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DVD Mutiny on the Bounty
The highlight of Mutiny on the Bounty is undoubtedly Charles Laughton's bracingly evil performance as Captain Bligh, a man so mean that he insists on having a dead sailor flogged. Bligh pushes his men beyond physical endurance, slashes their rations for his own profit, and drastically cuts down their frolicking time with scantily clad Tahitians. Finally, the moment everyone has been waiting for arrives: first mate Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) hits his limit and all hell breaks loose. Gable holds doggedly onto his American accent through the entire movie, but in a way it makes Christian come off as a Regular Guy in opposition to Bligh's institutionalized cruelty. Once you get past the hurdle of his diphthongs, Gable makes an excellent Fletcher Christian--strong, fair, and noble, and he effectively conveys the struggle of a man who loathes the idea of mutiny but can't stand see his men mistreated. And Charles Laughton is just superb. His Bligh is thoroughly appalling, yes, but it's far from a one-note performance--when he is cast adrift on the open sea in a lifeboat and tries to make an impossible journey to land, you can't help but root for him. Mutiny on the Bounty won the 1935 Academy Award for Best Picture and picked up a Leading Actor nomination for each of its male leads. Check it out or be tied to the mizzenmast. --Ali Davis
Even though it tends to drag and the abuse gets a bit repetitive, this is by far the best adaptation of the famous British Navy story. Gable and Laughton are perfect for their respective roles and the period is brilliantly displayed. I'm not a huge Gable fan. This and Gone W/ the Wind are abt all I like him in.
Mutiny on the Bounty
MGM's adaptation of the famous Nordhoff/ Hall book is given top shelf treatment here with the sneering Laughton as the definitive Bligh, and the studios biggest star, Gable, playing Christian with gusto (and, notably, without his trademark mustache). Grand, sweeping entertainment suitable for the whole family.
"...I am your captain, your judge, and your jury."
Charles Laughton is unforgettable as the ruthless Captain Bligh, who is ordered in late 1787 to take the Bounty, a British naval ship, to the island of Tahiti in the South Seas to gather breadfruit trees that'll be transplanted to the West Indies and served as food for the slaves. But the mission is doomed from the start because of Captain Bligh's intolerable cruelty to his crew and fellow officers, including Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable).
As the Bounty makes its way to Tahiti, crewmen are mercilessly wipped for minor offenses and several die because of the sinister Bligh. When the Bounty finally reaches the beautiful island the crew are allowed to have some brief relaxation and many fall in love with the pretty native girls. Christian falls in love with a beautiful native girl but is forced to leave her behind when the Bounty, now packed with breadfruit trees, starts its return journey to England. Bligh's cruel treatment of his crew drives Fletcher Christian over the edge, and he decides to lead a mutiny against Bligh.
Bligh and his loyal officers and crewmen are cast adrift in a small boat, and Christian heads back to Tahiti where he reunites with his native girlfriend. He and his now "liberated" crew are happy, but not for long. Bligh defies the wrath of nature itself and somehow makes it back to England, where he is exonerated by his superiors for the loss of the Bounty. Eager to seek vengeance on Christian and his mutineers, Bligh is given a new ship and begins his pursuit of the Bounty. Knowing that Bligh will never stop looking for his lost ship, Christian decides to burn the ship after landing the crew (as well as his girlfriend and the crewmembers' girlfriends from Tahiti) at the deserted Pitcairn Island. And there they will remain for the rest of their lives, "prisoners" of the island, rather than hanged by the British.
This 1935 classic has aged well and has been nicely restored for its dvd release. The special features include theatrical trailers for both the 1935 and 1962 versions, brief footage of the director recieving the oscar for best picture of 1935, and an incredible but brief documentary (made at about the same time as the film I guess) about Pitcairn Island which has real footage of the descendants of Fletcher Christian and his mutineers.
I honestly don't know which of the film versions (this one, the 1962 version, and 1984's "The Bounty") I like best, but I think that there are strengths and weaknesses with each one. For example, Clark Gable as a British officer is as convincing as Richard Burton playing a German officer (which he did, for heaven's sake!), but he still did well in the role. Franchot Tone, in a supporting role, had some of the corniest dialogue of the whole film. The real scene-stealer was of course Charles Laughton, who always made such a great screen villian. If youn enjoy watching classic sea adventures, I highly recommend this one.
Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "walls of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Clark Gable - Claudette Colbert Director(s): Frank Capra DVD Release Date: Released the 28 December 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Ranking No. 21 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films, this 1940 classic is a bit dated in its noble sentimentality, but it remains a luminous example of Hollywood classicism from the peerless director of mythic Americana, John Ford. Adapted by Nunnally Johnson from John Steinbeck's classic novel, the film tells a simple story about Oklahoma farmers leaving the depression-era dustbowl for the promised land of California, but it's the story's emotional resonance and theme of human perseverance that makes the movie so richly and timelessly rewarding. It's all about the humble Joad family's cross-country trek to escape the economic devastation of their ruined farmland, beginning when Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns from a four-year prison term to discover... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days) has breathed vibrant new life into the classic story of the mutiny on the Bounty. With a dream cast--Mel Gibson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, and Daniel Day-Lewis--and a script by Robert Bolt (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia), The Bounty takes a revisionist tack through the well-charted waters of an oft-told tale. Hopkins's Captain Bligh is no raving sadist in the Charles Laughton mode. (Laughton played Bligh in the first Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935.) Instead, Sir Anthony plays Bligh as a hard-nosed imperialist explorer simply trying to get the job done in the time-honored manner: on the backs of the poor gobs under his command. Still, when Bligh's suppressed powder keg of rage... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Mel Gibson - Anthony Hopkins Director(s): Roger Donaldson DVD Release Date: Released the 21 November 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This 1930 film, No. 54 on the AFI's Top 100 list, still holds up as a surprisingly forceful and honest antiwar drama. Indeed, the modern sensibility is almost as startling as the sometime stagey acting of Lew Ayres, which can be excused by the fact that, three years after the introduction of sound, actors were still applying stage techniques to talking pictures. Ayres plays a German college student during World War I, who is brainwashed into enlisting in the Army (along with the rest of his class) by a zealously inspirational college professor. Once in uniform and on the front lines, however, he quickly discovers that the glory of the Fatherland is of little concern to a soldier dodging bullets and explosions, whose comrades are dying in his arms. As powerful in its way as... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lew Ayres Director(s): Lewis Milestone DVD Release Date: Released the 05 January 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Here's a model for adapting a novel into a movie. The bestseller by James Jones, a frank and hard-hitting look at military life, could not possibly be made into a film in 1953 without considerably altering its length and bold subject matter. Yet screenwriter Daniel Taradash and director Fred Zinnemann (both of whom won Oscars for their work) pared it down and cleaned it up, without losing the essential texture of Jones's tapestry. The setting is an army base in Hawaii in 1941. Montgomery Clift, in a superb performance, plays a bugler who refuses to fight for the company boxing team; he has reasons for giving up the sport. His refusal results in harsh treatment from the company commander, whose bored wife (Deborah Kerr) is having an affair with the tough-but-fair sergeant (Burt Lancaster).... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Burt Lancaster - Montgomery Clift - Deborah Kerr - Donna Reed - Frank Sinatra Director(s): Fred Zinnemann DVD Release Date: Released the 23 October 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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