The Bounty (1984)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1984
Running Time	125:41
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (69:11)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Roger Donaldson
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Mel Gibson Anthony Hopkins
Case	?
RPI	$31.95	Music	Vangelis

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Spanish Dutch	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Bounty recounts the well-known tale of the mutiny that occurred aboard that famous ship.

    As a movie, The Bounty has a lot going for it. It features great performances by Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Liam Neeson, and Daniel Day Lewis. It also enjoys good cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson, which captures the beauty of the people and scenery of Tahiti. And, it has a great script, written by one of the all-time great screenwriters, Robert Bolt.

    Based on history, and Richard Hough's book Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian, The Bounty's plot is fairly well-known: The ambitious Lieutenant Bligh (Sir Anthony Hopkins) has been presented with a great opportunity to further his naval career. Bligh is to captain a small ship from England to Tahiti, to collect bread fruit plants. These plants are to be taken to the British colony in Jamaica to provide "cheap fodder" for slaves. Bligh hires a friend, Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson), as the ship's Master's Mate. The Bounty sets sail in December 1787, on its fateful voyage. Bligh soon finds that his crew lack his courage and drive, and in turn, his crew soon grow very weary of Bligh's bullying. Matters take a dramatic turn when the Bounty arrives in the paradise of Tahiti, and Fletcher falls in love with a local girl, Mauatua (Tevaite Vernette). Understandably, the crew aren't too pleased about leaving, and tensions begin to rise.

    There has been much debate around Bligh and the mutiny. History remembers Bligh as an outstanding navigator and seaman, and his efforts in captaining the open launch from the Bounty remain a naval miracle. Furthermore, his methods were in keeping with those of his contemporaries, and by some standards, Bligh was a very lenient captain. On the other hand, the fact that Bligh suffered not one, but two mutinies, doesn't make him look very good. (As the Governor of New South Wales, Bligh suffered a second mutiny under the Rum Rebellion). He was cleared of both mutinies with subsequent investigations. That aside, however you look at it, the story contains all the elements of conflict and drama that make for a good yarn, and a great movie. It is not surprising that there have been some very good movies made, and I must admit that my favourite remains the 1962 version, starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard.

Video

    The quality of the transfer is variable, but it's not too bad considering its age. I found it to be rather grainy throughout.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is close to the original ratio of 2.39:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is reasonable, but the shadow detail is poor. For example consider the scene below deck at 11:34.

    The quality of the colour is also a little variable. While at times it appears dark, drab, and undersaturated, it exhibits fairly accurate flesh-tones most of the time.

    The transfer appears to suffer from minor MPEG artefacts throughout, as a little pixelization, and posterization, appear in a number of scenes. Film-to-video artefacts are present, and the aliasing is quite severe at times, such as in the shot of the windows at 3:17. Film artefacts appear throughout, but they are not distracting.

    There are four sets of subtitles present, but there are no English subtitles.

    This is an RSDL disc, with the obvious layer change placed at 69:11.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The quality of the audio is quite good, considering the source material, however there were a number of audio drop-outs.

    Originally released theatrically in Dolby Stereo, and remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 for this DVD, the audio retains much of its original Stereo feel.

    Apart from the English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, there are also three Dolby Stereo tracks: French, Italian, and Spanish.

    The dialogue quality and audio sync have no major problems on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score was composed and performed by Vangelis, and it is his usual sparse but effective work.

    The surround sound mix is quite front-heavy, but the rear speakers are used  to help carry the score and provide ambience. Good examples of ambience include the dock activity at 9:39, and the storm at 61:10.

    The subwoofer is also used where appropriate, such as during the storm sequences.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are slim.

Menu

    A very simple menu, it is static and silent.

Theatrical Trailer (2:01)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

    The Bounty was released on DVD in Region 1 last year. The two versions are the same, but I would favour the local release for its affordability, and its superior PAL image.

    The Bounty is a good movie, but not a great movie. The fine performances by the cast make it very watchable, as in many ways, this is a character-based drama after all.

    The video quality is slightly disappointing but still very watchable.

    The audio quality is very good, albeit quite front-heavy.

    The extras are really not worth mentioning.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall