'THE BOUNTY,' CAPT. BLIGH STORY BY DINO DE LAURENTIIS

ON the basis of three films, it is now possible to say that the Pacific Ocean is not Dino De Laurentiis's cup of tea.

This world-roaming Italian producer has made good movies (''Europe '51,'' ''Serpico''), as well as a couple of classics (Federico Fellini's ''Strada'' and ''Nights of Cabiria'') but his projects set in the South Pacific seem to go to pieces, like Somerset Maugham characters who become unglued in the tropics.

First there was his remake of ''King Kong,'' then his remake of ''Hurricane,'' based on the novel by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall, and now ''The Bounty,'' which opens today at Loew's State and other theaters.

The new film is not a remake of M-G-M's 1935 and 1962 films, both titled ''Mutiny on the Bounty,'' which were based on material in Nordoff and Hall's fictionalized ''Bounty'' trilogy. Using as its source material the Richard Hough book, ''Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian,'' published in England in 1972, ''The Bounty'' means to be a far more historically accurate version of the great sea saga that rocked the British Admiralty toward the end of the 18th century.

For the benefit of those who came in late, the basic facts are these: in 1787 the British naval ship Bounty, in the command of Captain William Bligh, was sent out from England to Tahiti to take on a cargo of breadfruit to transport to Jamaica, the idea being that breadfruit would provide a far cheaper diet for Jamaica's slaves than the bananas they craved.

Two years later, after a long and apparently happy stay in Tahiti, the Bounty crew, under the leadership of Fletcher Christian, mutinied against Bligh and took over the Bounty, which they then sailed to Pitcairn Island, taking with them their Tahitian wives and friends. Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen were put into a small boat and cast adrift in the sea where, it was assumed, they would soon perish. Bligh confounded all by successfully sailing his boat across nearly 4,000 miles of open ocean to reach the Dutch island of Timor - one of the great navigational feats of modern times.

In the two earlier Bounty films, Bligh, played first by Charles Laughton and then by Trevor Howard, was characterized either as a sadist or a fool. Fletcher Christian was seen as a romantic hero, especially by Clark Gable in 1935, though in the 1962 film Marlon Brando added a few foppish mannerisms and was given a not very tragic death scene.

''The Bounty,'' which stars Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Bligh, attempts to rehabilitate Bligh's reputation, at least up to a point, and to discover in Christian a far more troubled, more complicated identity than has been seen before. That seems like a good idea but the evidence on the screen proves that one fools around with legendary characters, even historically inaccurate ones, at some peril.

In addition to Mr. Hopkins and the American-born, Australian-bred Mr. Gibson, one of our best new young actors, a lot of very good people are involved in this venture, including the English playwright Robert Bolt, who wrote the screenplay, and Roger Donaldson, the Australian-born New Zealand director remembered in this country for ''Smash Palace.'' However, nothing in the film really works.

The narrative is a series of flashbacks framed by Bligh's testimony in his own defense when, after his return to England, he faces court-martial for having lost the Bounty. It's one of the film's so-called revelations that Bligh and Christian were friends who had earlier served together and, when alone, were on a first-name basis. Yet, by seeing Bligh as a less mad character than we've known him to be in the earlier films, ''The Bounty'' makes Fletcher Christian's behavior seem nothing more than petulant.

We watch Bligh fretting and sweating at the sight of his crew members running gloriously amok with the magnificent looking Tahitian women, but his discipline, though harsh, doesn't appear to be all that outrageous, considering what discipline could be in the British Navy at that time. What's going on in Fletcher Christian's head - when he suddenly decides to mutiny - remains vague in the screenplay, though he has been having a passionate time with a pretty Tahitian princess and has gone native to the extent of allowing himself to be tatooed.

Both Bligh and Christian are unfinished characters in a screenplay that may or may not have been tampered with. The production, shot in Tahiti, New Zealand and England, is elborate without being especially interesting to watch. When the Bounty initially arrives in Tahiti, and the smiling natives jump into their canoes, loaded down with garlands and other trinkets, and as the music comes up on the sound track, you may think you've seen and heard all this before, and you have, in dozens of other movies, including ''Bounty'' movies.

''The Bounty'' seems to want to be different, but it doesn't know how. The film's big set piece - the wild storm sequence in which Bligh attempts unsuccessfully to sail the Bounty around Cape Horn - is so badly shot and edited you don't know what's happening. Even the Bounty itself, rebuilt to scale at large cost, looks like a steel-hulled ship encased in wood, which it is. The movie seems to have been planned, written, acted, shot and edited by people who were constantly being overruled by other people. It's totally lifeless.

Prominent in the supporting cast are Laurence Olivier, seen briefly as a majestic Admiral Hood, the senior officer in charge of Bligh's court- martial, and Edward Fox, who looks elegantly high-toned and cross as the prosecuting officer.

''The Bounty, which has been rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''), includes lots of shots of partly nude (that is, topless) Tahitian women, which is the way they dressed before the missionaries got to them.

Never Mind Jamaica

THE BOUNTY, directed by Bernard Williams; screenplay by Robert Bolt, based on the book ''Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian'' by Richard Hough; director of photography, Arthur Ibbetson; edited by Tony Lawson; music by Vangelis; produced by Bernard Williams; released by Orion Pictures Corporation. At Loews State, Broadway and 45th Street; New York Twin, Second Avenue and 66th Street; 34th Street Showplace, at Second Avenue and other theaters. Running time: 132 minutes. This film is rated PG.

Fletcher Christian . . . . . Mel Gibson

Lt. William Bligh . . . . . Anthony Hopkins

Admiral Hood . . . . . Laurence Olivier

Captain Greetham . . . . . Edward Fox

Fryer . . . . . Daniel Day-Lewis

Cole . . . . . Bernard Hill

Young . . . . . Philip Davis

Churchill . . . . . Wi Kuki Kaa

Mauatua . . . . . Tevaite Vernette

Adams . . . . . Philip Martin Brown