Movie is untrue

Chitoryu12 is right to say the movie portrays Captain Bligh to be more tyrannical than the historical record justifies. The movie was based on a novel which exaggerated Bligh's shortcomings. Books by English naval historians such as Richard Hough and Gavin Kennedy paint a more balanced, and probably more accurate, picture of Bligh.

However, Chitoryu12 is wrong to place too much reliance on Bligh's own account of the mutiny. Bligh was hardly an impartial observer of the mutiny. His book is an important primary source, but like all sources it must be evaluated in its context, including its authorship and the circumstances under which it was produced. Naturally Bligh had a vested interest in portraying himself in as favorable a light as possible.

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"So which is to be believed? A movie? Or the journal of the man who is portrayed in such a manner?"

Neither. You say, "Sitting on the floor right next to me is a book on this incident. It is actually an adapted version of Bligh's journal. The journal actually shows that Christian was greedy for power."

What would you expect Bligh's journal to say? That he himself was a tyrant and Christian was the better man?

"Historical Accuracy" will not be found in Hollywood's manufactured version or in Bligh's self-portrait - unless, that is, one is smart enough to read Bligh's glorious accounting of himself between the lines.

Other posters have pointed to historical records indicating what they consider to be true or untrue about the mutiny. There are a lot of judgmental qualifiers applied to those records, such as "Bligh was actually less harsh than his contemporaries."

Does that mean he wasn't a cruel tyrant? Another way to render that flippant judgment would be "if you think Bligh was bad, his fellow officers were even worse."

I don't buy any of it. What we have on hand for the "facts" of the mutiny are Bligh's self-promotional journals and logs, the inconsistent and arbitrary testimonies, judgments and pardons associated with the Naval courts-martial (also known as "The Winners Who Wrote The History"), and fictionalized versions of the events.

Believe what you want, but place your bets on income-guaranteed investments. You're more likely to get returns on the latter.

If must have truths, there are only two: you will pay taxes, and you will die.

Actually, several historians have suggested that the falling out between Christian and Bligh may have been a lover's quarrel.

Bligh was no tyrant, you're right about that. He flogged the crew far less than Captain Cook, for example, and none of the crew died from his mistreatment. But neither was he an angel. The record shows that he was an erratic leader, a foul-mouthed bully given to temper tantrums and to publicly humiliating his officers with verbal abuse. Because he doubled as purser and wanted to make a profit, he was stingy with the food. This is where the rift began with Christian. Bligh openly accused him of stealing coconuts, humiliating him before the other men. Feeling dishonored, Christian made a raft to desert but changed his mind at the last minute and decided to mutiny instead. So it was Christian's impulsiveness, not Bligh's tyranny, that was responsible for the premature deaths of much of the crew.

"It is actually an adapted version of Bligh's journal."

So you consider Bligh an objective source.

It is not very surprising that Bligh's journal attempts to put Bligh in a good light.

Many observers, then and now, felt that accusing Christian of stealing without proof shows Bligh, not Christian, in a bad light.
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Sir John Barrow, the Second Secretary of the Admiralty from 1804 to 1844 published THE EVENTFUL HISTORY OF THE MUTINY AND PIRATICAL SEIZURE OF HMS BOUNTY in 1831.

This is a thorough exploration of the original sources by a man who was intimately involved with the Royal Navy. I highly recommend it, and it shows that the negative evaluation of Bligh went back to his own time.

I'm sure that parts of Mutiny on the Bounty are true, but I really don't know or care. It was a GREAT film . I loved it!