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Our Columnists Reflect on Oscar's Best Films |
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Despite historical fictions,
still a rousing film classic
By GORDON GREB
of TheColumnists.com
“Mutiny on the Bounty” got the Oscar for Best Motion Picture in l935—but let’s consider the question, “Should it have?”
It was wonderful entertainment, a thrilling episode of what happened in the past, but no closer to the truth of what actually occurred aboard a vessel in the South Pacific in the 18th century than the story of Alice in Wonderland.
The art of good cinema seems always to do something to your psychic data banks so that you’re taken away and plunged into another world. What you get is a carefully crafted Electronic Experience. If you’re not careful you’ll think it’s the real thing. And you’ll start to believe the actors on the screen are somehow as real as the people you know in everyday life. And that's about what happened for the millions who flocked to "Mutiny on the Bounty."
When Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was asked to approve the “Bounty” idea he was lukewarm. Mayer did not want a movie glorifying mutineers since he had been born in Russia, which had been seized by communist revolutionaries. So Irving Thalberg, Mayer's head of production, showed he could please his boss by making “Mutiny on the Bounty” into a brilliant piece of entertainment which would hardly be encumbered by the facts.
Thalberg first got the idea from the best-selling books written by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall: “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1932), “Men Against the Sea” (1933) and “Pitcairn Island (l934). But someone else had seen a movie in those books first-- Hollywood director Frank Lloyd, who had snapped up the movie rights.
Frank Lloyd wasn't the worst thing that could happen to Thalberg and MGM, even though he refused to sell them the rights unless they promised he could direct the film. This was in 1934 and, though Academy Awards had only been handed out six times, Lloyd already had two of them--for directing "The Divine Lady" (1929) and "Cavalcade" (1933), which also had won for Best Picture.
They made the deal with Frank Lloyd--and he brought them a classic motion picture.
No doubt about it, “Mutiny” today stands the test of time as riveting drama. Its appeal on the screen is as compelling now as it was 72 years ago. There’s no question about choosing between the villain and the heroes in the original black and white version. Watching “Bounty” today takes you prisoner for all of its 132-minute running time.
In the movie version, midshipman Roger
Byam (Franchot Tone), a fictional character, is depicted as an
observer. Screenwriters Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman and Carey
Wilson use him to carry us along from one actual event to another,
seeing what happens through the eyes of a sympathetic participant.
The story begins in 1787 when the British Admiralty chose William
Bligh (Charles Laughton) to command the HMS Bounty on a scientific
voyage to Tahiti. Bligh had been to the South Pacific previously
with Captain Cook and he was to return to collect breadfruit
to be planted in Britain’s Caribbean colonies to feed the
slaves there.
Almost immediately after the voyage begins, Captain Bligh’s use of flogging as a punishment for his crewmen arouses the ire of midshipman Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), who tries unavailingly to spare some of the victims from Bligh's excessive cruelty. His resentment builds from one incident to another but eases after getting to Tahiti, since officers and crew find an earthly paradise among native women eager to satisfy their needs with kindness, love and affection.
Then, after lifting anchor to sail home and barely a day out, Bligh’s unmerciful tyranny resumes and "Mr. Christian" breaks his resolve, shouting defiantly that he is taking command of the ship. Most of the crew rallies behind Christian. They abandon the angry captain and 18 of his followers in a small boat, thousands of miles from port, thinking they’ll never be seen again. But Bligh, an able seaman, navigates his small craft 3,500 miles to safe harbor, makes his way to England, and returns to hunt down the miscreants.
Bligh finds the “Bounty” has sailed for unknown parts. Actually Christian finds safety for the crew and some Tahitian natives on an uncharted island called Pitcairn. The English remaining on Tahiti are rounded up and taken home in irons– including some who were Bligh loyalists– to face the hangman’s noose.
Producer Thalberg wanted a more positive ending, so he got his screenwriters to have Roger Byam deliver a fictional, but stirring ending–an appeal to the Admiralty Court for humane treatment of seamen. This grand moment, of course, comes from a man who never existed in real life. But you leave the theater believing friends have gotten him a pardon from King George III and all’s well that ends well ( while “Hail Britannia” plays under closing credits).
