The Bounty [Blu-ray]

Director: Roger Donaldson Roger Donaldson

Overview

This fourth film dramatization of the 1789 mutiny aboard the H.M.S. Bounty is based not on the familiar Nordhoff and Hall book, but on Richard Hough's novel Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian. This time, the infamous Captain Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) is as strict a disciplinarian as ever. He is, however, no monster; faced with his crew's increasing laxity after an idyllic visit to Tahiti (the search for breadfruit takes second place to limitless sex with the island girls), Bligh is forced to resort to flogging and other such means to keep his men in line. Mr. Christian (Mel Gibson), formerly Bligh's friend, is of little use to the captain, having fallen in love with a native girl himself. Christian becomes the leader of the mutiny virtually in spite of himself; and when the mutineers try to seek refuge on Tahiti, they find that the local chief wants no part of them, which is why they settle for the nearly uninhabitable Pitcairn.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/02/2019
UPC:	0738329234287
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	PG
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	2:12:00
Sales rank:	7,695

Special Features

Audio commentary by director Roger Donaldson, producer Bernard Williams and production designer John Graysmark; Audio commentary by historical consultant Stephen Walters; Image gallery; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mel Gibson	Actor
Anthony Hopkins	Actor
Laurence Olivier	Admiral Hood
Edward Fox	Kapitan Greetham
Daniel Day-Lewis	Fryer
Bernard Hill	Cole
Philip Davis	Young
Liam Neeson	Churchill
Wi Kuki Kaa	King Tynah
Tevaite Vernette	Mauatua
Philip Martin Brown	Adams
Simon Chandler	Nelson
Malcolm Terris	Dr. Huggan
Simon Adams	Heywood
John Sessions	Smith
Andrew Wilde	McCoy
Neil Morrissey	Quintal
Richard Graham	Mills
Dexter Fletcher	Ellison,Valentine
Pete Lee-Wilson	Purcell
Jon Gadsby	Norton
Brendan Conroy	Lamb
Barry Dransfield	Actor
Jack May	Actor
Mary Kauila	Actor
Sharon Bower	Actor
Tavana	Actor
Vangelis	Composer

Technical Credits

Robert Bolt

Roger Donaldson	Director
Robert Bolt	Screenwriter
Dino DeLaurentiis	Executive Producer
Bernard Williams	Producer
John Stears	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

History's most famous mutiny, previously dramatized on-screen in 1935 and 1962, was again reenacted for movie cameras in this 1984 spectacle, an intelligently written period piece with a revisionist agenda. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out) presents in painstaking detail the taking of the Bounty by its crew, the casting adrift of its commanding officer, and the subsequent journey of the mutineers to idyllic Pitcairn Island. In his view, though, Captain William Bligh (splendidly played by Anthony Hopkins) isn't the one-dimensional villain of previous film versions: He's stern and repressed but hardly a sadistic tyrant. Head mutineer Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson), formerly depicted as a reluctant rebel acting solely out of principle, comes off as something of a dilettante, swayed from his duty without ample provocation. The Bounty, in addition to rehabilitating Captain Bligh's image, devotes considerable footage to his remarkable 4,000-mile journey to friendly shores and his subsequent efforts to bring Christian and his fellow conspirators to justice. Although it is not quite as rousing an adventure as the 1935 Clark Gable-Charles Laughton film, this Bounty is absorbing and elegantly appointed in the grand manner befitting the best historical dramas.