Review – Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

In this retelling of the long-familiar tale, Marlon Brando plays a foppish Christian to Trevor Howard’s tyrannical, arrogant Bly. Though this probably isn’t anyone’s finest work, Brando’s performance stands out as especially bad. For openers, he’s the only actor in the cast who’s merely pretending to be British. Further, his portrayal of the leader of the mutineers makes it seem for all the world as if the character is motivated solely (or at least primarily) by his distaste for Bly as a social inferior who dares lord his military rank over an aristocrat. That would have been acceptable, I suppose, but it’s hard to reconcile with the tortured soul Christian becomes once the mutiny has been accomplished. The movie “adjusts” some facts and invents others to keep the story going, but then what movie doesn’t? In the end (which is a long time in coming) this isn’t a bad version of the classic tale. It’s just not especially enthralling. Mildly amusing