Mutiny on the Bounty

I just finished a movie kick of watching the four surviving film versions of the story of the HMS Bounty and its mutiny. The only version that I had seen previously was the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins film (which I had left the theater with the sole memory of "titties").

My recent interest was launched by a viewing of Ruggles of Red Gap on TCM. Charles Laughton played one of the earliest "fish out of water" characters as a British Butler lost in a card game to new employers in the American west. Laughton did an amazing job of playing the effeminate eyerolling butler and I was amazed to find that he had played the iconic villain of William Bligh in the same year.

The four surviving films (an Australian silent version existed at one time):

In the Wake of the Bounty (1933)
An odd Australian film that is a mixture of a travelogue and a historical adventure film. It mixes badly acted vignettes of the mutiny with then-present-day footage of the descendants of the mutineers on Pitcairn Island. It's claim to fame is that it's the first appearance of Errol Flynn on film (as Fletcher Christian). At this point it's mostly interesting for Flynn and as a document of what Pitcairn Island was like at the start of the 1930's.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
This is the film that all other versions are measured by. My only exposure to it was through the Bugs Bunny parody and from impressionists in the 1960's doing their take on Bligh and Christian. I have to say, for a film made in the 30's, it stands up extremely well. Laughton gives Bligh layers of greed and spite and jealousy that make for an impressive character. Gable is fricking heroic as Christian. I wasn't a fan of his until seeing this movie.
Historians and biographers were mixed on what happened on the Bounty. Seems like the current take is that Bligh wasn't the animal portrayed in this film. But after Laughton was finished with it, Bligh was shorthand for tyrannical leader.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
You can see from the start of the film why audiences were shocked by Marlon Brando's take on Fletcher Christian. Everyone still had Clark Gable's heroic man's man in their minds and Brando played him as an almost effeminate society playboy fop. He does have his heroic moments, but he keeps lapsing into playing the character as almost having a Scarlet Pimpernelish weak secret identity. Trevor Howard does a good job of playing a slightly less demonic Bligh. Richard Harris is on board as the leader of the mutineers. A decent film other than Brando's weirdness and his insistence on building a bizarre ending so that his character could get the last big scene.

Bounty (1984)
The most sympathetic Bligh to date. Anthony Hopkins gives the top notch performance that you would expect. Bligh's lunacy is a slow build in this one. I had no memory of Daniel Day Lewis or Liam Neeson being in this film, because they weren't name actors in '84. Lewis elevates the character of John Fryer to a major role, taking some of the villain weight off of Bligh's shoulders. Neeson takes Richard Harris' role as the head mutineer. Both do as well as you would expect them to. Gibson looks like an Errol Flynn or Clark Gable matinee idol, but he didn't do much with this role. Gibson is just there in the first half of the movie and then flips a switch and starts to chew the scenery. Christian isn't a man who's been pushed to his limit. He's a guy who goes insane from happiness on Tahiti and is ripe for Bligh's machinations. There was talk of this film showing some homo eroticism between the Bligh and Christian characters. I took it as being Bligh's jealousy of Christian's happiness. I think the gay erotica stuff came from everyone being dripping in sweat for the third act.
Oh, and, "titties".