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.
Mutiny on the Bounty however Bligh's reputation as the archetypal bad commander remains: the "Baltimore Sun"'s reviewer of Alexander's book wrote "poetry routed science and it has held the field ever since". In addition to many books and articles about the mutiny, in the 20th century five feature films were produced. The first was a 1916 silent Australian film, subsequently lost. The second, also from Australia, entitled "In the Wake of the Bounty" (1933), and was the screen debut of Errol Flynn in the role of Christian. The impact of this film was overshadowed by that of the MGM version, "Mutiny on the Bounty"