Not taking anything away from Brando's performance in this movie, but his introduction has to be one of the most ridiculous scenes ever. That cape and the girls on each arm. I thought that was so cheesy. Someone out there must agree with me.
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Me too, I'd written that before. He looks like the Scarlet Pimpernel.
shareMany people dressed that way then , why , I dont know but there were strange fashions around, like today really.
shareBrando highlights Christian's character development both with regard to his struggles with the lethal crisis for which there were no "right" answers without potentially worse consequences, and with regard to Christian's self-defined ambiguous role between the ship's officers (especially the captain) and the ship's men (while Christian himself is of course one of the ship's officers), by having us first see Christian in a very negative light (even Bligh in that opening scene asks him why he became a naval officer) and then having us watch Christian's character grow as he must respond to events and environment. Even by the time of the mutiny itself, Christian's deep motives still seem hidden, and he finally appears to fully embrace his choices only after he returns to Tahiti and Maimiti challenges him. Brando does not give us a stock hero facing off with a stock villain; he instead gives us a modern fable, the kind with troubling issues, no easy answers, and a human character struggling to make choices the consequences of which he could live with in conscience. Brando's Christian becomes a hero only after he has died and has become "the man who stood up to tyranny."
shareVery well put Stephen.
shareWell, said Stephen, as well as the reference to the "Scarlet Pimpernel," by an earlier poster. Both characters are meant to be "fops," -- a concept that is foreign to modern folks. Something like a "metro-sexual" perhaps. But you're right, in that it establishes an inner conflict within Fletcher that is only resolved with his death.
This establishing of Christian's character type is also critical as it sets up a direct conflict with Bligh whom we are to see as almost as completely antithetical to Christian in virtually every way. Christian is refined, Bligh, a boor; Christian a mad of the nobility, Bligh, the military; Christian, a man who places personal honor first, Bligh a thief and political opportunist. And so on.
Christian's death is tragic in that it is the result of this tragic flaw in his character, a man caught in a world in which he does not really belong, the military, and from which he is probably constantly trying to escape. Nor does he belong fully to the fancy, fashion-minded world he attempts to hide in, either and this is his tragedy: in reality he belongs no where.
He does not even believe fully in the "mutiny" he has started, and his to seek out justice from the very system he mutinied against can only be seen as a desire to punish himself, hence bringing out the only real solution to his dilemma, death.
For Christian, we can guess, the mutiny was unforgivable not simply because it was, "against the law," but because it was, far worse: bad manners.
A brilliant film. Very under rated.
Great score, too.
While the scene may verge on being parodistic, it makes sense in the context of needing to establish Christian's character quickly, and thus the bold strokes. Brando's Christian begins as effete and a dilettante out for a bit of adventure (the voyage is a paid trip to Tahiti, after all); the circumstances of the voyage and the character of Bligh compel him to face some hard realities, which he then overreacts to. The introduction scene sets up what will be his downfall--a flamboyance and impetuosity that will lead him to a rash, though highly motivated, act.
shareThe film is three hours long, time enough one would think to develop characterisation. Brando's entrance would have seemed over the top in a Tom and Jerry short. The assembled British actors must have been thinking WTF?
shareHis "elegance of dress" is offset by his two female escorts, thus communicating: "Here is an upper-class fop, but who is virile enough to be a Lady's Man". There's a seaman and an officer beneath the topping of rich frosting, and the rest of the story brings that out.
shareWhat was particularly ridiculous was that in real life Christian was Bligh's protege and had sailed with him for years before the Bounty journey. Again we had Bligh portrayed as a monster when in reality he would scold sailors for infractions where other ship's masters would have them flogged and flog sailors other masters would hang. The keelhauling was particularly ridiculous as Bligh never had a member of any crew keelhauled.
shareWhat was particularly ridiculous was that in real life Christian was Bligh's protégé and had sailed with him for years before the Bounty journey.
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