Drink up, me hearties, yo ho! It be time for a tale of loyalty, mutiny, heroism, and cowardice along that great blue road we call the sea! Here, there be Brits with bad teeth, ships of questionable seaworthiness, and all the coconut milk you can drink. Spike it with a little gin while you’re at it, we won’t tell the captain. Buckle those boots, man the sails, and read on!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: It took me too long to realize the Bounty was a ship. I was thinking about bounty hunters. And I guess stealing the bounty from the boss? Or not turning someone in who had a bounty on them because your morals or love or something got to you? Er anyway let’s get started!
Tyler: You’ve got your mutiny, you’ve got your bounty … what else is there to know?
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
Let the mumbling tones of a generic sea shanty carry you through the credits and into evening in a pub in Portsmouth, England. The year is 1787, and according to the dude outside yelling the time, it’s 8 o’clock. Vibes are high until a press gang busts in and informs the patrons they all sail for Captain William Bligh now. It’ll be a 2 year voyage to Tahiti to get breadfruit trees to bring back for the Empire as cheap food for slaves (fun!), much to the distress of young Tommy, who has a new baby. Also among the crew are lieutenant Fletcher Christian and idealistic midshipman from a strong naval family Roger Byam.
Ellen: I mention the man yelling the time only because he has the exact intonation of the “dead men tell no tales” skull from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney.
Tyler: This movie introduced me to the idea of impressment, which frankly sounds terrifying! Poor Tommy is just out with his wife and BAM! now he’s gonna be gone for two years. I would never leave my house!
Tyler: We are also introduced to Clark Gable and his lack of attempt at a British accent, which once you notice it is hard to miss. Did actors just not do that back then? It’s like he went to the John Wayne School of Voice Modulation.
On the morning of departure, the most fun thing that happens is that the ship’s medic (nicknamed Mr. Bacchus) rides up on a cargo net full of brandy and gin. The least fun thing is that the new crew is forced to watch the whipping punishment of a sailor from a different ship who struck his captain, and the condemned man is already dead by the time he arrives, but Bligh tells his vicious boatswain to proceed with the strikes anyway. Anchors aweigh!
Tyler: The second most fun thing that happens (for us, the viewer, at least) is the arrival of a Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque map that shows where in the world the ship is. I love a good map, and I was tracking their progress on Google Maps beforehand anyway, so I very much enjoyed this.
Ellen: This nerd loves a map!!
Christian is quickly established as “tough but fair,” whereas Bligh is “punitive and spiteful1.” They are sailing under the articles of war, which means the Captain has full authority over punishments, which while on the way to Tahiti include: forcing Byam to climb the mast during a dangerous storm and stay there, dragging another man under the ship because he asked for more water, tying a man up on the rigging, and doling out whippings for anything and everything. Additionally, Bligh’s corrupt clerk is helping him steal cheese and other cargo while the crew are clearly starving. Shortly before they arrive at Tahiti’s shores, Christian refuses to sign the false manifest, but relents when Bligh threatens his life. He still insists he’s going to call an inquiry when they get back.
Relax, you’re on island time, baby! Well, everyone except Christian, who’s not allowed to leave the Bounty as punishment from Captain Bligh. The Tahitians2 are very welcoming, which is great news for Byam, who lives with the island chief Hitihiti while working on a Tahitian dictionary to take back to England. The young man also gets to spend time making eyes at the chief’s daughter Tehani3. Eventually Hitihiti convinces Bligh to allow Christian to go to shore, where he immediately begins romancing a girl named Maimiti. They don’t profess their undying love after the few months they spend together, shockingly, but she gives him pearls as a gift for his mother. Meanwhile, the breadfruit has been acquired, but one problem: the plants require more water than the ship can hold. Nbd, thinks Bligh, I’ll just cut the crew’s water rations, bingo bango.
Tyler: The bar is truly in hell, but I was pleasantly surprised at how not racially insensitive the movie’s portrayal of the Tahitians was. For all I know it wasn’t culturally accurate at all, but it didn’t feel icky, which is saying something.
