| The Mutiny of the Bounty | |
| Director: | Raymond Longford |
| Based On: | Journals of Captain Bligh |
| Producer: | Raymond Longford |
| Cinematography: | Charles Newham Franklyn Barrett A. O. Segerberg |
| Studio: | Crick and Jones |
| Distributor: | Hughes (NZ) |
| Runtime: | 5,000 feet |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | Silent film English intertitles |
The Mutiny of the Bounty is a 1916 Australian-New Zealand silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the mutiny aboard .[1] It is the first known cinematic dramatisation of this story and is considered a lost film.[2]
Longford claimed it was the first Australian film to shoot scenes at sea.
The story deals with the mutiny on on 28 April 1789, Captain Bligh's journey back to England, the recapture of the mutineers on Tahiti and the subsequent fate of the other mutineers on Pitcairn Island.[3] The story was structured in five acts.[4]
Filming took place in Rotorua, Norfolk Island and Sydney starting April 1916.[5] [6]
The movie was partly financed by distributors Stanley Crick and Herbert Finlay in association with J.D. Williams and was described as "probably the most costly production yet made in Australia."[7] Māori actors played the Tahitians who greeted crew members of the Bounty. During shooting the unit came across a real life .[8] Longford wanted to shoot some scenes on Pinchgut Island in Sydney Harbour but was refused with the authorities giving no reason.
Attempts were made to ensure the script was as historically accurate as possible and Bligh was not as demonised as he would be in later film versions of this story.[9]
The film received good reviews and was a success at the box office. When the film was released in Sydney on 2 September 1916,[10] it was endorsed by the education department and 2,000 school children attending the initial screening.[11] Lottie Lyell later supervised a recut of the film for the British market.[12]
One reviewer described it as the best Australian film ever made.[11]