The seven seas never seemed so sad and heavy hearted as they did in the our journey with the Bounty. Filled with grief, chaos, and question for loyalty Mutiny on the Bounty won for Best Picture of 1935 at the 8th Annual Academy Awards. With Clark Gable once again leading the charge we are whisked away on a two year long journey with the English crew aboard a small ship called Bounty. Proclaimed by many to be one of the best pictures ever produced MGM had a hit on their hands with the all star cast and great shooting locations. However, the film may not have been as historically accurate to the real Mutiny that happened on the Bounty it is now in the history books for it's win at the Oscars.
Set to sail for Tahiti, The Bounty is a small ship in England that is looking to make it's journey across the sea with the notorious Captain William Bligh is in command. His reputation as an unjust, ruthless, heavy handed captain have people very worried about their survival on the two year journey. It is only the fact that the kind hearted, yet stern, Lieutenant Fletcher Christian that most are willing to join the crew. After seeing the harsh punishment that the captain has given some members of the crew, i.e. the flogging of a dead man and starving crew members, they believe they will get relief once they have reached the shores of Tahiti. That relief doesn't last long when they start to set sail for home. Only a few days into the journey back the captain kills one of his loyal members of the crew just to prove a point that he is not to be messed with. That is the final act that Christian can take before he decides on a mutiny on the ship Bounty and give the captain a taste of his own medicine.
This film may not be known by a lot of people it did make a small splash at the 1936 Awards. Just like our last film, it too had to beat out 11 other movies to win the award. RKO's Alice Adams, The Informer and Top Hat; MGM's Broadway melody of 1936, David Copperfield, and Naughty Marietta; Warner Brothers' Captain Blood and A Midsummer Night's Dream; Paramount's The Lives of Bengal Lancer and Ruggles of the Red Gap; and 20th Century's Les Miserables. It's one of three movies, The Broadway Melody and Grand Hotel being the other two, to win the Best Picture Award and win in no other category. The film had Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone all nominated for the Best Actor award. It is the only film in history to had that many in that category. The film was number 86 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list in 1998, however, it has since been removed from the list when they undated the list for it's 10th anniversary.
I have to say that I did not car for this film that much. The only thing that kept me interested in the film was Clark Gable... but it's very hard to hate Gable in any role. However, I was thrown a little by not seeing him in his famous mustache. Since Lieutenants in the English Navy were clean shaven he had to shave it off for this role. If he were not in it I may not have finished the film. I see why it was nominated, and won, but I don't think I would say that I enjoyed it more than I enjoy watching Top Hat. I would not go as far as to saying it was the worst film I ever watched, but I would never care to see it again.
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