Bligh confiscates Christian’s pearls “for the crown,” but the lieutenant’s real breaking point comes when Bligh’s discipline leads to the death of the ship’s beloved surgeon and only comic relief: Mr. Bacchus. He’s had enough, and after briefly asking Byam to make sure to go see his parents if he doesn’t make it home, it’s time for the titular mutiny!! Scuffles break out all over the ship, but the mutineers are victorious. Christian sends Bligh and as many of his supporters (who seem generally more loyal to the rank than to the man) as will fit off in a small boat with supplies, and the remainder, including Byam, are taken to the brig.
Tyler: Since we just watched it (along with the hilarious podcast Newcomers), the scene where Christian sent Bligh and Co. to the tiny boat reminded me of the end of Batman Begins where (spoiler for a nearly 20-year-old movie) Batman tells Ra’s Al Ghul something along the lines of “I'm not gonna kill you, but I'm not gonna save you either.” It’s an absolutely savage move.
Ellen: I was shocked at the fact that Bligh had enough supporters that they didn’t all fit on one boat!
Tyler: I have to imagine some of them were men who had every intention of returning back home to England, regardless of how miserable he made them.
While onboard his teeny tiny new vessel, Bligh appears to be a new person - he’s concerned with the crew’s welfare, he’s encouraging in the face of overwhelming odds, and he performs feats of seafaring that manage to save them all after 45 days facing Poseidon’s wrath. Hip hip hooray?
Tyler: This part is largely factually accurate, so I don’t understand the logic of going thousands of miles in the open ocean instead of going back to Tahiti for more supplies.
Meanwhile, the Bounty turns right back around for Tahiti, dumping breadfruit plants into the sea as it goes. The remaining crew who opposed the mutiny are allowed out of the brig so long as they don’t attempt to retake the ship. Byam is still distressed by what Christian and the others did, but all seems more or less forgiven many months later when it’s Christmas and both men are married to their Tahitian sweethearts. We’re briefly reminded that the sailor Tommy has a kid back home, because what’s that on the horizon? A British ship!! Captain Bligh has command of the Pandora, and he’s pissed. The loyalists and Tommy stay behind to be captured while the rest of the Bounty crew gather up their new families and sail as fast as they can.
Aboard the Pandora, rather than being welcomed back with open arms, Byam and the others are clapped in irons and tossed in the brig. Bligh maintains that if Byam were really loyal, he would say where Christian was headed, and the fact that the young man doesn’t know is irrelevant. Seems like Bligh’s change of heart got trimmed off with his Castaway beard. The only thing that gets them out of the belly of the beast are fourteen-foot swells4 that force the Pandora’s crew to abandon ship.
Back in Portsmouth, the trial for the mutineers is underway. Tommy gets to see his toddler, at least. Even when Bligh and Byam go toe-to-toe in cross-examination, Byam doesn’t seem compelled to bring up that Bligh, gee I don’t know, dragged a man under the ship?!? It’s not until they are condemned that Byam gives the impassioned speech we the audience knew had to be coming, speaking of the dehumanization that’s rampant in the current system and how there ought to be respect between a crew and captain. Two of Byam’s supporters eventually intervene, and he’s pardoned by King George III and returns to the sea.
Christian and the remaining crew of the Bounty eventually find and settle on the island of Pitcairn. There’s nowhere to dock, so they ram the ship onto the rocks and burn it.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … Mr. Bacchus’ Good-Time Brandy & Gin!
Are you about to set sail on the open seas? Need a taste of home to keep you company below deck? Have you been unceremoniously ripped from your family because that’s somehow legal? It sounds like YOU, my friend, need a drink! Mr. Bacchus’ brew is just the ticket. With a proprietary blend of brandy, gin, and whatever pharmaceuticals are on hand, a few sips of this will keep you swaying like a sailor long after you’ve reached the shore.
Tell Mr. Bacchus ILTBTA sent you and receive a breadfruit plant with your purchase!
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
Mutiny on the Bounty’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few lot of our favorites:
Mutiny on the Bounty is based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, which itself was a novelized account of the actual mutiny on the actual HMS Bounty. We’ve reached an Inception point here, so let’s start with the actual events and work our way outwards: actual mutiny, book about the mutiny (and its authors), then movie(s) about the mutiny. Readyyyyyyyyy break!
