Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) - Lewis Milestone

Whenever a film gets remade you have to wonder why bother. Mutiny on the Bounty was an opportunity to use the rare Super 70mm film stock, and make a glorious technicolor extravaganza starring Marlon Brando fresh from his failure as a director. People look at the 60s as something of a dark period in Brando's career, and watching this film you can't change that opinion. Brando's Fletcher has none of the charisma of Gable's, and spends most of the movie just ambivalently walking around. You figure this is good for the first mate who watches Bligh wreak havoc on his crew too long, but even after the mutiny he's still weak as a character. Instead of grand adventure on the high seas, this is just a much longer version of a story we all know. Let's throw in a big storm sequence, and lets have Bligh be even more evil. The diplomatic sequences were cut or entirely done away with, making the little bit of substance gone. Much of the film is just fluff, and although technically well made fluff, it seems and insult to give this a best picture nomination at the exclusion of Days of Wine and Roses, The Manchurian Candidate, or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

*Mutiny on the Bounty was nominated for best color art direction, best color cinematography, best editing, best original score, best song, best special effects, and best picture.