What really can you take from movies besides short-lived thrills?
Answer: not much. Hollywood movies in particular are catering to a thrill-seeking mass-audience. Hardly ever do they have the nerve to touch upon the more essential things in life. However, if you plough in deep enough then every puddle of mud holds a few diamonds in the rough.
Our new series of Best Movies For Men introduces these diamonds from the a man’s perspective: here is thebreak down of one movie that every man should have seen.
The Bounty (1984)
Credit: De Laurentiis Productions | The Bounty Productions Ltd.
What Do You Do
when you are facing an authority figure that will put your life at risk for no good reason at all?
That’s right, you take ’em out.
Mutiny On The Bounty
This is just what the crew of HMS Bounty (that’s Her Majesty’s Ship, slumbo) did under the leadership of First Lieutenant Christian Fletcher (Mel Gibson) when Captain Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) wanted to take the life-risking route home to England. Bligh gets more and more sadistic on Christian and the men who, much to the dismay of Captain Bligh, have formed romantic relationships with the natives of the tropical island they have been staying on.
Draconic punishments and the loss of their loved ones in sight form a fatal mix, Christian revolts against his former father-figure and sends him packing. Together with his few remaining associates Bligh is abandoned to his fate on a small boat while Christian takes over the Bounty.
A lost cause
Christian’s braveness remains unrewarded as the crew faces problem after problem once they have set themselves free. Running out of supplies they try to stock up at the local tribes. But the tides have turned as the local chief is reluctant to give out food and water. Having learned that Captain Bligh is most likely to be dead he is scared of “chief George” (King George III) who will send ships and troops to see into the matter and ultimately confront the tribe as to what has happend.
Flight Against The Machine
The movie ends in the spirit of that fear. With the help of Fletcher Christian’s
excellent navigation skills the crew manages to land on the Pitcairn Islands where they sink and burn the Bounty in order to destroy all evidence of the mutiny and to delete all traces to their whereabouts.
You Can Run…
In the last scene the remaining crew is shown from the point of view of the sinking ship, glazing at the camera in a mix of awe and desparation. Fletcher Christian and his men seem to be well-aware of their fate: what they did was question the authority of the state, i.e. of that one creature which unlike everybody else never gives up the State of Nature.
Although technically speaking all they did was commit a victimless crime as no one was killed in or after the mutiny the two options of ‘ever getting to Britain again’ and ‘getting hanged for treason’ now have become interchangable terms to them.
As Britania literally rules the waves they are forced to come to admit to themselves that their future life while consist of playing hide and seek with an irrational man-made power that will hunt them, corner them and eventually show no mercy.
Moral Of The Story
I once called my embassy from abroad after I lost my credit card. Desparate and well-aware that embassies won’t assist with low funds I asked if they could help me out in case I couldn’t recover my card. The officer’s reply on the phone: “Don’t worry. In the end, the state will not forget about you.” – To this day I am unsure whether this was meant to give me some relief – or if it was meant as a threat.
The Score
The Good
- Splendid cast with a good-looking Mel Gibson (no homo)
- Alluring setting as shot on tropical islands
- Even a young Liam Neeson is in it
- Idea is based on actual historical happenings
The Bad
- Movie doesn't show how Christian and Bligh had been friends for more than 10 years before the Bounty.
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