Actual Mutiny:
Flash back to 1787: the HMS Bounty is sailing the South Pacific on its way to Tahiti to transport breadfruit to British colonies in the West Indies. The captain’s quarters of the ship were retrofitted into a greenhouse for over a thousand potted breadfruit plants, complete with glazed windows, skylights, and a drainage system. Between this and the ship’s small size, the ship’s officers and crew dealt with “severe overcrowding” during their journey.
After a five-month layover in Tahiti, the ship’s crew grew tired of Lieutenant William Bligh’s increasingly harsh punishments and staged a mutiny. Just like in the movie, the mutineers cast Bligh and 18 of those loyal to him adrift in a 23-foot boat, after which they miraculously sailed over 3,500 nautical miles to a Dutch settlement in Timor. During their 47 day journey, they survived on daily rations of an ounce of bread and a quarter-pint of water per person.
Ellen: I can appreciate that Bligh at least seemed to know what he was doing, nautically. Interpersonally may be another story…
Meanwhile, mutiny leader Fletcher Christian sailed the Bounty to a (relatively) nearby island called Tubuai, where (after deceiving the Tahitian natives into helping him) he and his fellow mutineers unsuccessfully attempted to build a settlement, much to the chagrin of the native population on the island. After abandoning that plan and leaving some mutineers back at Tahiti, Christian and his remaining mutineers (plus some Tahitians) eventually settled on Pitcairn Island. The island was chosen partly because it was incorrectly recorded on nautical maps: in fact, it was 188 nautical miles east.
Despite a relatively idyllic beginning on Pitcairn, “matters degenerated into extreme violence” within the next four years, with many of the mutineers and Tahitians turning on and killing each other. Two of the surviving mutineers, John Adams (not the president) and Edward Young, were able to restore peace and eventually build up Pitcairn into a functioning settlement.
Meanwhile meanwhile, the mutineers that Christian dropped off back at Tahiti were later discovered and captured by the crew of the HMS Pandora, where they were held in a prison cell dubbed “Pandora’s Box.” After spending several weeks unsuccessfully locating the remaining mutineers, the Pandora sailed back to England but ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, killing 31 crew members and 4 prisoners. Of the prisoners that survived that and the journey back to England, four were acquitted, three were eventually pardoned, and three were hanged.
Ellen: Bad odds for the three who were hanged to survive all that led up to it!
Book About The Mutiny:
Flash forward to 1932 and the publication of the novel: Mutiny on the Bounty. The novel tells the story through a fictional first-person narrator named Roger Byam (a character kept for the movie), who’s loosely based on the real-life crew member Peter Heywood, who was just 15 years old when the Bounty set sail.
The MOTB novel was the first in a trilogy of books (known as The Bounty Trilogy) about the events. MOTB was followed by Men Against the Sea in 1933 and Pitcairn’s Island in 1934.
MOTB authors Nordhoff and Hall moved to Tahiti after fighting in WWI, having both served as aviators in the French and American air services (Nordhoff was also an Ambulance Corps driver, while Hall started as a British infantryman). Hall enlisted while on vacation in the UK, pretending to be Canadian until his true (American) nationality was discovered a year later, at which point he was discharged.
Tyler: Nordhoff’s Wikipedia page lists his secondary occupation as “traveler” which I admit makes me hate him a little bit out of sheer jealousy.
Aside from MOTB, five other Nordhoff-Hall collaborations were turned into movies: The Hurricane (directed by the famed John Ford), The Tuttles of Tahiti (starring MOTB co-star Charles Laughton), Passage to Marseille (starring Humphrey Bogart; it apparently includes a flashback within a flashback within a flashback!), High Barbaree, and Botany Bay.
Hall’s son is cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, who earned ten Best Cinematography Oscar nominations (winning three) and is considered one of the most influential cinematographers ever.
Movie(s) About The Mutiny:
Okay back to our ILTBTA subject: the 1935 film. It’s director, Frank Lloyd, was not only one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AKA “The Academy” of this newsletter’s name) and Scotland’s first Academy Award winner, he also received three Best Director Oscar nominations in 1929 for directing three different movies of different sound style: The Divine Lady, a silent film (for which he won); Weary River, which was a part-talkie; and Drag, a full talkie.
