I watched, for the first time in fact, the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty, on KCET last night. (That's our local Public Television station). I have to admit, that that is the first time I have ever watched any version of the story. The names were all familiar to me. I knew a little about the story. The version I watched last night had Charles Laughton playing Captain William Bligh, and Clark Gable (meow!) playing Fletcher Christian. And, of course, their ship was called the HMS Bounty. Anyway, the movie piqued my interest and I did a Google search and found a page called The Bounty Chronicles. It's a great site with illustrations and essays about the incident on the Bounty and the aftermath. For instance, even though the movie ended with Fletcher Christian and the men who participated in the Mutiny living happily ever after on Pitcairn island, that wasn't really true. Some of the were killed as evidenced in the section called the The Pitcairn Massacre . It's a real interesting read. I am definitely going to read the book. (I thought that I had read in the beginning of the movie that the incidents that took place on the Bounty brought about changes in British Maritime Law.)
Oh, another term I have heard is keel-hauled. The movie had a pretty graphic version of what that is exactly (shudder!)
Posted by Valkyre at November 3, 2002 11:28 AM