Customer Reviews

South Pacific [Import]

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I first sore this film many years ago on the Cinerama extra wide screen with multi track speakers. The film was spectacular.

Acknowledging the limitations of a DVD, and the age of the film, visually this DVD was excellent. But why have they not included stereo sound? The music is so important, yet they have chosen to distribute this musical in mono, which to me is flat and lifeless. If you want a decent sound rendition, I suggest the CD version of the original sound track, which is infinitely better.

One of my favourite stage musicals and movies. I saw one of the first performances, with Mary Martin, at the Royal Alex in Toronto and was so glad to be able to obtain this copy of the movie for my collection

This 1958 Academy Award nominee was no disappointment 54 years later. It was just as I remembered it - an enchanting musical with spectacular scenery, beautiful people & the most wonderful songs to sing along to. No remake of this masterpiece is going to even come close. Some movies should just be left alone - the ones that stand the test of time. This is one of those. It was an Enchanted Evening for me watching this again.

Take a great Broadway musical with a great story and ingenious music and lyrics by Oscar and Hammerstein and make a big budget screen version. The result, you might think, would be a classic motion picture. You would be wrong. That's not to say a wonderful movie couldn't be made from the source material. That's to say that the 1958 version isn't that movie. The precise reasons for its failure are largely unknown to me, but I do have a few clues. Transferring a Broadway musical to the screen has always been harder than it seems. It's a matter of 'opening up' a stage production to the vaster needs of cinema. [Just three years after "South Pacific", the movie version of "West Side Story" proved that this could be done. It remains not only one of the great musicals, but also one of the great American movies.] And if you think about it, most of the great Hollywood musicals were originals which were done just for this specific medium - "Singin in the Rain", "Easter Parade", "Meet me in St. Louis", etc.]

The thing that 'saves' "South Pacific" is the rich, melodious music. "Blood Mary", "Bali Hai", "Some Enchanted Evening", etc. all come through in rich, sumptuous renditions. For the musical numbers alone, the movie is well worth watching.

It's apparent that every attempt the filmmakers could come up with was used in trying to open up "South Pacific", but it still remains conspicuously stagy. Also, perhaps to take advantage of the Todd-AO filming process, which was very innovative at the time, there is the jarring use of color filters - some scenes are yellow, others blue and orange. Perhaps on the Cinemascope screens back then, this was effective. On a TV screen, it's merely irritating.

I suspect there were several creative giants battling behind the scenes during the making of "South Pacific". While it will probably never happen, this is one musical deserving of a big screen remake.

South Pacific, the movie, is a fascinating sociological snapshop of 1950's white America's racism and ignorance of other cultures. The absurdities (such as interchanging cliches and visual cues from Africa, Vietnam, Aleut, etc. culture in the depiction of Tongan and South Pacific life) would be hilarious, if it were not so pathetic that most Americans then and now in the 21st C probably still don't know the differences. The ignorance goes beyond that of non-white culture. The casting of an actor with a thick Italian accent -who in different garb would fit well on the Sopranos set - for a Frenchman is nearly as absurd as casting a lithe French / Vietnamese actress dressed in a white silk mandarin collared top, as a Tongan - a people not known for their svelteness or their east asian attire. Meanwhile, Liat's nearl naked male cohorts are elsewhere shown doing the wild native thing - only they look racially and tribally as if they came right out of Africa.

The subtle or not so subtle (depending if one is colored or white ) message is that Tongan (in casting actually depicted as "oriental" or any non black colored women) when young are exotic, submissive sex objects who will not need more than a half minute to jump into the arms of and bed of a white guy from the Philadelphia main line and Princeton. Their moms, even in Tonga, know a good catch, and Bloody M. makes no secret that hitching her daughter to this white guy is a way to move up in this world. ( While the inter-racial thing may have been a daring foray into forbidden sexual love in the 50s, this movie may have marked the beginning of what is now the ubiquitous white rice king phenomenon that started on elite college campuses in the early seventies.)

Enough about race. Now gender. That a sophisticated European would be interested in Mitzi Gaynor's character is beyond credibility. The vapidity and sickening perkiness, not to mention extreme racism - even for an American - would in reality have been a total turn-off to the European. Plus, Mitzi is pretty darn chunky and dorky looking. With regard to the other romance in the move, yes one can easily see the sexual attraction between Cable and Liat. But how can Cable mistake that lust for love??? Someday Liat would look like Bloody Mary. Then what? Happy talk?

Altogether, this is a very entertaining movie.

Based on James Michener's book `Tales of the South Pacific', this Rodgers & Hammerstein's play is adapted for the big screen.

There are overlapping stories of different people with extremely different backgrounds and how the cope or not with each other in a time of adversity during the second world war in the south pacific.

This is a musical and the songs (most have the feel of the 50's, others are timeless) tell the story best of all. Be sure to also obtain the soundtrack.

You will recognize that many of the best actors of the time were picked. This includes recently deceased Ray Walston who played Luther Billis.

There was some decision to do some dubbing of the songs; however it does not distract form the ambiance of the film or the nature of the story.

