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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
It blows my mind to think that only eight years earlier the first talkies were being made. Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 took movie making techniques, decades into the future. I mean look at that screen shot. So what! you say...you've seen many scenes like that before. But not audiences back in 1935! They must have been blown away to see real ships on the real ocean, when other movies at the time would have had a tiny scale model in a tank with rear projection, and actors on a set built to look like a ships deck.
So look at that scene again through the eyes of 1935, and you'll see how impressive it is. That's three real ships in that scene and the staging with the deckhand in the foreground and the Bounty and Pandora in the background, with a procession of row boats trailing off into the scene...All of that staging just for one shot! It really shows great care of detail. The entire movie is like that.
Audiences in 1935 were treated to on location shooting in Tahiti, one of the first times a movie did that. For many that would have been their first look at such a far away exotic place. For me what Mutiny on the Bounty achieved cinematically in 1935 is nothing short of amazing.
The story of the Bounty is a literature classic and it's a great tale and true, which to me makes it all the more fascinating. Clark Gable later said that Mutiny on the Bounty was the best movie he had starred in. He's powerful here as a man driven to the point of mutiny, he commands the screen whenever he's on. Charles Laughton as the cruel and sadistic Captain Bligh is the stuff of acting legends. Laughton is always good in his movies and here he's at his most colorful.
I enjoyed the spectacle of 18th century sailing vessels on the high seas and the epic adventure in the exotic south pacific islands.
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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Director: Frank Lloyd
Writers: Talbot Jennings & Jules Furthman (screenplay)
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Writers: Talbot Jennings & Jules Furthman (screenplay)
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama
"A tyrannical ship captain decides to exact revenge on his abused crew after they form a mutiny against him, but the sailor he targets had no hand in it. "
Academy Award Winner of Best Picture 1936
Academy Award Winner of Best Picture 1936
It blows my mind to think that only eight years earlier the first talkies were being made. Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 took movie making techniques, decades into the future. I mean look at that screen shot. So what! you say...you've seen many scenes like that before. But not audiences back in 1935! They must have been blown away to see real ships on the real ocean, when other movies at the time would have had a tiny scale model in a tank with rear projection, and actors on a set built to look like a ships deck.
So look at that scene again through the eyes of 1935, and you'll see how impressive it is. That's three real ships in that scene and the staging with the deckhand in the foreground and the Bounty and Pandora in the background, with a procession of row boats trailing off into the scene...All of that staging just for one shot! It really shows great care of detail. The entire movie is like that.
Audiences in 1935 were treated to on location shooting in Tahiti, one of the first times a movie did that. For many that would have been their first look at such a far away exotic place. For me what Mutiny on the Bounty achieved cinematically in 1935 is nothing short of amazing.
The story of the Bounty is a literature classic and it's a great tale and true, which to me makes it all the more fascinating. Clark Gable later said that Mutiny on the Bounty was the best movie he had starred in. He's powerful here as a man driven to the point of mutiny, he commands the screen whenever he's on. Charles Laughton as the cruel and sadistic Captain Bligh is the stuff of acting legends. Laughton is always good in his movies and here he's at his most colorful.
I enjoyed the spectacle of 18th century sailing vessels on the high seas and the epic adventure in the exotic south pacific islands.
++