Talk about Island Power.
It's been made at least three times, and all three times well done. Because of Charles Laughton's unique performance as the savage Captain William Bligh, the 1935 version of Mutiny On the Bounty set the standard for all future adaptations.
Based on the real events of the 1789 mutiny, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, both volunteer WWI pilots serving in France, wrote a trilogy beginning with the publication of Mutiny On the Bounty in 1932. By '35 for the Laughton film (with Clark Gable as a virile Depression-era hero standing up to authoritarian abuse of privilege) both Men Against the Sea (1933) and Pitcairn's Island (1934) had already been published.
Together Nordhoff and Hall were great, but their collaboration did eventually end and neither prospered the better for it.
Authoritative though the condensed adaptation by the screenwriters was, and precisely because a generation later the story still resonated as a tale of rebellion with something akin to Biblical heft, the next big version (the first one in color) starred Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian.
Supposedly Brando almost sank MGM by--allegedly--taking command of the film's director's chair, embodying the role of one of the world's most famous rebels, and thereby causing director Carol Reed (of The Third Man fame and more) to be replaced by Lewis Milestone. And this one was that guy's last picture.
Interestingly, an actress named Movita played the Tahitian love interest opposite Clark Gable...and then years later became Marlon Brando's 2nd wife. She lived to be 98.
Further, Brando bought a French-Polynesian island because of his experiences filming (and conducting) Mutiny, Tetiaroa. Today a millionaire's playground.
The 1984 version certainly favored millionaires. Anthony Hopkins has all the eccentric verisimilitude and power of Laughton as Bligh, to be sure, but the production unwisely favors Bligh's perspective. There is a moment when Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian cries out, hand on forehead, "I am in hell!" in a way that just makes ya wanna take over the remote, but otherwise the quality production value and atmospheric music by Vangelis, plus memorable performances by not only Hopkins but also young Daniel Day-Lewis and young Liam Neeson, keep the third take on the story always at least entertaining.
The 1935 version is eclipsed, however, by the superlative 1962 film. Lavish in every respect--it has an Overture and an Interlude--Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Tarita as Maimiti, plus Marlon Brando, is the classic account of trying to get bread-fruit gone awry like no other.
Stewart Kirby writes for
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