Etiqueta: leaderships

Maybe one of the fantasies those everybody has at the end of each phase of the life, is to live in a island. One of my dreams for example, is to visit one of my favourite islands in the world: Pitcairn Islands (United Kingdom overseas territory), in the South Pacific Ocean. When I knew the story of the 23 mutineers of the HMS Bounty in the 18th century, who chose that island to live and die, I always ask myself which is the misterious charm that this island encloses.

The story of the Bounty mutiny is extraordinary, for several reasons. It was in a British ship, in times when Britain was leading the war of seas. It was exactly in 1789, the same year when the French Revolution began, with those marvelous ideals of freedom and equality, but England refused to keep in the same way. The tragic incident in the Bounty reflected this conflict in a minimum scale. It was also a clash of leaderships, because Lieutenant  William Bligh (who served also as Master and Commander and Captain) represented the order, the discipline and loyalty to the rules and Fletcher Christian, formerly´s Bligh friend, but also one of his officers in the ship, refused his authority and became the leader of the mutineers. Moreover, the mutiny opened the possibility of the mutineers to create an absolute new and an egualitarian society in Rousseaunian terms, in Pitcairn Islands, so far of the control of the Royal Navy, which wanted thir heads on hanging because of their breaking rules of the British Marine. Finally, maybe, the story symbolized once again, an intercultural love affair between the white men (the British) and the natives, especially Tahitian women. But they paid a high price for the paradise promised and expected: when 18 years later, an American whale ship rediscovered the island, it found one man (John Adams), with nine women and 23 children. It is assumed that Christian died on Pitcairn Island in September 1793.

The mutiny on the Bounty was described in five films, in 1916, 1933, 1935, 1962 y 1984. Fletcher Christian was portrayed by Wilton Power, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson, respectively.  “The Bounty”, directed by Roger Donaldson and produced by Dino de Laurentiis, released in 1984, is less sympathetic to Christian than previous treatments were. Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins was in a superb level, playing the role of Captain Bligh. The film also features Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson. The music score was composed by Vangelis.

Continúe leyendo