A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Bounty -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

With no disrespect meant toward Roger Donaldson's version of The Bounty (1984), this is one of those classic "Oh, what might have been..." situations.


Beautifully cast (Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier, and early screen roles for Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson), photographed (Arthur Ibbetson), and written (Robert Bolt), the huge asterisk in this case, is that the film was to be directed by David Lean, from a different draft of the Bolt/Lean screenplay, and on a much larger epic scale, planned as a two-part film, shot simultaneously.


The Bounty had been built, inclusive of all of Sir David's necessary camera positions, when Dino De Laurentiis, apparently having become concerned about the prospective budget, pulled the plug.


What we have here, and no mistake, it's still a wonderful film, are the bones.


The Bounty was written for David Lean, and just reading his draft screenplay allows complete images...


along with the perceived score of Maurice Jarre. The visuals and words in the draft are that good.


But make no mistake, those "bones" are a superb 131 minute entertainment, generally acknowledged as the most accurate retelling of the events.


The Twilight Time Blu-ray of the MGM-owned property looks superb, if just a touch soft. This is a film that deserves a 4k scan of the original negative, and I presume what we're offered here is from an IP that might have been produced just a bit better.


Nonetheless, seated at a normal viewing distance, the Blu-ray looks superb, and if the young ladies seen in the film in their native Moorea, French Polynesia are any hint of what the island has to offer, best not to go there, as you also may find it impossible to leave.


A highly entertaining (and educational) production that more than holds its own on Blu-ray.


Image - 4.25


Audio - 5


Pass / Fail - Pass


Highly Recommended


RAH

Interesting to read that by 1984 it became too expensive to make a David Lean film, even though A Passage to India did well financially. Maybe De Laurentiis' pockets weren't deep enough.

Robert Harris said:

The Bounty was written for David Lean, and just reading his draft screenplay allows complete images...


along with the perceived score of Maurice Jarre. The visuals and words in the draft are that good.

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One day, I hope to track down a copy of that draft. It's my holy grail of screenplays.

There's a long story to tell about the opening and closing of the film, but I'll give you the short version.


The opening on the HD master (and DVD) had the MGM lion grafted on around 37 seconds in, with the lion roaring over the music. It wasn't like this in 1984. Also, the movie had music play longer at the end, but this was faded out on the previous DVD. These issues were both addressed for the Twilight Time Blu-ray, so the film plays as it did theatrically.


Neil

Robert Harris said:

With no disrespect meant toward Roger Donaldson's version of The Bounty (1984), this is one of those classic "Oh, what might have been..." situations.


Beautifully cast (Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier, and early screen roles for Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson), photographed (Arthur Ibbetson), and written (Robert Bolt), the huge asterisk in this case, is that the film was to be directed by David Lean, from a different draft of the Bolt/Lean screenplay, and on a much larger epic scale, planned as a two-part film, shot simultaneously.

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Wow, they even did it back then, too.


Coppola always said, write the perfect screenplay, and then rip out Act I--As it is, the short theatrical version works perfectly, framed as a "just the facts" recap for the Naval hearing board, and just enough glimpse of Christian and Bligh to give us the revisionist idea of the screenplay.

We didn't need any historical or character-analysis bloat on the level of the 1962 film, and more would have taken the movie far less realistically or dispassionately as we got.

Ejanss said:

Wow, they even did it back then, too.


Coppola always said, write the perfect screenplay, and then rip out Act I--As it is, the short theatrical version works perfectly, framed as a "just the facts" recap for the Naval hearing board, and just enough glimpse of Christian and Bligh to give us the revisionist idea of the screenplay.

We didn't need any historical or character-analysis bloat on the level of the 1962 film, and more would have taken the movie far less realistically or dispassionately as we got.

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While "just the facts, ma'am" might work for Joe Friday, it doesn't always make for the most interesting of films. I have no doubt Lean would've delivered one of the best of his career with his Bounty films.

Ejanss said:

Wow, they even did it back then, too.


Coppola always said, write the perfect screenplay, and then rip out Act I--As it is, the short theatrical version works perfectly, framed as a "just the facts" recap for the Naval hearing board, and just enough glimpse of Christian and Bligh to give us the revisionist idea of the screenplay.

We didn't need any historical or character-analysis bloat on the level of the 1962 film, and more would have taken the movie far less realistically or dispassionately as we got.

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Valid points, but I wouldn't have minded wallowing in Lean's splendor.

Allansfirebird said:

While "just the facts, ma'am" might work for Joe Friday, it doesn't always make for the most interesting of films. I have no doubt Lean would've delivered one of the best of his career with his Bounty films.

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It's still the Harry Potter/Twilight question: Where would he have divided the two films?--Before the mutiny? After?

If after, two hours of unrest among Christian's crew on the ship and island, and Bligh being marooned at sea?


Compared to the dumbed-down, almost character-assassination by Gable & Laughton (and there's the historical theory that "tyrannical Bligh" was deliberately played up by Christian's well-placed family, to try and lobby for his justifiable-relief-of-command defense), the shorter theatrical version gives us the sense that the event, like most historical events, was something very brief, although long in coming. History teaches us that less is more, especially in realistic adaptations.

Robert Harris said:

Nonetheless, seated at a normal viewing distance, the Blu-ray looks superb, and if the young ladies seen in the film in their native Moorea, French Polynesia are any hint of what the island has to offer, best not to go there, as you also may find it impossible to leave.


A highly entertaining (and educational) production that more than holds its own on Blu-ray.


Image - 4.25


Audio - 5


Pass / Fail - Pass


Highly Recommended


RAH

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Ah, the 80s, the last days when PG really meant "Parental Guidance" and not "little kids film with some mildly scary scenes".


