1984 film by Roger Donaldson
The Bounty is a 1984 British epic historical drama film directed by Roger Donaldson. It depicts the voyage and mutiny of HMS Bounty, with Robert Bolt's screenplay adapting the 1972 book Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian by Richard Hough. It stars Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh, with supporting roles played by Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill and Edward Fox.
The Bounty began pre-production in late 1978 under director David Lean as a long-time passion project, but multiple complications, including a prohibitively high budget and screenwriter Robert Bolt suffering from a heart attack, led to a period of development hell that ended with the hiring of newcomer director Donaldson. Filming took place primarily on location in Donaldson's home country of New Zealand, French Polynesia, and England. Vangelis composed the film's score.
The film was made by Dino De Laurentiis Productions and Bounty Productions Ltd. and distributed by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment in the UK, and Orion Pictures Corporation internationally. It premiered on 4 May 1984 and received generally positive reviews, with praise for Hopkins' portrayal of Bligh, and was noted by critics and historians as being a more historically accurate depiction of the mutiny than previous depictions, though reactions to Gibson's performance were more polarised. The Bounty was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.