WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

The fact that a movie differs from the book on which it is based is not always to the film’s detriment. Astute directors and script writers realize that what works well in print does not always translate effectively to the screen. The 1935 production of the classic maritime novel Mutiny on the Bounty diverges at several points from Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall’s book. Most of the changes, with the exception of one, do not significantly alter the story’s integrity.

The book is told in the first person by a retired admiral named Roger Byam, who recollects his first journey to sea, when he was a callow 17 year-old midshipman. The 1935 movie, directed by Frank Lloyd, focuses on Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), and his increasing struggle to tolerate his cruel, capricious captain, William Bligh (Charles Laughton). Byam (Franchot Tone) plays a major part as a crew member on the H.M.S. Bounty and a friend and confidante to Christian, but for the most part, the movie belongs to Christian.

The film opens with Fletcher Christian leading a press gang, which accosts a group of eligible seamen from a local tavern. Right away the viewer is left with the impression that Christian is basically a kidnapper, despite the fact that the law is on his side. Later he becomes a more sympathetic character, but his initial actions seem pretty harsh. As in the novel, Byam enlists of his own volition, though his late father’s friendship with Bligh is not mentioned in the movie. Also, in the novel Byam is never the object of Bligh’s frequent tantrums, but in the movie, he is punished harshly after a minor fistfight with a fellow crew member.

Laughton is very effective as Captain Bligh, although he looks to be in his early fifties, when historically, the real Captain Bligh was 35 at the time of the Bounty mutiny. Laughton was actually 36 when the film came out, but he really looks a lot older. But the mien of a crusty old seamen works well in this film, despite the apparent age discrepancy.

As in the novel, Bligh is probably portrayed as much meaner that he truly was, but Laughton’s Bligh is even worse. He keel hauls one of the sailors for begging for some water to soothe his scraped and bloody knees, and the punishment results in the sailor’s death. There is no such scene in the book. He also orders a sickly old man to be flogged, with similar results. Yet when Bligh and the sailors who refused to participate in the mutiny are cast off the ship into an old dinghy, Bligh becomes heroic, sympathetic, and remarkably, even kind. When he returns triumphantly to England to punish the mutineers, however, he resumes his old demeanor.

The mutiny scene in the film is much more dramatic, violent, and captivating in the movie than in the book. Cutlasses clash, guns flash, corpses splash. The action streaks before the viewer’s eyes, but makes a permanent impression. After being cast adrift, Bligh is as defiant as ever.

Laughton’s fine performance as Bligh is well-balanced by Gable’s performance as Christian. He strikes audiences as a noble, if perhaps slightly-misguided individual who fends off Bligh’s insults, injustices and goading with as much dignity as he can muster. After a particularly nasty verbal lashing from Bligh, Fletcher tells the captain, “You’d like me to strike you, wouldn’t you? Well I won’t do it!” And when it would have been to his advantage to simply shoot or hang his deposed captain, Christian shows as much mercy as he thinks that he can under the circumstances. He is never judgmental of the men who choose to accompany Bligh on the 3500-mile journey back to England, and is despondent over the belief that they will almost certainly perish. As history and fiction attest, however, they survive.

The part in the movie that absolutely does not work is how Byam’s fate is resolved. Those familiar with the book will recall that Bligh overhears part of a conversation that Byam has with Christian on the night before the mutiny. Christian tells Byam that he plans to desert, and asks Byam to tell Christian’s family. Byam replies, “You can count on me.” Bligh later assumes this to mean that Byam agrees to help mutiny. Another crew member, named Tinkler, overhears the entire conversation, and it is his testimony that eventually saves Byam’s life. Much of the suspense during the second half of the novel involves locating Tinkler, who is believed to have been lost at sea on another vessel. In the movie, Byam’s conviction is conveniently overturned by King George III following an appeal by one of the judges and a friend of Byam’s late father.

Considering the enormity of encompassing a fairly lengthy novel into a two-hour movie, script writers Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman and Carey Wilson do a good job. But the way that King George appears, like a deus ex machina, to save Byam, is a bit much. Maybe the ending is different in the 1962 film, starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard, but that is another matter. Still, this version is worth watching.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12