Hawaii

By this point, the mid-1960s, the old-style biblical epics had more or less died out completely, but epics of other kinds were still reasonably popular. This story of missionaries in the first half of the 19th century, adapted from a James A. Michener novel and made a year before the abandoning of the Hollywood production code, is in fact a polemic against rigid adherence to Christian scriptures. At its centre is an overly pious and sometimes hypocritical preacher, the kind of mind which would have believed in all those unswervingly self-righteous bible flicks of the previous decade.

But Hawaii is not some flagrant and roughshod denunciation of church and faith. The picture was adapted (quite liberally) from its source by acclaimed screenwriters Daniel Taradash and Dalton Trumbo, and it has in particular Trumbo's tendency to treat all his characters with respectful and human portrayals, in spite of what antagonisms they may have towards each other. Thus while Max von Sydow is seen at turns as a callous fanatic, a trumped-up fool and a general negative influence, we first see him as a shy yet well-meaning youngster, clumsily trying to woo Julie Andrews. In these early scenes he is somewhat endearing figure, and even though most viewers will not condone much of what he later does, this first impression sticks with us, preventing us from completely despising him and allowing us to believe in his wife's devotion to him.

Max von Sydow was an excellent choice for this role. Admittedly his Swedish accent is a bit of a non-sequitur, but he is perfect at bringing out both the sympathetic young lad and the unshakable preacher. His performance occasionally seems to border on the hammy, but this is acceptable because it fits in with his strength of character and the earnest manner with which he takes up his ministerial duties. Julie Andrews is great too. After having made her name with the more or less fantasy figures of Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp there's a strange kind of poignancy seeing her suffer the strains of being a more realistic wife and mother. She seems sadly underused here however, although apparently she was the main victim of the cuts in the edited version I have, which is a real pity. Richard Harris and Gene Hackman bring their forceful presences to make some of the more powerful statements in the dialogue, while Jocelyn LaGrande makes a terrific impact with her full-of-life performance. Although she spoke no English and learned her lines phonetically, it's incredible the way she communicates meaning and emotion around those words.

Hawaii was the first large-scale picture directed by George Roy Hill, and by and large he handles the broad canvas well. Of note is that fact that he gives a constant life and rhythm to the island, often featuring a few figures working in the background or framing a character with gently swaying foliage. Hill was of course a child of the New Wave and this is evident in the occasional zoom or whip pan, but his touch is generally quite light and minimalist. Unlike some of the other younger directors around at this time he favours long takes with few close-ups. The only trouble with this is doesn't seem to quite have developed the knack of subtly making a point within the frame, sometimes using the camera to force our attention on something. An example is when Iliki runs to greet Richard Harris's ship, throwing off her western dress, a moment which seems rather contrived and clunky by the way the camera pans down onto the discarded garment.

Hawaii is a far from perfect picture, being neither quite the stunning extravaganza that epics are generally meant to be, nor the stirring human drama it also seems to aspire to. However, it has many moments which come close to both goals, and most importantly has a very honest humanity to it – something so many epics lack – and this allows it to speak its message directly without ever threatening to alienate its audience.

Bumpy, overlong drama does have magnetic sequences that stay with you. New England reverend (Max von Sydow, who never elicits our interest or compassion) sails to the Hawaiian islands with his wife in 1820 to introduce the natives to Christianity. Soapy plot taken from James A. Michener's book tries to cram too many years into 170 minutes of screen-time. The task of adapting the mammoth bestseller was probably a bad idea right from the start, and the picture is certainly a botch, but I did enjoy Julie Andrews as von Sydow's wife and the early scenes have atmosphere and tension. But Max von Sydow is a real problem: he's so overly-pious he's pathetic, which is probably not the effect hoped for. Look fast for real-life Hawaiian resident Bette Midler on the Eastern ship as it arrives to the island. **1/2 from ****

After seeing the movie on cable a few months ago, I decided to read the book.

The movie is only about one-fifth of the whole book. Too bad. The movie leaves a lot of unresolved plot threads which are resolved later in the book. Subplots which seem inconsequential turn out to have major implications to the plot of the novel. Minor characters from the movie become more important as the story progresses. For example, Gene Hackman's Dr. John Whipple and Richard Harris' Raefer Hoxworth have only a few scenes in Hawaii, but their characters are perhaps the two most important characters in the book. Whipple and Hoxworth are the ones who challenge the authority of the missionaries and, in a sense, are the true foils to Abner Hale. They also are the ones who go into business.

As a result, the movie, standing by itself, tends to introduce characters and subplots with no relevancy to the main Abner-Jerusha-Malama-Keolo story line. Perhaps a sequel was planned? In short, Hawaii would have worked better as a mini-series.

********************* How the Novel Ends:

Abner Hale's son, Micah, who was last seen getting a boat to the mainland to attend Yale University, becomes a minister like his father. The sea captain, Raefer Hoxworth, marries Noelini, the daughter of the Alii Nui. Micah then meets and falls in love with Raefer's and Noelini's daughter. They get married. Abner Hale scorns Micha; claiming the Micah has gone "whoring with the heathens." Micah quits the ministry and becomes a partner in Raefer Hoxworth's shipping company - now called Hoxworth and Hale.

John Whipple and Retire Janders (the captain of the ship that brought the missionaries to Hawaii) are partners in Janders & Whipple. Initially a trading company, general store, and ship chandler, they start acquiring land and growing sugar. J&W eventually becomes a plantation company and needs cheap labor to work their fields. John Whipple imports Chinese workers.

A generation after the movie ends, the descendants of Hale, Whipple, Janders, Hewlett (the man who was kicked out of the church for marrying a Hawaiian woman) and the Hoxworth are the commercial, social, and political elite of Hawaii. Micah Hale leads the movement to have the United States annex Hawaii and serves as the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii.

The descendants of these families continue to build their businsses and develop the islands. In an ironic twist, the families, refusing to marry Hawaiians or Chinese, intermarry. Eventually cousins marry cousins - the very practices Abner Hale condemned from his puplit. You eventually get characters named: Whipple Hoxworth; Hoxworth Hale; Hewlett Janders; Bromley Hoxworth.

Finally, at the end of the novel the rich, post-WW II descendants of the missionaries talk about their "distinguished ancestors." Their descriptions and interpretation of events, differs from what it portrayed in the earlier chapters.

Hawaii was released in 1966, and was directed by George Roy Hill, it chronicles the journey of Reverend Abner Hale (Max von Sydow) as he moves to the Hawaiian island of Maui in an attempt to bring God to the "heathens." The movie is almost three hours long and covers an extensive and tragic period of time in Hale's life showing how devastating western ideas can be to a functioning non-western society. The highlight of this film is undoubtedly Julie Andrews' performance as the Reverend's loving, accepting wife Jerusha, who suffers greatly because of his inability to love both her and God. Andrews is amazing in this film, I have watched it many times and am more impressed by her every time I see it. Her portrayal of childbirth is the best I have ever seen period. For anyone who still doubts that she can act as well as she could sing, this movie is a must, she is so convincing as Jerusha that you forget she's acting. Max von Sydow is equally as convincing as Reverend Hale so much so that he makes it difficult for many to watch the movie. Overall Hawaii is a wonderful movie, very thought provoking with an importance message, and if you can manage to deal with the infuriating character of Abner Hale, then you will most certainly enjoy it.

Excellent performance by Max Von Sydow as the self-righteous missionary with a narrow vision of redemption and worship. This movie is almost as infuriating as Michenor's novel. You will not believe the horrible changes wrought upon these beautiful natives done with the best intentions. Sad and lovely film.