The sad thing is, if they tried it like that today, it would get an automatic R rating, so the studio would never allow it, unless the budget was constrained.

Received my copy of this movie yesterday from Twilight Time/Screen Archives along with the rest of their March 2015 slate of blu-rays...will have to sit down and take in the splendor of this "what-might-have-been" Reader's Digest version of an aborted David Lean cinematic spectacle...

Very tempted to get this.... I wasn't overly impressed with the film on release, but thought Vangelis' score was very good, up there with 1492 Conquest of Paradise. On both viewings, I stayed in my seat with my eyes closed just savoring that end credits walk out music.


It always irked me that no CD release was provided. The TT BD with isolated music track ought to rectify that oversight.

The version that looks and sounds really great is the 1962 Marlon Brando "Mutiny on the Bounty". Filmed in Ultrapanavision 70 and 6-track magnetic sound, this film makes Tahiti look like the place to be and to stay.


The interpretations of the characters (especially by Brando) are controversial but I think it is a very interesting take on the story myself.

Dr Griffin said:

Maybe De Laurentiis' pockets weren't deep enough.

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Since when? Since KING KONG (1976) perhaps?


Actually, I like this version of the story as well as the other two, perhaps even a tiny bit more, except for one thing only -- the way-too-over-the-top explosion Mel Gibson delivers (and Spottiswood somehow permitted) when he mutinies. I actually think Brando, who wasn't so great in other moments of the '62 film, did this bit best. Gibson comes across, not as an angry man sick of watching abuse aboard the ship and finally letting loose, but as a raving maniac who himself would not be fit to run a ship.

Dick said:

Since when? Since KING KONG (1976) perhaps?


Actually, I like this version of the story as well as the other two, perhaps even a tiny bit more, except for one thing only -- the way-too-over-the-top explosion Mel Gibson delivers (and Spottiswood somehow permitted) when he mutinies. I actually think Brando, who wasn't so great in other moments of the '62 film, did this bit best. Gibson comes across, not as an angry man sick of watching abuse aboard the ship and finally letting loose, but as a raving maniac who himself would not be fit to run a ship.

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Or a hormone-drenched teenager.



You just reminded me ... "I AM in HELL, sir!!" I guess that People Sexiest Man Alive nonsense might've gone to his head.

Neil S. Bulk said:

There's a long story to tell about the opening and closing of the film, but I'll give you the short version.


The opening on the HD master (and DVD) had the MGM lion grafted on around 37 seconds in, with the lion roaring over the music. It wasn't like this in 1984. Also, the movie had music play longer at the end, but this was faded out on the previous DVD. These issues were both addressed for the Twilight Time Blu-ray, so the film plays as it did theatrically.


Neil

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Can I get clarification on this?


When I saw the film in 1984 I distinctly remember the Vangelis score pounding through the cinema well before the film started, something that was very rare and effective (the APOCALYPSE NOW helicopters being a rare precedent). Does the TT disc preserve this opening, only without the MGM lion?

There might've been walk-in music a la 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY. I don't remember any. Checked imdb?

Nonetheless, seated at a normal viewing distance, the Blu-ray looks superb, and if the young ladies seen in the film in their native Moorea, French Polynesia are any hint of what the island has to offer, best not to go there, as you also may find it impossible to leave.

Click to expand...

Have owned this on LaserDisc and DVD, now have the Blu-ray version. I did notice a few sparkles/speckles here and there plus some color fluctuation. Will have to compare it to the DVD one of these days. The closing theme music did play in its entirety like the LaserDisc version did. The DVD version ends when the credit roll ends.

IMO, many of the Dolby Stereo “audio re-mixes” to 5.1 leave a lot to be desired. This one seemed to be one of the better ones. Sure wish the folks would include the original Dolby Stereo tracks for these older titles and let us use our audio processors handle the audio with our choice of decoding.

Harry Rayhausen said:

Can I get clarification on this?


When I saw the film in 1984 I distinctly remember the Vangelis score pounding through the cinema well before the film started, something that was very rare and effective (the APOCALYPSE NOW helicopters being a rare precedent). Does the TT disc preserve this opening, only without the MGM lion?

Click to expand...

The TT BOUNTY Blu begins with the MGM Home Video logo, which runs about 9 seconds. For about 55 seconds we hear the score on the blank screen, with the opening credits coming up at about the minute mark. (That opening passage is by no means "pounding.") The score plays about 1m 42sec after the final closing credit, bringing the running time to a total of 2hrs 13min.


There's something to appreciate in all three versions of The Bounty story. We'll never get another.


Here's a fine Vanity Fair piece about the troubles of Pitcairn Island, circa 2007: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/pitcairn200801

Wendell R. Breland said:

Have owned this on LaserDisc and DVD, now have the Blu-ray version. I did notice a few sparkles/speckles here and there plus some color fluctuation. Will have to compare it to the DVD one of these days. The closing theme music did play in its entirety like the LaserDisc version did. The DVD version ends when the credit roll ends.
IMO, many of the Dolby Stereo “audio re-mixes” to 5.1 leave a lot to be desired. This one seemed to be one of the better ones. Sure wish the folks would include the original Dolby Stereo tracks for these older titles and let us use our audio processors handle the audio with our choice of decoding.

Click to expand...

While Dolby Stereo, a two-track encoded analogue playback system for projection during the era beginning c.1977, was created from a specific fullcoat mag, these were generally derived from 4 or 6 track discreet, the majority of which should still survive.

Robert Harris said:

While Dolby Stereo, a two-track encoded analogue playback system for projection during the era beginning c.1977, was created from a specific fullcoat mag, these were generally derived from 4 or 6 track discreet, the majority of which should still survive.

Click to expand...

I believe they were known as printmasters.