MovieChat Forums > Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) Discussion > Fictional Ending

Fictional Ending

posted 18 years ago by kewikle
9 replies | jump to latest

Overall I like this movie. However, true stories given fictional endings always leave a pit in my stomach.

For those of you not familiar to the truth (simply put):

Fletcher did not die of burns from the Bounty's sinking. As a matter of fact, he was not burned or otherwise injured during the event at all.

The reality is that he lived on for several more years and fathered three children. He was murdered by a Tahitian man during a civil conflict.

The true story is far more interesting than the "fake ending". It is said that he was ambushed while tending to his garden.

[–] lightcloud 18 years ago

A sequal would be fantastic, just called "Pitciarn" as you say far more intersting . I guess the Brando ending was to bring an end in a dramatic way rather than a true account . well true as far as we know. what a facinating film it would make .

[–] schmitzova 18 years ago

I still like better this version than the 1984 one, tho Hopkins was the most realistic Capt. Bligh.

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[–] lightcloud 18 years ago

Hello you, this film made much more of the ship, really it was the star of the film, the Bounty will be at St Catherins dock in London this August, its on a world tour, Bristol , Portsmouth as well . retracing the voyge of the origonal Bounty .

[–] brianfitz 18 years ago

For an interesting read on the facts behind the mutiny and the true story (as far as it is known try "The Bounty" by Caroline Alexander. I think it was published in paperback in 2003 or '04 by Harper Perennial.

[–] markslezak 17 years ago

As I have stated in another thread this movies is not historically that accurate but is my favorite of the three. I agree that the Bounty with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins is the most historically accurate.

[–] cinicapr 16 years ago

Plus, there were many sighting of Christian in England years later.

[–] TorontoJediMaster 16 years ago

As well, the ship was burned only after stripping it of everything useful they could remove from it.

Another fiction is William Brown -the gentlemanly gardener- being the sole living mutineer remaining when Pitcairn is rediscovered years later. The last two mutineers who managed to escape the murders were Ned Young and John Adams. Young and Adams realized they had to get things under control or they were doomed. They managed to do so, by getting rid of liquor, beginning church services, etc. Young died of asthma in 1800, leaving Adams as the sole mutineer. (Young sensed he was very ill, and made sure to teach Adams to read, write, etc, so he could be a good leader to the Pitcairn colony once he was gone.)

Adams was the only one alive when an American whaler discovered the colony in 1808 -an event that was reported to the British, but got lost in paperwork backlogs- and by a British ship in 1814. He was reported as being very glad to hear that Bligh and the other had not perished in the launch, as he'd felt remorse over that for many years.

[–] heyuactor 16 years ago

I was bummed out by the ending, it made me feel like what Christian had done was almost pointless. Better to show him live, to have a life after his heroic decision (which he in fact did have, on the island).

"I can understand it, but I don't like it none!"--Cheyenne.

[–] TorontoJediMaster 15 years ago

It wasn't a heroic decisions. He and his followers acted in the middle of the night while Bligh and most his loyalists were still asleep.

And, it wasn't much of a life on Pitcairn. Within a few years, open warfare and murders erupted between the Polynesian men and the mutineers.