Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

The fourth nominee for Best Picture in 1962 was Mutiny on the Bounty. It is one of the few remakes ever to earn that honor, as it is a retelling of the events of the 1935 Best Picture winner of the same name.

This version of Mutiny on the Bounty is a strange bird, mostly because of Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian. As is usual of the films he made from the late '50s until his virtual oblivion before being revived by Francis Coppola, he invests his part with a weirdness that can be both captivating and eye-openingly wretched.

The Bounty was a ship that was sent to collect breadfruit from Tahiti (it was hoped it could be used as food for slaves in Jamaica). This was in 1789. The Captain was William Bligh (Trevor Howard) a humorless martinet who is interested only in pleasing his superiors. This version of the film hones in on that as the reason for his tyranny. First, he tries to save several months by sailing west, around Cape Horn, but is pushed back by fierce storms. Then, after collecting the fruit, he is told that there is insufficient water to keep them all alive. He responds by cutting water rations to the men, forcing a few to die.

This is too much for Christian, a foppish dandy who is appalled by Bligh's brutality (he has had several men flogged for minor infractions, and had another keelhauled). He finally erupts, seizing control of the ship and putting Bligh and his supporters on an open boat. Bligh manages to take the ship on a 3,600 mile voyage to safety, while Christian and the mutineers alight on Pitcairn Island.

Those are the basics of the story, if not historically accurate (no one was keelhauled, and only two men died, not from Bligh's cruelty). But the 1962 version takes a different approach. For one thing, the character of Byam, played by Franchot Tone in the original, is gone. Secondly, there is a much longer sequence of the crew on Tahiti, where they take delight in the sexual openness of the women. Christian becomes enamored of the daughter of the king (she is played by Tanita, who would become Brando's wife). It could almost be said that the mutiny is this film is induced by lust.

Directed by Lewis Milestone, this is Brando's picture, for good or ill. It took some getting used to his voice, as his English accent is kind of a high-pitched squeak. For the first half of the film he looks perpetually amused, as if enjoying a private joke. Apparently he was hated by almost everyone involved, as he would rewrite his lines. Richard Harris, as one of the lead mutineers, refused to act to him in some scenes, delivering a key speech to a log instead to the man himself.

The ending deviates from the original film and history itself. Fletcher Christian and his men did settle on Pitcairn Island, and 67 of their descendants live there today. Christian was murdered some years later, but the film gives him a gloriously hammy death scene that has to be seen to be believed. I can't decide whether it was brilliant or the height of silliness.

A technical note: Mutiny on the Bounty was the first movie filmed in the Ultra Panavision 70 screen process. The location shooting in Tahiti looks great-- no wonder Brando fell in love with the place.