"Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935.)

Why do I love old black & white movies so much?
Maybe because I found them far superior to almost anything that I see around me and old "classics" obviously had to have a certain class and quality in order to survive decades. I am aware that there was probably crap in every single decade (just like in music) but when the dust settles, people remember only the best, not the mediocre.
Take for example, oh-so-popular comedy "The Hangover" that I was finally forced to watch a few nights ago on TV, with friends telling me how they saw it TWICE already. Well, just as I thought, it turned out to be a nadir of crude, vulgar jokes (farts, naked asses and such) that would probably fascinate me was I teenager - I survived the ordeal and it did not made my life any richer for experience. If anything, it made me longing for my old favorites.

"Mutiny on the Bounty" from 1935. fascinated me from the start - myself,I am sort of living "ship life" though of course my daily routine has nothing to do with pulling the ropes and climbing the masts, today its all done by pressing the buttons. However, I was completely spellbound from the very first scene when sailors are basically forced to join the ship that would keep them separated from families and loved ones for the next two years. There was even a character of a young sailor who had to leave wife and baby behind. The story is well known - it is historical fact that "Bounty" sailed to Pacific Ocean and sailors mutinied against cruel and sadistic captain who kept the order by flogging and punishing them on daily basis. Knowing their mutiny means they would be imprisoned if they ever return to England, they left him in a small boat in the middle of the Ocean and hide in another little island to spend the rest of their lives in tropical paradise. Sadistic captain eventually finds his way back home and some of the officers and sailors were punished, however the experience pointed at cruelty at sea and was wildly publicized at the time.

Because this version was filmed in 1935. (it is not the first time, it was already adapted for the movie as far as 1916.) of course the focus was on historical costumes,action and Hollywood stars of the time - certain questions were simply glossed over, like for example the shock of sailors used to brutal life when they encountered Pacific Heaven where people lived simply, without money, half naked, singing and dancing in the sun. Pretty, smiling women everywhere. No wonder sailors refused to return to that sailing prison with flogging,starvation and prospect of facing cruel discipline again. And why they let this rotten captain to live instead flogging him first, than throwing him of the ship?

Charles Laughton is excellent as captain, though his behavior is today somewhat one-dimensional: he is simply nasty and cruel as opposite to much later Anthony Hopkins interpretation. In Hopkin's hands, captain suffers inner torture when faced with enormous difference of his strict upbringing and hedonism in Island. Because this is old fashioned Hollywood movie, the main focus is on Clark Gable (clean shaved!) who keeps his inner rage in check as long as he can, until the mutiny - we never find out what later became of him but history tells us he actually lost control over his mutinous crowd and was killed by drunken sailors in a fight. Franchot Tone (who was than at the peak of popularity) got a role of goodie who smiles and charms everybody around and he actually survives even the court back home. He got a nice speech in front of the court and later continued his naval career, as it actually happened in real life.

The main difference of movies back than and today is that old movies always had some moral message - we had good boys and bad boys, heroism, idealism, justice and truth shown as a main qualities. You can watch 1937. version of "Mutiny on the Bounty" with little kids and they would get a message, even if just from heroic speech of Franchot Tone. On the other hand, you show them "The Hangover" and all they will learn is how with enough money you can get ridiculously drunk in Las Vegas, vomit, insult everybody who is not drunk and steal police car.