This third version of the classic story of mutiny and betrayal was to have marked David Lean's return to film directing after a 10-year semi-retirement, but along the way he left the project.

Roger Donaldson (later to hit the target with Kevin Costner's thriller `No Way Out') picked up the pieces and turned in a competent adventure yarn.

In a revisionist version that sets out to put the record straight, Anthony Hopkins' Captain Bligh bears little relation to Charles Laughton's earlier strutting, arrogant monster.

Mel Gibson's Fletcher Christian is portrayed less as a champion of the underdog than as an unreliable friend who prefers to go native with a Polynesian wife than do his duty and return with the ship to England.

Beautiful to look at and with another typically haunting score in the Chariots of Fire mould from Vangelis.

Daniel Day Lewis and Liam Neeson have supporting roles.