four years ago...
...l've known how men can be made
to suffer worse things than death.
Cruelly, beyond duty, beyond necessity.
Captain Bligh, you've told your story
of mutiny on the Bounty.
How men plotted against you, seized your
ship, cast you adrift in an open boat.
A great venture in science brought
to nothing. Two British ships lost.
But there's another story,
Captain Bligh...
...of 1 0 coconuts and two cheeses.
A story of a man who robbed his seamen,
cursed them, flogged them.
Not to punish, but to break their spirit.
A story of greed and tyranny...
...and of anger against it,
of what it cost.
One man, milord,
would not endure such tyranny.
That's why you hounded him.
That's why you hate him, hate his friends.
And that's why you're beaten.
Fletcher Christian's still free.
But Christian lost too, milord.
God knows he's judged himself
more harshly than you could judge him.
l say to his father, he was my friend.
No finer man ever lived.
l don't try to justify his crime,
his mutiny...
...but l condemn the tyranny
that drove him to it.
l don't speak here for myself alone,
but for these men you've condemned.
l speak in their names and Fletcher
Christian's name for all men at sea.
These men don't ask for comfort.
They don't ask for safety.
lf they could speak to you, they'd say:
"Let us choose to do our duty willingly.
Not the choice of a slave,
but that of free Englishmen."
They ask only the freedom
that England expects for every man.
lf one man among you believed that--
One man.
He could command the fleets of England.
He could sweep the seas for England.
lf he called his men to their duty
not by flaying their backs...
...but by lifting their hearts...
...their....
That's all.
Roger Byam, midshipman.
Having heard the evidence against you
and having heard your own defense...
...the sentence of this court is
you shall suffer death by hanging...
...onboard such of His Majesty's ships
of war and at such time...
...as the commissioners for executing
the office of lord high admiral...
...of Great Britain and lreland shall direct.
Prisoner and escort, into file.
Left, turn. Quick, hut.
l pronounce this court dissolved.
Milord, may l congratulate the court?
Captain Bligh, in my opinion,
your open-boat voyage...
...was the most remarkable conduct
of navigation in the history of the sea.
l must admire your seamanship
and courage, but....
Detachment, fall in.
Thanks, mate.
l've seen them, sir,
thanks to you and your friends.
The wife, she's well, sir.
And the boy, blow me,
l hardly knew him, he's growed so.
You wouldn't believe it,
the dead spit of me.
l'm glad, Tom.
Look, sir. Like the one she gave me
the day we sailed for Tahiti.
Do you know, sir,
that sailing seems like a dream.
As far away as the islands are.
l remember how Mr. Christian
talked to me that day.
Cheered me up, he did.
Where do you think he is now, sir?
l'd give anything to know.
One thing's certain,
he's taken that ship beyond maps.
l wonder if he found his island.
-Well, sir, what did you find?
-Your new home, lads.
There she is, Pitcairn's lsland.
-There's no anchorage, no place to land.
-That's why l chose it.
l plan to run the Bounty in head-on,
salvage what we can, then burn her.
-We'd be fools to burn her.
-We'll be fools if we don't.
lf there's one spar left in sight,
we'll never be safe.
-We can't burn the ship.
-We can never get back.
There's no way back, lad.
Once ashore, we're there to stay.
But this ship's our last tie with home.
Yon's a lonely rock to die on.
lt's enough to live on.
There's sun and earth and water.
lt can be a hell or a home
as we choose to make it.
We'll remember this as long
as we live and regret it.
And remember why we took this ship.
They can't press-gang you there, they can't
starve you, and they can't flog you.
We're not afraid of a new life.
As long as we can live it with decency
and self-respect, we can and