Hawai’i (1966)

Directed by George Roy Hill. Starring Max von Sydow, Julie Andrews, Richard Harris, Jocelyne LaGarde, Manu Tupou, Gene Hackman, Carroll O’Connor, Elizabeth Logue, Ted Nobriga, John Cullum, Torin Thatcher.

Stubborn, severe missionary von Sydow endeavors to bring Christianity to the Islands of Hawai’i in Daniel Taradash and Dalton Trumbo’s partial adaptation of James A. Michener’s lengthy novel, which told the largely fictionalized history of the isles up to its founding as the 50th state of the union (the year of the book’s publication). Instead of focusing on the effect the introduction of monotheistic religion to the Hawai’ian peoples had, the film is more concerned with the missionary being blinded by his heartless principles, the nature of his marriage to Julie Andrews’ docile reverend’s niece, and her unsettled feelings toward a brutish whaler (Harris) who abandoned her some time back for a life at sea—she must enjoy being psychologically manhandled, as that’s all the two men she loves do. Despite being the only screen performance she’d ever give, Tahitian actress Jocelyne LaGarde comes off best as the native ruler, and if she had been allowed to butt heads with the missionary more often, the drama might have been sustained for a larger measure of its excessive runtime. There are pretty images that go wasted, social/cultural dilemmas that go hardly noticed, and there’s a small, obstinate, rather detestable man at the center whose “change” comes way too late and all too incredibly. Empty epic filmmaking doesn’t mesh with director George Roy Hill’s strengths as a scenarist and storyteller. Music by Elmer Bernstein. Eagle-eyed viewers may be able to spot Bette Midler as an extra, her first film appearance. Followed by a sequel (The Hawai’ians) starring Charlton Heston, based on a different section of the same book.

48/100