REEL MEMORIES NO. 111

Mutiny on the Bounty

by William V. Reynolds

What does the statement “Based on a true story” really mean? Many people are under the impression that the writer is trying to reproduce the actual events. But this is not the case. Many times the expression simply means that the writer took an actual event and fictionalized it. That’s what happened with our story for today. For further information on the real story, I recommend The Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty by William Bligh.

In 1932 a book containing a trilogy of stories, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men against the Sea, and Pitcairn Island was published. A year later MGM made a film based on this trilogy Wake of the Bounty (1933) starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian. However, two years later MGM decided to remake the film and this time they used different stars and a different name, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).

The movie tells the story of the HMS Bounty which sailed from England with a conscript crew to Tahiti on a mission to bring bread fruit trees to the West Indies where their fruit would be used to feed plantation slaves. (Although not delivered by the HMS Bounty, these trees were transported to the West Indies and Central America. I have personally seen them in the country of Honduras.)

According to the story Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton) is an excellent seaman, but an overbearing man who succeeds in raising the ire of his crew as well as his first officer Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable). For example, Bligh goes so far as to have a dead man flogged to carry out the letter of the law for his infraction.

After spending a period of time in Tahiti, where many of the men marry Tahitian women, the bounty is loaded with the bread fruit trees and begins its return voyage. An incident involving the ship’s doctor finally pushes Fletcher Christian over the edge. He takes command of the ship and sets Bligh adrift along with 18 other men. The crew then returns to Tahiti.

Amazingly, Bligh survives a 3600-mile trek across the South Pacific to the Dutch Indies. There he takes a ship to England and returns to Tahiti fulfilling his vow. He pursues the mutineers who have escaped Tahiti, but his ship founders on a reef and the mutineers escape. In a last-ditch effort to save themselves from the vengeful captain, the mutineers land at Pitcairn Island and burn the ship so that they cannot escape.

Mutiny on the Bounty received eight Oscar nominations but won only one, Best Picture. It was the first remake ever to win an Oscar.

Today we give a reel memories salute to Mutiny on the Bounty.

William V. Reynolds is the author of “Murder in the Okefenokee” available at McCaysville Public Market and Pat’s Country Kitchen in McCaysville; Parris Pharmacy, The Book Nook and Ingles in Blue Ridge; Book Nook in Blairsville; and Phillips and Lloyd in Hayesville.