The film is not exactly historically accurate, so much so that we’ll just link to the “Historical accuracy” section of the Wikipedia page so you can read the several paragraphs of inaccuracies.
MOTB is the last movie to win Best Picture and no other category, joining 1929’s The Broadway Melody and 1932’s Grand Hotel. It also helped spark the creation of the Best Supporting Actor category, since three of its actors were nominated in the Best Actor category. Best Supporting Actor was introduced the following year.
Future MOTB adaptations include the 1962 remake starring Marlon Brando, who claims he turned down the lead role of Lawrence of Arabia because he wanted to shoot in Tahiti instead of a desert; the 1984 remake starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins that is considered more historically accurate; and a musical that played on the West End in the 1980s written by and starring British singer David Essex.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role5. And the nomnomnominees are:
A big frothy beer at a Portsmouth bar before you’re unwittingly conscripted to serve on a two-year naval expedition
Barrels and crates of gin and brandy
Two 50-pound wheels of cheese
Fresh coconut milk
Crates of breadfruit
A bushel of bananas as a gift from the Tahitians
And the Oscar goes to … the crates of breadfruit! Unfortunately, the crates of breadfruit were themselves conscripted to go on a journey to find more breadfruit, so we will accept this award on its behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to reclaim The Academy’s pearls for Tahiti, but give them bananas and coconuts in return as a treat. As Tyler will say below, this was fine! There were some impressive scenes of the ships and the mutiny itself, and I enjoyed (looking at) Clark Gable. It’s an interesting true-ish story that I didn’t know about, but much like a two year voyage, I found myself hoping it’d end soon.
Tyler: I’d like to suggest to The Academy that they take a nice long sabbatical to Tahiti to clear their heads. I thought MOTB was overall just fine, so when I saw that it won Best Picture I was borderline shocked. (It seems The Academy always had a soft spot for large-scale historical dramas.) While it feels worthy of being nominated, I find it hard to believe it was better than eleven other nominees6, including Top Hat (oddly enough making its second straight appearance in a post). I know it had to squeeze in a lot of story, but at over two hours it felt like it dragged. I also think it would have been a more interesting movie had it been a little closer to reality and had Bligh not be that sadistic. Instead of playing in the gray area and showing the crew (and, by extension, the audience) grappling with if they should mutiny, we get a much more cartoonish, black-and-white “Christian good, Bligh bad, how could they not mutiny?” scenario. So while I did appreciate the broader story and scale (even if the former is just “history”), it ultimately felt like punishment from The Universe for skipping past an article in The Atlantic about breadfruit.
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
If you have plots and feelings of your own (on the movie or ILTBTA in general), feel free to comment on the post or simply reply to the email. If you liked reading this: tell your friends! If you hated reading this: tell your friends how much you hated it by forwarding it to them!
If you’re a weirdo like Tyler and use the social media site formerly known as Twitter, feel free to follow us there @BlankTheAcademy for ILTBTA updates, rejected jokes, and other random movie-related musings. Once we reach a million followers, we’ll offer to purchase the @ILTBTA handle from the butthead who snagged it before us.
ILTBTA is also on Letterboxd, the social networking site for movie fans. Follow us there to read our Spreadsheet comments of our ILTBTA movies, plus our ratings of other movies we watch!
If you’d like to start a wild Best Picture journey of your own, feel free to download a copy of The Spreadsheet. Bonus: checking off the boxes is oddly satisfying.
Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
ILTBTA tradition mandated that we cover the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty for our next post … but we mutinied and decided to go in a different direction. So in honor of our upcoming trip to the San Antonio area for a wedding, we’ll instead be watching the equally probably-historically-inaccurate The Alamo. Starring, produced, and directed by John Wayne, this 1960 historical war film tells the infamous story of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo7. The Alamo is available to watch for free (with ads) on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and Pluto TV (whatever that is) and can also be rented from Apple TV.
Until then, guard your booty, I mean, Bounty!
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Or whomever in this movie is pretending to be Tahitian, I guess
Tyler: All I could think about was Tahani from The Good Place.
That’s over twenty feet in today’s waves!
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
Yes, eleven. We hope you like ILTBTA posts about movies from the 30s!
#neverforget