Thursday, 7 October 2010

Stories And Film About The South Seas Islands

By Walter Gardner

In recent times, Tahiti and Polynesia have provided novelists and film makers with colorful subject matter. Early on travelers told of women on exotic shores, and Fletcher Christian added drama to the plot by leading a mutiny from the tyrannical Captain Bligh.

American writers Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall brought out the Bounty Trilogy. This three-part novel deals with Christian's mutiny about the Bounty, the escape of Bligh and the loyal crew members to Dutch Timor, and the colonization of Pitcairn Island by Christian and his fellow mutineers.

The book was an immediate bestseller, and director Frank Lloyd soon made it into a movie, Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable. Consistent with the mood of his time, the mutiny was presented like a simplistic struggle between good and evil, and you may recall that the movie won an Oscar for best Picture in 1935.

After that Marlon Brando travelled right down to Tahiti to star in a blockbuster remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. MGM's 1962 production continues to be considered the most impressive motion picture ever made within the South Pacific, simply due to the beautiful scenery of Tahiti and Bora Bora. A large number of Tahitian extras appeared in the movie, and Brando married his first lady, Tarita Teriipaia.

During 84, another version from the Bounty was released, with Sir Anthony Hopkins like a resolute Bligh and Mel Gibson as an uncertain Christian. Of the three Bounty films, this is probably the most historically accurate, and it is certainly the one using the greatest psychological depth. It had been largely filmed in Moorea's Opunohu Bay.

An additional Nordhoff and Hall book, The Hurricane, was brought towards the big screen twice. John Hall's 1937 film portrays a couple fleeing a despotic governor. In 1978 Dino de Laurentiis reshot The Hurricane on Bora Bora, with Mia Farrow and Trevor Howard. The resort created to house de Laurentiis' crew still exists since the Sofitel Marara.

Novelist W. Somerset Maugham also had close ties to the south Pacific. In 1943 Albert Lewin filmed The Moon and Sixpence, Maugham's fictionalized account of Paul Gauguin's life in Polynesia. The nonconformist artist's incompatibility with French colonial life provided Maugham having a pretext to explore the role of the artist in society. Another famous Maugham story, Rain, occur Samoa, has been manufactured right into a motion picture many times.

Many other well-known authors who've popularized the legend of Tahiti include Herman Melville, Pierre Loti, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Rupert Brooke, and James A. Michener. Their tales, plays, and motion pictures have helped create the myth of a South Seas paradise. As well as today, Tahiti and Polynesia beckon to romantics wishing to live their share from the dream. - 42265

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment