History Film / TheBounty

* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: The voyage starts off with Christian being on a FirstNameBasis with Bligh, calling him "William" in private. However as relations become strained later in the voyage, Bligh objects to Christian calling him by his first name in private:

* AntiVillain: Christian is portrayed as such. He's not ''evil'', he's sincerely concerned with his crew's welfare and tries to rein in the mutineers's worst impulses/ However, he's ultimately irresponsible and immature despite his charm, and rebels mostly because he's sick of the work his job requires and to see his girlfriend again, rather than anything noble. And he strands Bligh and his loyalists at sea with only a slim chance of survival.

* BlindMusician: A blind guy is part of the crew for the sole purpose of playing violin and singing for the sailors.

* DownerEnding: While Bligh [[spoiler:is exonerated when the court of inquiry rules in his favor]], the damage done by the mutiny haunts both Bligh and Christian for the rest of their lives. [[spoiler:Especially in RealLife when the bloody fate of the mutineers is discovered years later.]]

* AFatherToHisMen: Christian--too much, as this causes him to lead the mutiny against Bligh.

''The Bounty'' is a 1984 film directed by Roger Donaldson.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Bligh's discipline can seem very harsh to modern eyes, but he was fairly lenient by the standards of the time. Bligh was noted as someone who would yell at crewmen in situations where other Captains would have flogged them, and flogged crew members other Captains would've hanged. Indeed, Bligh's biggest problem was that he was ''too nice a guy'' to be the captain of a ship in those days. He let discipline go to hell during the months on Tahiti, and when he finally did try to crack down, it was too little, too late.

** When the remaining core group of mutineers set off for Pitcairn Island, several Tahitian people willingly choose to accompany them, including Mauatua; in real life, while the latter was probably willing to accompany Christian, most of the Tahitians were tricked into coming aboard the ship for a party and were kidnapped.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The crew mutinies against Bligh for supposedly being an iron-fisted tyrant. This overlooks the ''months'' on Tahiti he let them do essentially whatever the hell they wanted as long as they did their jobs competently enough. They just got used to the good life and resented Bligh's attempts to start treating them like the Royal Navy crew that they are. (Although admittedly, Bligh's vindictiveness and inability to read the atmosphere didn't help him out).

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: While this film is much more accurate than other versions and largely avoids HistoricalVillainUpgrade, presenting Bligh as a man with human flaws but one who didn't really deserve to be mutinied against, it does indulge in this trope when it shows Bligh planning to make another attempt at Cape Horn. This is depicted as the breaking point that triggers the mutiny. In RealLife this did not happen, as the ''Bounty'' was sailing west for the Cape of Good Hope when the men mutinied.

* ManOnFire: This happens early in the film to Lamb, a sailor, as the ''Bounty'' struggles to make it through Cape Horn.

* ImAHumanitarian: Briefly discussed and averted when Mr. Nelson offers his flesh to save the weakened people on the boat, but Lieutenant Bligh defies this with the following quote:

** The crew almost mutiny against Fletcher when he fails to find an island far from Tahiti (so the Navy can't find them); also, in RealLife, Fletcher and most of his fellow mutineers were ultimately killed by the Tahitians because they treated the Tahitians horribly, up to and including enslaving them, meaning they treated the locals even worse than Bligh treated them.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Bligh is legally and probably ethically in the right throughout the film - he's correct that the men are neglecting their duties as sailors and that the junior officers are setting a bad example. It's not his logic that turns everyone against him, it's his ''manner.''

* {{Hypocrite}}: The crew mutinies against Bligh for supposedly being an iron-fisted tyrant. This overlooks the ''months'' on Tahiti he let them do essentially whatever the hell they wanted as long as they did their jobs competently enough. They just got used to the good life and resented Bligh's attempts to start treating them like the Royal Navy crew that they are. (Although admittedly, Bligh's vindictiveness and inability to read the atmosphere didn't help him out)

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Bligh's discipline can seem very harsh to modern eyes, but he was fairly lenient by the standards of the time. Indeed, Bligh's biggest problem was that he was ''too nice a guy'' to be the captain of a ship in those days. He let discipline go to hell during the months on Tahiti, and when he finally did try to crack down, it was too little, too late.

* ImAHumanitarian: Briefly Discussed when Mr. Nelson offers his flesh to save the weakened people on the boat, but Lieutenant Bligh defies this with the following quote:

* JerkassHasAPoint: Bligh does, anyways, several times throughout the film - he's correct that the men are neglecting their duties as sailors and that the junior officers are setting a bad example. It's not his logic that turns everyone against him, it's his ''manner.''
** Bligh isn't altogether wrong in his assessment of many of the men's character. Given our introduction to the thuggish Churchill, his remarks fit:

** Christian insists that neither Bligh nor those loyal to him are to be killed or physically harmed, and he gives Bligh just enough provisions to give him a fighting chance of survival at sea (though he assumed Bligh would just wind up stranded on a nearby island, as opposed to sailing over a thousand miles to Australia!)

* JerkassHasAPoint: Bligh does, anyways, several times throughout the film. It's not his logic that turns everyone against him, it's his ''manner.''
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: For all his overbearing manner, Bligh does love his family.

* PetTheDog: On the open boat Bligh is doling out the pitiful amount of food they have (the carcass of a bird that got caught in the sails). When asked who gets each piece, he goes through the officers one by one. Purcell angrily shouts that the officers shouldn't be treated special with their limited food and some of the regular men haven't had anything in days. Bligh shows how he's grown-instead of punishing him for his outburst (as he would have before he lost the Bounty), he orders his share of the food given to Purcell, indicating that he's learned that discipline must be tempered with kindness.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [Overblown] instances of pettiness aside, Bligh is really quite lenient with his crew, far more than other British captains. If anything, that's (at least initially) the real problem; he lets them get away with far too much on Tahiti, and when he tries to make them shape up too quickly later on, it starts the chain of events that leads to the mutiny.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The film leaves out the mutineers' disastrous attempt to settle on Tubuai, which resulted in the deaths of many of the island's inhabitants when the mutineers' attempted to steal supplies and force women to be 'wives'. When the mutineers set off for Pitcairn Island, several Tahitian people willingly choose to accompany them, including Mauatua; in real life, while the latter was probably willing to accompany Christian, most of the Tahitians were tricked into coming aboard the boat for a party and were kidnapped.

** The film ends with the mutineers landing on Pitcairn Island and burning the ''Bounty''. It's rather melancholy, as they realize they are stuck there forever, but they have their home and their women. An on-screen text then alludes to, but does not directly mention, the violence and murder that led the mutineers and the Tahitian men that accompanied them to kill each other, leaving only one mutineer alive (along with a bunch of women and children) when an American ship found them on Pitcairn Island in 1818. (Descendants of the mutineers still live there today.)

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: When the mutineers set off for Pitcairn Island, several Tahitian people choose to accompany them, including Mauatua. In real life, while the latter was probably willing to accompany Christian, the 'brides' of many of the mutineers were essentially tricked into coming aboard the boat for a party and were kidnapped.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Bligh does, anyways, several times throughout the film, at least. It's not his logic that turns everyone against him, it's his ''manner.''

* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: The voyage starts off with Christian being on a FirstNameBasis with Bligh, calling him "William." However as relations become strained later in the voyage, Bligh objects to Christian calling him by his first name:

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [Overblown] instances of pettiness aside, Bligh is really quite lenient with his crew, far more than other British captains.