Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film) replaced by Lewis Milestone who is credited as director of the picture. The film was panned, and was considered a box office bomb, having lost over $6 million. A replica of the "Bounty" was constructed for the film. Fifty years after the release of the film, the vessel sank in Hurricane Sandy with loss of life. In the year 1787, the "Bounty" sets sail from Britain for Tahiti under the command of captain William Bligh (Trevor Howard). Her mission is to transport breadfruit to Jamaica, where hopefully it will thrive and provide a cheap source of food for the slaves.
In the Wake of the Bounty written dialogue, the documentary sections retain their excellence. A return to enactments at the end of the film, with one scripted modern scene in which a child suffers because of the lack of regular ship visits which could have taken the child to hospital, probably sought to make the film a useful voice for the Pitcairn Island community, who had been generous with their participation. The film mixed re-enactments with documentary, and focused not so much on the mutiny itself as on its consequences. There was at least one other film of the "Bounty" story prior to Chauvel's film, by