Mutiny on the Bounty [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of Mutiny on the Bounty [VHS]
Movie Review: One of Hollywood's best classic films
Summary: 5 Stars
Charles Laughton is pure martinet evil, and Clark Cable is a sizzling hunka studmuffin in this classic version of the famous (and famously fictionalized) story of the 1787 rebellion aboard the HMS Bounty. Laughton's Captain Bligh embodies cruelty itself as he terrorizes, tortures and flogs the poor souls toiling under his command, Clark is noble and true to his morals, even as he forsakes his country in order to stand up to the tyranny of the mad ship's captain. This film is magnificently made, filmed in black & white that's as crisp and clear-cut as the plot itself... Best of all, though, is Gable at his most dashing and magnetic -- if you've ever wondered where his star appeal came from, then check this film out. (For an interesting contrast, try out the 1962 remake, with Marlon Brando, of all people, taking a cool turn at the Gable character...)Movie Review: One of Hollywood's best classic films
Summary: 5 Stars
Charles Laughton is pure martinet evil, and Clark Cable is a sizzling hunka studmuffin in this classic version of the famous (and famously fictionalized) story of the 1787 rebellion aboard the HMS Bounty. Laughton's Captain Bligh embodies cruelty itself as he terrorizes, tortures and flogs the poor souls toiling under his command, Clark is noble and true to his morals, even as he forsakes his country in order to stand up to the tyranny of the mad ship's captain. This film is magnificently made, filmed in black & white that's as crisp and clear-cut as the plot itself... Best of all, though, is Gable at his most dashing and magnetic -- if you've ever wondered whee his star appeal came from, then check this film out. (For an interesting contrast, try out the 1962 remake, with Marlon Brando, of all people, taking a cool turn at the Gable character...)Movie Review: Classic performances by Laughton & Gable
Summary: 5 Stars
This true story, with, admittedly, plenty of liberties taken with that truth, has gone down in popular consciousness as a true folk tale that everyone is familiar with. It has even been filmed three times. Captain Bligh has gone down in history as the epitome of tyranny and Fletcher Christian has become a symbol of man's struggle against tyranny. Good against evil. Tyranny against freedom. A David verses Goliath story, if you will, or a George Washington verses George III. If you want to know why this myth has become so enduring - and it is a myth as the true story is no-where near as black and white, as the 1980s remake hints at - then watch this film. Clark Gable is utterly convincing as the hero who can take no more of Captain Bligh's tyrannical leadership and leads the men to mutiny against him. His performance knocks both Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson's later feeble efforts into a three-cornered hat. Best of all is Charles Laughton's portrayal of Captain Bligh. Bligh is tyranny personified. His very presence on screen oozes menace. His eyes glare malevolently at his crew. Every word that comes out of his mouth drips with contempt. Never has an actor portrayed evil so convincingly and so thoroughly. Most actors would overplay it. Laughton, the master that he is, gets it exactly right. Loathsome though Bligh is, he never becomes a caricature. He is a man as well as a monster. (Tim Roth and Alan Rickman should eat their hearts out.) It is one of the best performances in 20th Century cinema.
This film works at every level: the brisk pacing, the characterisation of the ships crew, the sets scenes on board ship and on the Island of Tahiti, and the cinematography. It is a wonderful film to watch and one that has ingrained itself into our collective memories thanks, mainly, to Charles Laughton.
Movie Review: Terrific entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars
"Mutiny on the Bounty" is a wonderful movie. Just great. The type of movie they just don't make any more. And what a terrific cast! This 1935 version of the Bounty saga is not as historically accurate as the 1984 version starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, but I do believe it's the most entertaining to watch.Movie Review: Witches can float, and so could Bligh
Summary: 4 Stars
You know, one of the old wives' tales that they used to use to determine if someone were a witch was to toss them into a lake. If they floated, Bingo! a witch, at which time they were promptly hauled out and hanged. Well, the famous mutineers of the HMS Bounty did what amounted to the same thing with overthrown Captain Bligh and his supporters, setting them afloat in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean over a thousand miles from land, with only a compass. That should've been the end of him, they figured. Imagine what they felt when, all that time later, an English ship came looking for them at Tahiti, captained by none other than Bligh himself. He might have been a reprehensible man, but he sure was one heck of a navigator, successfully directing that rowboat to port.Truth is stranger than fiction, and probably that real-life fact about Bligh's rounding up his own mutineers is what has given such juice to this story for two hundred years, at one point inspiring this MGM movie.
Here, we have Charles Laughton doing the role of his career, causing him even to be immortalized in a Bugs Bunny cartoon--how more recognizable can you get? His Bligh is nasty alright, even ordering that a dead guy be flogged, to finish out his punishment. Clark Gable is first mate/mutineer ringleader Fletcher Christian. He starts out impressing men into service, but after being afloat with Bligh for a couple of months, even he can't take it anymore and goes over to the men's side in the argument over why breadfruit trees are more entitled to water than thirsty seamen.
I had long looked forward to renting this movie, as it has such a legendary status among films. However, sorry to say that I thought it a bit draggy here and there, which impeded my being able to enjoy it to the fullest, and hence the four star rating.
That being said, though, I suppose words cannot convey how great Laughton is, and how interesting to see Gable do a morph from gray hat to white hat.
Grab your canteen and clamber on board to check out this classic.