Thursday, May 23, 2019

Movie review - "The Bounty" (1984) ***

No one seems to remember or care much for this version in part I think because it flopped but also because it was going to be made by David Lean in two parts and has a bit of "oh if only" aura about it.

It's intelligent, looks great, has location shooting in Tahiti, and a real life Bounty replica. The film is full of people about to become big stars - Mel Gibson (a kind of star, the hottest thing in Hollywood at the time), Tony Hopkins (famous but pre Silence of the Lambs), Daniel Day Lewis (quite a big role), Liam Neeson (quite a big role).

The movie never really comes alive. The local Tahitans are either noble savages or nubile women - the character of Fletcher Christian's wife has never been anything in movies other than a doe eyed topless smiling ninny.

Maybe it was a mistake to do in flashback. The stuff on the boat is good. It suffers from the anti climax factor most Bounty stories have. It looks fantastic. It's smart. It lacks a little X factor but this probably should be better remembered. It's very well cast.

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