The Bounty

The story of "The Bounty" has been told many times, and so each entry requires a number of things: A strong cast, an epic scope, and a fresh angle. Roger Donaldson's take on the mutiny of the titular trip brings all three. For the cast, there is Mel Gibson (playing the leader of the mutiny, William Fletcher,) and Anthony Hopkins (as William Bligh, the captain of the ship, and the man who gave Fletcher his prestigious position.) For the epic scope, there is the incredibly lush wide-frame cinematography of Arthur Ibbetson, and a brooding synth score by Vangelis.

And as for the film's new angle? Donaldson considers the story in an "upstairs vs. downstairs" context, which is to say that he turns it into class warfare: An astonishing early scene cuts between the officers eating laboriously upstairs while the rail-thin ship's mates brutally fight each other for respect in the basement-all the while keeping their grunts and howls to a minimum, so that they won't disturb the men in charge. The ships decks and rooms are shot under candlelight, while the sexually-minded island the men mutineer to is lensed with soft, romantic sun rays. Who wouldn't defect away from the harsh sepia-toned shadows of law and order, when faced with sun-baked sex?

Twilight Time's Blu-ray release of "The Bounty" represents that shift in the palette beautifully: The vivid colors of the islands visited stretch far past the screen. The disc also boasts a theatrical trailer for the film, and two separate audio commentaries. One is with Donaldson, his producer, and his production designer, who discuss how they achieved many of the film's panoramic compositions, and detail what they hoped to improve from prior adaptations of the story. On that note, the second commentary is with a historical consultant, who goes into much greater detail on what this adaptation gets right (and wrong) about the events that occurred on the Bounty.

"The Bounty" proceeds much in the same fashion as standard Hollywood biopics. We see all the most important details-the arguments, the mutiny, the face-off's, the first meetings between lovers, the last meetings between lovers-and precious few of the moments that come between them. You never get a sense of the lives these men lived, but only of the historical events that they lived through. And yet this approach has its benefits: It provides us with duels between great actors. Hopkins' performative bluster matches up against Gibson's silent stoicism in a way that overwhelms the cinematography, the score, and every other actor on screen. They mutineer against the rest of the film, and they take the ship.

"The Bounty"
Blu-ray
Screenarchives.com
$29.95