Blu-Ray Review: Classic ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ Tells Timeless Story

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CHICAGO – There are some stories that are so resonant that they can be told generation after generation and not lose any of their power. The basic foundation of “Mutiny on the Bounty” is so inherently strong that it has supported several acclaimed versions but perhaps the most beloved is still the 1935 Best Picture winner starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. Joining in a wave of classics hitting the new format during holiday season 2010, “Mutiny on the Bounty” is now available on Blu-ray.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

The actual mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789 has been warped for the sake of fiction through several mediums over the years but the foundation has stayed the same — one man leads his people against their brutal leader. The facts of the actual mutiny may have been warped significantly in “Mutiny on the Bounty” but it got the essentials right as Fletcher Christian (the charismatic Clark Gable) led a revolution against his ship’s captain William Bligh (the creepy Charles Laughton).

Mutiny on the Bounty was released on Blu-ray on November 16th, 2010
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Regularly ranked on lists of the best films ever made (#86 on the American Film Institute list), “Mutiny on the Bounty” received eight Oscar nominations and won Best Picture (and, oddly, no other awards as John Ford’s “The Informer” took Director, Actor, Writing, and Music…the last film to ONLY win Best Picture). It’s a “classic” film that hasn’t necessarily aged as well as some other ’30s films. I can appreciate “Mutiny on the Bounty” more than enjoy it. There’s no denying it’s well done and that Gable and Laughton play a definitive hero and villain but I admire Frank Lloyd’s drama more than anything else. It’s an interesting piece of movie history and film buffs will appreciate the HD restoration, which isn’t overly-impressive but gets the job done. Kind of like the film itself — a solid classic that seems to be getting a little dusty in 2010 but still holds an important place in movie history.

As for special features, “Mutiny on the Bounty” is awfully-slight in that category but it is nicely-presented in the of the Warner Bros. Blu-ray book form, resembling something more on a library shelf than a DVD case. The growing collection of WB classics packaged this way should make a nice-looking shelf for serious fans of movie classics.

Official Synopsis:
“HMS Bounty sails for Tahiti by way of Cape Horn — and into movie lore. Grandly filmed, Mutiny on the Bounty captured the 1935 Best Picture Academy Award and eight nominations total. Charles Laughton portrays Captain Bligh, a seafaring monster ruling with the law of fear. Clark Gable is first officer Fletcher Christian, whose will to obey erodes under Bligh’s tyranny. And Franchot Tone plays idealistic midshipman Byam, torn by his allegiance to both. That all three portrayals are vividly memorable is accented by the fact that for the only time in Oscar history, three stars from the same film were Best Actor nominees.”

Special Features:
o 1935 Short “Pitcairn Island Today”
o Academy Awards Newsreel
o Theatrical Trailers Of This And The 1962 Version

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com