Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

31 December 2019

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) stars Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, and Richard Harris, and tells the tale of the real life mutiny that took place on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty in 1789. With some artistic licencing, of course. It's the second movie of the name by MGM, the first film was 1935 starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable.

It's an epic film running a little over 3 hours, and with the majority of the story happening on the Bounty. For its time it does a good job selling the drama, although given that it's a movie about a British vessel Marlon Brando's voice (American accent trying to be British) is really weird and occasionally off-putting. Though the acting of the cast is generally good, the story drags a little (there's a lot of time spent in Tahiti for broader appeal, and the breadfruit discussion albeit interesting historically slows the story down unnecessarily). Pretty good acting though, which sells this as a pretty solid film. 7/10