So prepare to be absorbed in the Tales of the South Pacific.

What a classic, wow! Don't believe one negative word you hear about this film. Everyone knows that the songs are the best Rogers & Hammerstein produced for one show. The singing in the film and the renditions are fabulous. The first time I saw this film I was 10 years old and, yes, it was in 1958 in an old, classic of a movie theater where the ushers were wearing suits. I was totally entranced by this great film at that time and still am today. Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi were excellent selections-- I don't think Mary Martin would have been any better. John Kerr looked exactly like a young Marine lieutenant circa 1942. Sure, ladies, it could have been someone who was known for having knockout looks, but they would not have been as effective. And France Nuyen captures the essence of a native girl like no one else and that was good casting opposite Kerr.

To me, the greatest achievement of this film is that Joshua Logan absolutely captured everything about the early 1940s in that cast of characters. Mitzi Gaynor has a 1940s face and style, and looked exactly like a Navy nurse. The same is true for the other characters but especially so for Kerr. If you look at war footage from the Pacific theater, you'll see hundreds of Marines with frames exactly like Kerr's. No one lifted weights back then so no one had the "body cuts" of a weight lifter. He looked just like a Marine Lt from WWII should have looked-- tall, very lean, serious but a kid at the same time. He was intense in the combat scene and very light during the scenes with Nuyen. And Juanita Hall couldn't have been better; she will always be everyone's vision of Bloody Mary.

Logan manages to take you back to that time over and over again even though it was filmed 15 years later. When I watch it today I know that the smells were different, the mindset was different, the clothes were different, the cultures were different, the people were different, and life was different; perhaps simpler. Logan capture all of that for us to see over and over again. Plus, he did it in a way that makes the racial point but does it without being vulgar.

South Pacific captures the World War II era in the same way that Gone with the Wind captures the Civil War era. We can never go back to those times, but Logan helps make time stand still. Best of all was his casting. This version of South Pacific is one of my all time favorite films and no classic film library should be without it. Buy it. Watch it. Love it!

With the world a little shaky now, it's a real pleasure to be able to put on a DVD and take a trip down memory lane to 1958 when South Pacific was released in movie theaters. The Rogers and Hammerstein score sets the tone for this musical adaptation of the Broadway show that was based on Tales of the South Pacific" by James Mitchener.

The story is set on an island in the South Pacific during WW2. The Japanese are entrenched in a nearby island and are bombing American forces that go near, but life is sweet for the G.I.s at the naval base. Mitzi Gaynor, cast as a nurse, is beginning a romance with an older distinguished French planter played by Rossano Brazzi. John Kerr is a young lieutenant who comes to the island to convince the planter to risk his life to spy for the Americans. And Juanita hall is the older native woman who pushes her daughter, the lovely France Nuyen, at John Kerr. The music is excellent and the words of the songs really do move the story along.

The theme however, is more than a love story. It deals with racism and the tragedy of war too. And these themes are what held it all together for me. It's a great human statement surrounded by wonderful familiar melodies that I'm still humming this morning. I loved it. And I didn't even care that, with the exception of Rossano Brazzi and Ray Walston, whose role as a sailor who always has a scheme and adds some really funny comic relief to this tale of love and war, the acting in general was mediocre. Everyone else gave rather stilted performances, and Mitzi Gaynor might be pretty, but she can't quite show a wide range of emotion. Also, the songs were all dubbed and obviously so. But that was the way Hollywood did things in those days. It's also interesting to note what the standard for beauty was in 1958. With the exception of the dancers, it was youth alone and not workouts in the gym that shaped the actors' bodies. Narrow waists were in style for the women, but hips were allowed to flare naturally.

I loved South Pacific in spite of its few faults. It was great entertainment even though it didn't make me forget the prospect of war. If you've never seen this film, don't miss it. And if you've seen it before, it's certainly worth a revisit. Highly recommended.

I saw this film about 2 years ago, and was not impressed. I tried to watch it again last night and was thoroughly disappointed. What is a great and moving show on stage becomes one big thudding dud of a film. One of Rogers & Hammerstein's best scores is lost amid this wan cast. Mitzy Gaynor is far too earnest and perky, though she can sing. Rosanno Brazzi is pretty right-on casting - sensual and sexy; one can understand why a younger woman would fall for him; I echo the sentiments about John Kerr - not exactly the type one envisions as the great lover. Ray Walston is an embarassment as the "comic" lead. The use of the color filters is distracting beyond tolerance. Apparently, Logan wanted to elminate them, but there wasn't time or money.

I look forward to seeing this classic on stage to do justice to how wonderful it can be with the right elements.

After viewing the full screen version of "South Pacific" on a projector screen as well as my own home, I feel that the movie was filmed beautifully!!! The use of color tints carries the audience away. Mizti Gaynor has a fabulous singing voice, even if she is "as corny as Kansas in August." The characters overcome the racial prejudices, showing the world that mixed couples are acceptable. The only thing that I found lacking was the plot line. If it weren't for the musical interludes, the movie may have been a flop.