The Bounty at 40
The blockbuster that brought Hopkins, Gibson and Neeson to NZ
Roger Donaldson not only managed to bring an aquatic movie in under budget, he also corralled a combustible combo of method madness and burgeoning egos. James Croot writes.
It should have been directed by David Lean. It was supposed to have started shooting years before it finally did. It might have been a two-part big-screen adventure or a seven-episode mini-series. And it could have starred Oliver Reed and Christopher Reeve, rather than Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.
After such a tumultuous journey just to get the cameras rolling, and a production that was blighted by everything from hurricanes, rogue clouds, mutinous
Tahitian locals and his cast and crew going “troppo”, it’s amazing just how watchable Roger Donaldson’s The Bounty is, even four decades after its debut.
Incredibly, the Australian-born helmer, then best known for New Zealand-shot movies like Sleeping Dogs and Smash Palace, not only achieved the extremely rare feat of bringing an aquatic movie in on time and under budget, but he also managed to corral the method madness and burgeoning egos of not only Hopkins and Gibson, but also Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson.
Yes, forget Wellington’s Fellowship, this is the film that, for a few glorious weeks in 1983, brought that incredible quartet of then and future screen stars to our shores, along with other familiar names like John Sessions, Neil Morrissey, Phil Davis, Edward Fox and Dexter Fletcher (who, in 2015, recounted to Stuff to Watch how he, Gibson, Neeson and others got into trouble at a “big old picture palace” on Auckland’s “main boulevard” for being “a bit rowdy and boisterous”).
With no disrespect to Jon Gadsby’s near silent, shirtless performance as one of the crew, The Bounty also boasted two homegrown products in key roles: The eponymous ship itself, built in Whangārei for $4 million when the film originally went into production in 1978; and one of Rangitukia’s most famous sons, Wi Kuki Kaa (Utu), who actually outperforms Hopkins in providing the movie’s emotional heart, as the tragic Tahitian King Tynah, caught between his loyalty to Britain’s King George III and his love for his daughter, thanks to the events that transpire.
The film is told mainly in flashback, as Hopkins’ Captain William Bligh faces a court martial for his conduct and losing the HMS Bounty while leading an expedition to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to Jamaica (essentially because it was considered suitably cheap fodder for British slaves).
Donaldson’s Bounty (an adaptation by Robert Bolt of Richard Hough’s 1972 book Captain Bligh & Mr Christian, with the apparent assistance of one Ian Mune) is very much a character study of one man’s ambition clashing with the desires and welfare of his crew.
While Bligh’s initial determination not to lose a single man to “drink, disease or dirt” is considered admirable and his insistence on 20 minutes a day of dancing to avoid melancholy and violence dismissed as merely unorthodox, it’s his tying of the objectors with two left feet to the mast “for insubordination” that first raises a red flag among the men. However, things take a decidedly dark turn when Bligh’s desperation to “round” Cape Horn in order to complete a circumnavigation of the globe results in them making only 85 miles in 31 days, before he eventually relents and admits an alternative route is required.
It’s not only the conditions outside the cabins that are stormy. Accusations by master of the ship John Fryer (Day-Lewis) of endangering the ship and crew in order to satisfy “Mr. Bligh-and-mighty’s” ambitions are met with his replacement by Bligh’s old mucker Fletcher Christian (Gibson).
“I am commander-by-law and I wouldn’t have hired you as a boson on a barge,” are Bligh’s parting words, as he justifies his decision by labelling Fryer “a coward and grossly inefficient”.
But while the men are buoyed by their eventual arrival at their island paradise destination, Bligh’s mood is far from improved.
Perturbed at how easily they are distracted by the local women, who “only wear tattoos in wonderful places”, he’s frustrated at Christian’s failure to save him from an awkward moment with one of King Tynah’s wives in a timely manner, jealous of his freedom, charisma and popularity and caught in a quandary as to whether to reveal the truth about Tynah’s “hero” Captain James Cook.
Duties are neglected, routines ignored, as The Bounty’s crew enjoy their surroundings, “lethargy and flagrant defiance” that Bligh counters with greater and greater restrictions, until the desertions begin and the captain decides enough is enough and orders the ship to head back to sea to continue their voyage.
As a final coup de grace, Bligh announces a demoralisingly familiar course to get them to Jamaica. Cue increasing tension, endless deck swabbing and the raiding of a personal coconut stash that escalates into the incident that the boat is most famous for.
From the slightly off-kilter on-board angles to the sun-baked Tahitian paradise, Donaldson certainly does his best to create an immersive backdrop to his bromance gone sour.
Bolt’s screenplay evokes memories of another Heart of Darkness-descent-into-madness movie, Apocalypse Now, albeit without really ever generating the same sense of menace or threat.
Indeed, while Hopkins clearly throws himself into the role of increasing outsider and Neeson gives good brawler, we never really get too deep into either Gibson or Day-Lewis’ supposedly crucial characters.
Likewise, Vangelis’ synth soundtrack adds atmosphere and enhances the sense of foreboding, but it lacks the propulsive power or memorability of his more famous works on Chariots of Fire and 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
Still, despite some uneven pacing and being distinctly a boys’ own adventure, The Bounty has held up well, its sturdiness perhaps as much a reason for Hollywood’s lack of interest in revisiting the story, as the reputation for water-based movies being a financial sinkhole.
The Bounty (PG) is available to rent from YouTube and iTunes.