Product Description

Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson lead a stellar Oscar winning cast including Sir Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson in this action packed adventure bursting with spectacular battles, raging storms and an intensity as powerful as the mighty sea itself! Filled with commanding performances, memorable dialogue and superb action scenes, The Bounty has everything fans of swash- buckling adventure could want.

Hopkins stars as William Bligh, a real life sea captain who, in 1787, steered HMS Bounty on a 27,000 mile voyage into danger, chaos and madness. After 31 days battling severe sea squalls and Bligh s ever increasing cruelty, the weary crew is relieved to land on the tropical island of Tahiti. But soon their tyrannical captain wants to set sail again and the desperate men turn to first mate Fletcher Christian (Gibson) to help take the ship by force.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

* AUDIO COMMENTARIES: 1) DIRECTOR ROGER DONALDSON, PRODUCER BERNIE WILLIAMS & PRODUCTION DESIGNER JOHN GRAYSMARK. 2) HISTORICAL CONSULTANT STEPHEN WALTERS.
* THE MAKING OF THE BOUNTY DOCUMENTARY.
* THE BOUNTY ON FILM GALLERY.
* THEATRICAL TRAILER.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6602 in DVD
• Brand: SCANBOX
• Released on: 2011-09-12
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dolby, PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 132 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Bounty is the third screen version of one of the best-known stories in naval history, here with Anthony Hopkins as Lieutenant William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian heading an extraordinary cast including Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill and Dexter Fletcher. HMS Bounty's voyage to Tahiti of 1787-9 and its infamous consequences are recounted with far greater historical accuracy than in the 1935 or 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty. The movie is gorgeously shot on location in Tahiti, England and New Zealand as well as on a full-size recreation of the original Bounty.

Roger Donaldson's film benefits from a literate screenplay by Robert Bolt, who here as in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), brings real insight into the English institutional mind in conflict. Hopkins is at his complex best and Gibson offers more depth than his usual two-dimensional hero persona; here Bligh and Christian emerge as complex men gripped by circumstances beyond their control. The haunting score by Vangelis contributes immensely to a very underrated film which deserves to be considered a modern classic.

On the DVD: There is an excellent 52-minute "making of" documentary that mixes historical information with on-location interviews. A 12-minute overview of previous screen versions of the story is narrated by the film's historical consultant, Stephen Walters, who also provides a somewhat stilted but nevertheless informative audio commentary. The second audio commentary is from director Roger Donaldson, Producer Bernie Williams and Production Designer John Graysmark, who genuinely appear to enjoy reminiscing and have real enthusiasm for the movie. Also included is a fascinating 28-page booklet.

This is the stuff Special Editions should always be made of, and this would be one of the finest DVDs on the market were it not for the transfer of the film itself, which appears to be a reprocessed version of the same NTSC anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer found on the bare-bones Region 1 DVD, with no sign of PAL speed-up. The picture not only shows considerable grain in some scenes, but also demonstrates marked compression artefacting and enhancement shimmer on all horizontal lines, making some scenes extremely ugly. For such a beautiful film it is a most disappointing transition to the digital format. Most unusually for a UK release, the disc is region free.--Gary S Dalkin

Review
Anthony Hopkins is magnificent --Sight and Sound