Pitcairn Islands

Pitcairn Islands
Population: 50.
Capital: Adamstown.

Government: British Overseas Territory.

Fame: The home of the descendents of the Bounty mutineers and the subject of 4 Hollywood films.

Language: English and Pitkern.

The Picairn Islands are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are best known for being the home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and Tahitins who accompanied them. This event has been retold in numerous books and films.

The Mutiny in Cinema and Literature

• Mary Russell Mitford wrote a poem 'Christina, the Maid of the South Seas' in 1811.
• Lord Bryron published a poem 'The Island' in 1823
• Sir John Barrow wrote a book The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. in 1831.
• Jules Verne wrote Les revoltes de la Bounty in 1879
• Mark Twain wrote The Great Revolution in Pitcairn in 1903
• Charles Nordhoff and James Normal Hall wrote a trilogy of novels: Muntiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea and Pitcairn's Island around 1932.
• A first movie was made in Austrialia in 1916.
• The second movie version was the Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty in 1933 starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian.
• The next movie was Mutiny on the Bounty which starred Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian and Charles Laughton as William Bligh in 1935 and won the Oscar for Best Picture that year.
• The next movie released was yet another film called Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962 starring Trevor Howard as Bligh and Marlon Brando as Christian and is generally considered the least accurate.
• A fifth film, The Bounty came out in 1984 starring Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian. This film is generally consdiered the most historically accurate with some of the scenes reenacted directly from William Bligh's own log.