligh to being Fletcher Christian vs. Midshipman Byam, which, in my opinion, is really what lies at the heart of the film. Now, these two are friends and hit it off well enough, but, ultimately, they differ on the mutiny and how to proceed afterwards. You feel bad for Byam because all he wants to do is go home to his family but now he’s roped in with the outlaws and is going to have his life ruined.

This is the kind of moral ambiguity that very few films at the time were willing to tackle and made it stand out from the crowd. Though, that’s not to say the film is really grey through and through as it still has some of those old Hollywood clichés that defined the 1930s. I mean Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian kinda goes without saying, he’s that typical Hollywood handsome with the dashing smile and generally infallible morals. Along with It Happened One Night’s (1934) Peter Warne, this movie did a lot to cement his spot in superstardom.

Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh is also a pretty straightforward villain, though I’d be lying if I said that he wasn’t a lot of fun. Charles Laughton was one of the first great bad guy actors in Hollywood and a master of chewing the scenery. While Bligh’s personality never really has any depth beyond “asshole” he can still come off as menacing in just how cruel he can be, sometimes for the pettiest of crimes. You never know what’s going to set this guy off and, if you do set him off, you never know just how severe the punishment is going to be.

And in case you’re wondering, no, this is not at all an accurate depiction of the real-life William Bligh, or, for that matter, the real mutiny on the HMS Bounty. The number of floggings and other instances of corporal punishment on the Bounty was actually lower than the Royal Navy’s average at the time and Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian were actually friends with each other when the voyage began.

Many speculate that Bligh was mutinied more for his inconsistency rather than his cruelty and his mean streak would manifest in passive-aggressive comments, not floggings. Basically, for the first half of the voyage he was pretty laissez-faire when it came to rule-breaking and what not. Then the ship visited Tahiti and his crew were more concerned with relaxing on the tropical paradise than actually taking their jobs seriously which prompted Bligh to tighten the screws. And as any parent who’s raised a teenager can tell you, this never ends well.

There's a later film adaptation of the same event in the 80s called The Bounty (1984) that would give a more historically accurate depiction of what actually went down starring Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh. And it’s actually a pretty good movie too, check it out if you get the chance.

Despite his portrayal of being a raging asshole, however, I do like how Mutiny on the Bounty does still show the good aspects of Captain Bligh. Sure, he’s evil, but he still keeps order and no one questions that he is ultimately in charge. And they do show what he did after the mutiny, which has been described as one of the most impressive naval feats in the history of the world. When he captained a tiny rowboat filled with close to 20 men over 4,000 miles to safety over the course of about 2 months while losing only a single crewmember.

The film also wraps up the Fletcher Christian story on a very positive note which, again, is very different to what actually happened in reality. I’m not going to spoil it but if you look up what happened to the real Fletcher Christian, it is not a happy ending. And if you look up the real Fletcher Christian, yeah, he wasn’t nearly this Saintlike.

Another thing I find interesting about this film is that in our very politically correct world where people frequently call out old movies for their casual racism, whitewashing and stereotypes, I never really hear this film being called out for its portrayal of Tahiti. I’ve never been to Tahiti, let alone Tahiti in 1788, but I’m sure that this is not an accurate portrayal, nor are many of these actors and extras actually Pacific Islanders. Just look at the elder, Hitihiti, played by William Bambridge.

Call me crazy but I don’t think that William Bambridge is a Pacific Islander name.

In this case, though, while stereotyped, the film does at the very least service Tahiti in terms of the story, showing it as a hedonistic tropical paradise that the crew does not want to leave, which is what happened in reality as well. And, while it’s stereotyped, it’s not a mean stereotype. All the islanders are very likable and nice and you enjoy spending time with them so I guess we can just chalk this one up to being a sign of the times. Compared to some of the other films I’ve seen from this time period, this is sadly progressive.

The only real problem I have with Mutiny on the Bounty is the actual mutiny on the Bounty which is really dumb to watch. That’s the problem with old movies, especially old action movies is that they apparently did not know how to choreograph a fight if their lives depended on it which makes most old school fight scenes look hilariously dated nowadays. I don’t know if it’s just a holdover from stage combat where these fake punches were the norm or whatever but it always look really dumb.

In fact, I think this is why swashbucklers became a thing as swordfighting was also a trend from the stage but you can make that look dangerous and make it look like the characters are trying to kill each other. Once it gets down to the bare fists, though, it just looks silly. And Mutiny on the Bounty is no different. It doesn’t ruin the movie but considering how it’s the event that the movie is named after, having it look as stupid as it does is definitely a problem.

Obvious spoiler warning.

Moving back to the positives, the last thing to mention about Mutiny on the Bounty is the look of it. Many of the aforementioned swashbucklers in the back half of the 30s and 40s were usually pirate adventures and I think this was the first movie to have most of the running time set on a ship thereby defining ship-based cinematography. I know it sounds weird but if you’ve watched these movies you know what I’m talking about. And honestly you do feel like you’re on a ship for most of the movie. Sure, it’s obviously a green screen but the way that the camera keeps bobbing up and down and the lighting on everyone does sell the illusion.

Mutiny on the Bounty is a great character study showing the two contrasting sides of leadership and how actions ultimately have consequences. While you definitely have to be in the mindset that you’re watching a 30s film to truly enjoy it, if you can do that, you’ll probably like this movie a lot.

Was it film of the year though?

In case you missed it:

1st Academy Awards (1927/28): Wings/Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans: Part 1, Part 2

2nd Academy Awards (1928/29): The Broadway Melody: Part 1, Part 2

3rd Academy Awards (1929/30): All Quiet on the Western Front: Part 1, Part 2

4th Academy Awards (1930/31): Cimarron: Part 1, Part 2

5th Academy Awards (1931/32): Grand Hotel: Part 1, Part 2

6th Academy Awards (1932/33): Cavalcade: Part 1, Part 2

7th Academy Awards (1934): It Happened One Night: Part 1, Part 2