The rising tension between Bligh and Christian is presented in flashbacks during a court martial of Bligh in England, after Bligh has lost his ship to Christian. The trial is led by Admiral Hood (an elderly and unrecognizable Laurence Olivier) who probes Hopkins with surprising respect.
The Bounty crew includes Daniel Day-Lewis as a stiff-backed and cruel officer and Liam Neeson as an unruly brawler. Wi Kuki Kaa has a colorful role as Tahitian King Tynah, while his comely cinematic daughter Mauatua (Tevaite Vernette) seduces Gibson while the Bounty crew are there to grow grapefruit.
How others will see it. The big-budget epic drew generally favorable reviews, but was largely ignored at Awards festivals. An exception came at Cannes, where unheralded director Roger Donaldson was nominated for the Golden Palm. Today at imdb.com, the film has a respectable 13K user votes and a reasonable 6.9 user rating.
User comments at imdb.com favor Hopkins and Bligh over Gibson and Fletcher. It does seem that in this version, Christian wants nothing more than to make babies with his willing Tahitian siren, while Bligh's only crime is a foolish obsession with rounding the Cape of Good Horn, which his motley crew lacks the tenacity and skill to accomplish.
Gibson was the rising Hollywood star in 1984. Hopkins was well known, but his Hannibal days of notoriety were still in front of him.
How I felt about it. It seems that every generation must make a big budget version of The Bounty to call their own. Since it is 1984, we have a needless Vangelis synthesizer score, the only part of the movie that seems dated today. But the story is overdue for another remake: it's been nearly 30 years.
Of course, the film to beat is Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). I have yet to see much of the 1962 version, despite the interesting casting of Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian. I suspect it is a fairly good movie. The story is a winner.
The Bounty is a fine movie because of that story, and its inherent conflict. The casting is also excellent: it even has Daniel Day Lewis, Liam Neeson, and Laurence Olivier in supporting roles. Today, the former is a much bigger star than has-been Mel Gibson, who has been Hollywood anathema since his drunken rant about Jewish cinema moguls was published some years ago. But Gibson in his day was an excellent actor.
Hopkins is also charismatic as the much hated Captain Bligh, but Hopkins tries to make the character too sympathetic. The mutiny would make more sense if Hopkins portrayed him as the tyrant that he probably was (Bligh's own log was certain to be self-serving). Although the crew would certainly rather bask in the tropical paradise of Tahiti than subsist on half rations on a ship trying to round the tip of South America.
I like the character of the Tahiti native chief. He seems kindly, wise, and farsighted, though moreso than he probably was. It was a tremendous sacrifice to turn over his perfect 10 daughter to mutineers.
One curious aspect about the various Bounty movies is that all tell only half of the story. What happened on Pitcairn Island (only one mutineer survived into the 19th century) is a murky mess of slavery, rebellion, and murder. Ripe for cinema, and if actual facts are sketchy, so much the better.