Wednesday November 16, 2011
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) directed by Frank Lloyd
I don't think I've ever seen Clark Gable in action before. My friend will admonish me for not watching Gone With The Wind, but I'm planning to save that for another date and I figured Mutiny on the Bounty would be a fitting movie to watch while on a cruise ship. Here Gable stars across Charles Laughton, who I also believe I've never seen, in the semi-true story of the famous mutiny on the British ship Bounty. As we've learned from Knife in the Water, put two different people together on one tiny boat and cooler heads will not prevail.
Laughton plays Captain Bligh, the sadistic captain of the Bounty who believes fear is the best way to instill discipline. He is abusive, derisive, quick tempered and just plain nasty. At one point AFI voted him as the 19th greatest movie villain of all time, so you know we're dealing with a serious hard ass. He is contrasted with Gable's Fletcher Christian, Bligh's first mate, who for all intents and purposes is the virtuous hero of the film. They are set on a two year voyage to Tahiti. After witnessing one abuse too many, Christian leads a mutiny against Bligh.
There are certain aspects of older films that are noticeably different from current ones. While the sense of adventure of this film is timeless and exciting, there is a certain rhythm in the way people talk and act that lets you know when a film was made. That isn't to say the acting feels dated or is worse than today's film, it is just different. There is a way people enthusiastically pat each other on the back or deliver casual lines of dialogue a tad too loud, sort of like they are performing for an audience in a play. There is a passioned monologue at the end of the film that is clearly unnatural or at the very least rehearsed that you wouldn't see today. I don't know why I'm pointing it out for this film when it is far more prevalent in films like The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Thief of Bagdad, but for some reasons I could notice it here. Yet at the same time the interplay between Gable and Laughton are terrific as they constantly challenge each other.
There is a section in the film that sort of rubbed me the wrong way but it is stuff you expect from films of the time period. When they arrive in Tahiti, the natives are entirely too friendly and warm towards them. They are portrayed as the noble savage, though in real life I'd guess that they would approach the white men with a little more caution than in this film. The women are exotic and just flock to the sailors. It really is amazing how Indians, island people, tribesmen, etc were portrayed back in the day. This type of stuff even happens today though perhaps in less obvious ways.
One thing that I found interesting is that Bligh isn't shown as a complete nincompoop. It would be easy to just portray him as a horrible captain, but he shows that despite being a prick, he is clearly worthy of leading a ship. After the mutiny takes place, Bligh and his supporters are left stranded in the middle of nowhere on a small boat. In a fascinating segment, he leads the boat (and his men) across 3600 miles of open water over two months to land. In these scenes, he shows true leadership, even caring for the sick, when it would have been easy for the film to portray him as totally heartless by throwing men overboard to save the rations or something. Perhaps he is a hard ass, but he knows it is his duty to guide his men to land, even if he is only motivated by his desire for revenge against Christian.
Overall, I found Mutiny on the Bounty to be an enjoyable film and it was fun to see Clark Gable for the first time. He seemed to be a strong capable actor with very manly features so it was easy to see what made him such a big star. The story follows a sort of predictable structure but the adventure still seemed fresh and the growing tension of the ship palpable and believable. It is helped by the strong leads of the two stars.
Grade: B+
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