If you’ve seen the movie, you may wonder why Charles Laughton did not win an Oscar for his role as Captain Bligh. Few can forget what he shouted to the mutineers from his small boat so far from land: “You're sending me to my doom, eh? Well, you're wrong, Christian. I'll take this boat, as she floats, to England if I must. I'll live to see you--all of you--hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fleet..."
But when voting began for the 1935 Oscars, Academy members were presented with ballots with only four actors in contention for Best Actor--and three of them were from "Mutiny on the Bounty": Laughton, Gable and Tone. Laughton already had won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in “The Private Life of Henry VIII” (1933), so possibly the idea of giving him another so soon seemed a bit too much for Academy voters. Maybe the same sort of thinking kept Clark Gable from winning. He'd just won his first Best Actor Oscar the previous year for "It Happend One Night" (1934). With the votes split between the "Mutiny" stars, the Oscar went to veteran actor Victor McLaglen for his performance in John Ford's "The Informer.”
Chief critics of cinema are historians who will stand back and look at movies like “Mutiny on the Bounty” as twisted forms of reality. They’ll say, “Don’t be fooled. This is not the way it really happened” and send you to the library to read some books. Nothing wrong with that except–even in books–we can have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction. And Shakespeare’s recreation of the life of ancient times may come closer to telling core truths about those times than trying to unravel all the facts.
Can a movie make someone a worse tyrant than he really was? The record, according to naval historian Greg Dening, says that flogging was common aboard British vessels in the 18th century and William Bligh of the “Bounty” was not excessive by comparison with others. He flogged 10.9 per cent of his crew, James Cook of the “Resolution” 25.6 per cent of his men and George Vancouver of the “Discovery,” nearly 53 per cent.
On the other hand, is it possible for a movie to turn an actual monster into a hero? Yes, not only is it possible but it happened the same year the “Bounty” was made. In l935 German director Leni Riefenstahl produced “Triumph of the Will,” now considered the most effective propaganda film ever made. It portrays Adolph Hitler at the “Nuremburg Rally” as the savior of Nazi Germany. Shooting from every angle, using 150 assistants with 30 cameras, and many different lenses, she makes Nazi Germany’s absolute dictator look like a political rock star.
Although Captain Bligh’s insistence on total obedience is demeaned in “Bounty,” such behavior is highly praised and reinforced in Riefenstahl’s film. She sells audiences on the idea that “will power” is the main strength of Der Fuehrer and then presents one well-known Nazi subaltern after another swearing allegiance to the dictator.
It’s too bad that Germans idolized “Triumph of Will” in 1935 and paid so little attention to “Mutiny on the Bounty.” When overbearing Captain Bligh lost his ship to a determined crew, it was the same year King George III lost the American continent to rebellious former colonists who broke from England and created the United States Constitution.
The year was 1787. Maybe a little mutiny
now and then is a good thing.
©2007 by Gordon Greb. The DVD cover illustration is courtesy of MGM. This column first posted Feb.19, 2007.
OTHER 1935 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: "Alice Adams," "Broadway Melody of 1936," "Captain Blood," "David Copperfield," "The Informer," "Les Miserables," "Lives of A Bengal Lancer," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Naughty Marietta," "Ruggles of Red Gap," "Top Hat."
TRIVIA ITEMS: If any proof were needed that the Great Depression
was over, it was the cost of "Mutiny on the Bounty"--nearly
$2 million. Cecil B. DeMille recreated ancient times that same
year in "The Crusades," but spent only $1.3 million...This
was not the first screen version of the Bounty mutiny. Errol
Flynn made his film debut in a 1933 Australian film called "In
the Wake of the Bounty"...The actress Movita, who played
a Tahitian beauty in the 1935 "Mutiny on the Bounty,"
later was married to actor Marlon Brando, who played Fletcher
Christian in the 1962 remake of "Mutiny on the Bounty."
Brando was only 10 when the first movie was made.
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