When Roger Donaldson’s The Bounty premiered in 1984, it was the fourth sound film version of the story of Captain William Bligh and Fletcher Christian after a 1933 Australian movie In the Wake of the Bounty with the young Errol Flynn, the legendary 1935 Oscar-winning Mutiny on the Bounty, and the more infamous 1962 MGM remake which was a decided box-office disappointment. The Bounty, however, was a vividly beautiful and dramatically intelligent rendering of the well-known story with a far more dimensional portrait of Captain William Bligh than had ever been offered before.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Twilight Time
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: English SDH
Rating: PG
Run Time: 2 Hr. 11 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
keep caseDisc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: All
Release Date: 03/10/2015
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 4.5/5
In 1984, Anthony Hopkins was only beginning to come into his own as a mesmerizing screen presence. Having offered quirky, interesting performances in such diverse films as The Lion in Winter, Magic, and The Elephant Man, The Bounty offered him the chance to really stake a claim to eventual screen greatness, and he rather mops the floor with the other players, as accomplished as many of them are. This is not the yowling, unreasonable monster portrayed by Charles Laughton in 1935 or the stiff, frozen-hearted captain Trevor Howard etched in 1962. Hopkins shows a man pushed by love of country, desire for acclaim, and a need for adventure. When he punishes men, it’s not for the joy of hearing their screams like the sadist Laughton played but because the men are derelict in their duties, are putting the journey at risk, and the laws of the British Navy demand it for insubordination. Throughout the movie, he seems a man simply doing his duty to the best of his ability even down to making several wrong decisions which he somewhat stubbornly acknowledges during the course of the journey. Hopkins adds another shade to this characterization, however, by insinuating a hint of sexual longing for Fletcher Christian, a point the book is more definite about in portraying the uneasy relationship between the two men, and Hopkins does leave the door open to what he is acting, possibly due as much to Roger Donaldson’s directorial hand as to Hopkins’ playing. Nevertheless, it’s an intriguing suggestion that adds infinite complexities to the central encounters between the two.
Mel Gibson’s Fletcher Christian is attractive but somewhat bland for much of the movie, but once the mutiny is underway and he’s spurred on into action, his dramatic intensity alights, and he blazes quite confidently in the part palpably torn between duty to England and his love for the Tahitian woman carrying his child. The mutiny, a spur of the moment decision on Christian’s part which he finds very difficult to cope with rationally and seems ever on the verge of nervous collapse, is handled brilliantly by Gibson and Hopkins and directed with intensity by Donaldson. Afterwards, we interestingly crisscross between the stories of Bligh’s superhuman, excruciating attempt to get home in a small skiff with scant rations and Christian’s unhappy voyage to find a safe place for his now-infamous crew (who, in fact, turn on him after weeks of searching for a safe haven since Tahiti is closed to them). The story (screenplay by Robert Bolt) is told in flashback bookended by Bligh’s court martial, and it’s quite surprising how neither man gets a real feeling of triumph in the end even though both achieve their aims. Hopkins’ final scene where he learns of the decision of his hearing on the handling of the assignment and the subsequent mutiny contains one of the actor’s trademarks: his ability to cry on cue used as movingly here as in was in The Elephant Man when his character first laid eyes on the deformed John Merrick.
Fantastic special effects that produce one of the most convincing enactments of a storm at sea ever shown on film, the scrumptious visual landscapes of Tahiti with its natural and physical beauties, and a first-class array of top character actors like Laurence Olivier and Edward Fox along with the young Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson in early screen roles only add to the exemplary appeal of this film.
Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 4.5/5
Special Features Rating: 3/5
Isolated Score Track: offered in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo.
Theatrical Trailer (2:12, SD)
MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (2:06, HD)
Six-Page Booklet: presents a series of color stills, original poster art on the back cover, and film historian Julie Kirgo’s fascinating historical essay on the making of the film.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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