South Pacific (Collector's Edition) Sale
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Academy Award -winning "South Pacific" is a towering musical masterpiece and the tender love story of a naïve young Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) and an older French Plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi) on a U.S. occupied South Sea island. The breathtaking score is highlighted by some of the most romantic songs ever written: "Some Enchanted Evening," "There is Nothin' Like a Dame," "Younger Than Springtime" and more. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, South Pacific ranks among the most celebrated of Rodgers and Hammerstein's acclaimed musicals.
Description
The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) "as corny as Kansas in August" and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring in 1958, and so was director Logan's decision to overlay emotional moments with tinted filters--a technique that misfires as often as it hits. The comic relief tends to fall flat, and an overly spunky Mitzi Gaynor is a poor substitute for the stage original's Mary Martin. But the location scenery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is gorgeous, and the songs are among the finest in the American musical catalog: "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger than Springtime," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair," "This Nearly Was Mine." That's Juanita Hall as the sly native trader Bloody Mary, singing the haunting tune that launched a thousand tiki bars, "Bali H'ai." Based on stories from James Michener's book Tales from the South Pacific. --Robert Horton
South Pacific (Collector's Edition) Customer Review
The music in this movie is it's best asset. Viewer be warned: All of these people were dubbed, and you WILL notice it too, so don't let that get in the way of the melodies.
You will not help noticing the leffect of filters in different colors: Redish for sunset, intense Technicolor Blue for romantic scenes, Blinding Yellow for beach scenes, all of these are light versions of the formica and plastic that had started to invade America and it is an aesthetic pop-cultural phenomenon that remains unmatched. I daresay it may have influenced Andy Warhol's color schemes.
I found the whole story particularly difficult to believe, even by Holywood's standards, and had it not been a musical, the movie would not have been a pleasure to watch. Mitzi Gaynor is superb as an early fashion icon for lesbians. Her athletic, strong and horsy version of womanhood has been an inspiration for Gay women everywhere, as well as her early-butch haircut that is so fabulously curled when wet. Her consistent masculine fashions and manish demeanor, even when speaking in French can only be understood from this perspective.
Juanita Hill is great in her role, but Mitzi truly is the paramount presence in the film. From a sociological perspective, this is an indication of the new roles of women in America after the war.
The lead roles for the men are not as exciting: Rossano Brazzi is just too uptight to be French and John Kerr is not inspirational as the young hero soldier. Although he is shirtless in most of the scenes, he emanates the sensuality of a pine trunk recently cut down. It is hard to believe that the beautiful native girl (that looks more Chinese than islander) could fall in love, and so quickly with this dead beat. The men in the background look better suited for these roles. There are plenty of shirtless handsome guys in the film, which is a definite bonus.
Culturally speaking, it is sort of embarrassing to see the dance-ceremony sequel which had African masks galore and a confusion of dance/choreography rhythms that could only be summarized as post-king-kong-erotic-island shake. There is also plenty of misplaced Chinese infusions, from the ultra-white shirt that Liat wears to Emile's children's physical looks, accents and overall demeanor.
However, It is easier to understand this film as a product of the times that had also recently produced the atomic bomb.
Extremely important for scholars of pop culture, early pop art, late surrealism, post-atomic aesthetics and gender studies.
★★★ Read More Reviews ★★★
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