Late tonight, TCM airs the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty, the classic true life tale of the infamous mutiny led by Fletcher Christian against William Bligh aboard the HMS Bounty in 1789. The story has been told enough times on film that the characters have become iconic and each successive portrayal is inevitably compared to the one before it. Some roles are like that and for this post, I’d like to cover six of the iconic film roles and which actors made the best impression. I won’t be dealing with series characters, like James Bond, regularly replaced in an ongoing movie series, but with iconic characters, like Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula, that are played in a variety of ways and in a variety of adaptations. I’ve never looked at such character portrayals in terms of best or worst because each actor usually brings something special or unique to the role.
Let’s start with William Bligh and Fletcher Christian. They’re not iconic like Holmes or Dracula, but I want to include some historical characters that the cinema seems drawn to, characters it loves revisiting again and again. There have been a few adaptations of the Bounty story, including an early version with Errol Flynn as Christian, but I’m going to stick with the big three, the 1935, 1962, and 1984 adaptations. First, William Bligh.
If I had to pick my favorite portrayal of Captain Bligh it would be a tough choice. I think each actor (Charles Laughton, Trevor Howard, and Anthony Hopkins) brought a different perspective to the character with Trevor Howard being the most subdued and seething. Laughton is the most histrionic and Hopkins, the most determined. Hopkins’ Bligh is a single-minded obsessive who isn’t so much cruel as unwilling to bend to any new situation until forced to. Once the mutiny is underway, for instance, he attempts to adjust his attitude to convince Fletcher Christian that they can all just forget it and go back to how it was (very briefly before that fails and everything reverts to normal). I think Hopkins’ portrayal is the most human of them all and I’d rank it as the best but Laughton, and the 1935 version in general, remains my favorite simply because he sends everything over the top and, maybe it’s just me, but with a story like this, I want over the top.
Next up is Fletcher Christian. Well, Clark Gable portrayed him as an American rebel, regardless of the country he was supposed to be representing, and his Christian is certainly a hero. The movie makes no bones about it, he frees the men. He’s their savior, and Bligh is the villain. The Marlon Brando portrayal is also quite sympathetic to Christian although Brando portrays him as a man who more slowly awakens to the problem. He’s a spoiled fop who finally becomes a man. Finally, Mel Gibson, the best portrayal of the lot, I think, portrays Christian as a man off-balance, a young, inexperienced hothead who probably made the mistake of his life. In the end, Bligh seems like the wiser and more sensible of the two.
Next up, Sherlock Holmes. Now here is a true icon, a character portrayed so many times by so many actors it would be foolish to try and discuss them all here so let’s whittle it down to three: Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, and Benedict Cumberbatch. My feelings here greatly mirror those of Bligh, in that the most realistic, or should I say accurate, portrayal of the character belongs to Brett but Rathbone is the one, probably based solely on my classic movie bias, that I’d go with. Cumberbatch has become a star and his version is truly his own, I admit, but I find that in the episodes I attempted to watch (I fully confess I could not successfully finish even one), the episodes were too frenetic, too incorrectly paced (as sci-fi action thrillers would be paced, not as a story of a man with amazing powers of deduction in which the excitement is watching him quietly figure it all out), to keep me watching. I know that Cumberbatch and the show have many fans and even high praise. I’m afraid I can’t sing with the choir on this one. It’s Rathbone for me.
And how about Count Dracula? Bela Lugosi was the first big portrayal to use the actual name, since Nosferatu had to change it for rights purposes, and since Lugosi, there have been dozens of others. Frank Langella did a very odd version, without accent or fangs, that failed for me on many levels (and was pretty damn boring) and Gary Oldman entertained the hell out of me with his “everything but the kitchen sink” portrayal that has always endeared me to him. That man just isn’t afraid to put everything into a performance, and I love that. But… but, it’s Christopher Lee who, personally, I think did the best Dracula ever. Suave but creepy, human but monstrous. All in a way that no one else quite achieved (and just a quick side note: there is no Van Helsing other than Peter Cushing).
For another historical figure, there’s Abraham Lincoln, one of the most (the most?) iconic of all American presidents. He, too, has been portrayed repeatedly, and in many forms. The most resonant portrayals have been by Raymond Massey, Henry Fonda, and Daniel Day Lewis. Massey made him stoic, Fonda made him folksy, and Day Lewis made him real. That probably oversimplifies it but I think from here on out, a Lincoln portrayal will always stand in the shadow of Day Lewis’ performance.
But what about something other than exalted historical or literary sources? What about comic books? Well, there’s been many iconic characters to choose from but only won with an Oscar winning performance, the Joker. Even going back to the ever enjoyable camp of the sixties series, the Joker was always the best villain of the lot and Cesar Romero did a pretty great job of making the character into a laughing psychopath much as you’d expect from the comic books. Much better, in my opinion, than Jack Nicholson did in the Tim Burton version years later. Nicholson did a good job but his Joker never seemed particularly crazy to me (am I the only one to feel that way?). He seemed like an arrogant criminal who wanted to be considered wild and crazy but he never actually came off as psychotic. Heath Ledger, on the other hand, who won the Oscar for his performance, really did. His Joker was a madman in the true sense. He long ago lost his mind and attempting to logically argue with him on any of his points would be a titanic act of futility. I’m with the choir on this one, Ledger is the best.
That’s a mere six (Bligh, Christian, Holmes, Dracula, Lincoln, Joker) but there are so many more. The most interesting thing about all of this for me is that none of the actors do a bad job, simply different jobs. Sure, I think Ledger understood the Joker the best (we’ll see what happens with Leto) but it’s fascinating how three different actors (Romero, Nicholson, Ledger) took the same source material and created three truly different characters. That happens with every iconic character out there and it makes new portrayals ever exciting. It means every time we go into one, we’re going to be on familiar ground while at the same time, may see something completely new. And, building on the rest, each new great portrayal becomes an even tougher act to follow.