I'm pretty sure that the events portrayed in "The Mutineer" could never actually take place. Pretty dang sure. The signing off by a hostage, relinquishing the rights of his land to his captors could maybe happen, although with the "under duress" laws even that's a big stretch now-days. What is just ridiculous to me, or maybe I'm completely wrong, is that the protagonists of the film could use their stolen land and secede from the United States. It's a silly premise. However, and it's a big however... what a fun idea for a movie. To simply sit back and let writer, director John Jaquish take you on an entertaining journey is much easier than actually stopping to think about it. This is fiction, this is a movie. Why not simply go with it and have a good time? Here, in this film, that's pretty much what you need to do; once done however, there's a lot of silly shenanigans to witness and have fun with. Nothing beats watching a bunch of half-wits, some of these characters are more like quarter-wits, try and outsmart the law and build their own civilization. Watching the Forrest Gump versions of MacGyver build, shock, cook and blow up their way into the survivalists handbook is funny as hell, as are the rest of the completely stereotypical characters that bumble their way around your screen. Although flawed, once you settle in you really will have some fun here. And why wouldn't you? Even by the semi-open ending, leaving the true finale to our imagination could be a fun time; should you care to continue thinking about it. "The Mutineer" succeeds on many levels, but falls a little bit short on others. These are mainly technical, so we'll get to that below. The stylistic choice to make the film black and white is a mystery to me. I'm sure John Jaquish had his reasons, but as a viewer it just didn't make any sense. Although it may seem the case at first, this is not a period piece. I'm not writing that the only reason for a black and white film is such, but in reality there's nothing else in the movie that even remotely ties into the lack of color. To me anyhow. I found myself asking why it was done numerous times through the film, which kept reminding me that it was, indeed, a film. The only possible reason I could think of would be to skip the color grading process but in the end, it doesn't matter. Having kept it color, in my eyes, would have improved the film greatly. The edit itself was handled decently, showcasing some of the more comedic elements of the production, and the style of backing score used was actually quite fitting. Top this all off with a good dialog mix, but nowhere near a perfect one, and you end up with a well rounded independent production, technically. Mentioning the cast individually would be a lengthy process because it's reasonably large. Let's just say that considering the strange nature of the film, they all did a fine job with a slightly higher inclination towards the gags of the movie. It did however, look like everyone was having a good time, which translated very well to the screen. I've found that a lot can be forgiven when you get a cast that looks like they had fun. For this title, it looks like it was a blast to make. In the end, I found "The Mutineer" to be a slightly above average indie film. One to watch, kill some time and maybe gain a few laughs. There's enough originality, especially within the story itself, to keep you watching the crazy characters bringing this script to life. A few scenes stood out simply because I have, and most of us do, friends that at times closely resemble some of the people in the film. Perhaps the semi-personal connection some of us might find here, are some of the reasons that bring this film above the fold. No matter the reason, this was a fun little diversion for me. The crazy story was just crazy enough to be entertaining. So why not learn more about it? Maybe eventually drop in a message and tell me what you think. -JT
