South Pacific (1958)

 

                How much do I love war movies?  I am following a tournament involving WWII in the Pacific movies and of the 32 movies, I had seen 31.  The only one I had not seen is this movie.  Mainly because I never considered it to be a war movie.  It clearly falls in the genre of musicals.  However, I refused to vote for “King Rat” without seeing the competition.  (Obviously, I was going to vote for the true war movie over a musical, but fair is fair.)  And if I was going to have to watch a musical, I am going to write a review.  Actually, I don’t avoid musicals, but this is not the type that I would normally watch.

                “South Pacific” brought the popular Rogers and Hammerstein play to the screen eight years after it premiered.  The play was loosely based on James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific”.  It was directed by Joshua Logan (“Mister Roberts”, “Ensign Pulver”).  Mitzi Gaynor and Roy Walston were the only major members of the cast who sang their own songs. Juanita Hall, who played Bloody Mary, had sung in the stage show, but was dubbed for the movie!  Ezio Pinza had played the lead in the play, but died a year before production.  Mary Martin was his co-star and they were a package deal, so she was out.  Doris Day turned down the part and Elizabeth Taylor blew her audition.  The movie was filmed in Hawaii. The colored filters used for most of the songs were severely criticized. The movie was a huge hit and finished #1 at the box office for 1958.  It won an Oscar for Sound and was nominated for Cinematography and Score.  The soundtrack topped the charts for seven months, the fourth longest run in history.  The song “Some Enchanted Evening” is #28 on AFI’s “100 Years…100 Songs” list.  The song “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” was controversial and boycotted in some parts of the country.

                We open with a 3 ½ minute overture.  (“Khartoum” has 6!)  The movie is set on an fictional island in 1943.  A PBY named “The Bouncing Belch” (this is the best joke in the movie) is delivering Lt. Cable (John Kerr) to the island for a secret mission.  Our first of 16 songs is Luther (Ray Walston) and his Seabees singing about dames.  One of those dames is Nurse Nellie Forbush (Gaynor).  Although Luther has the lust for her, she is already in love with a rich French plantation owner named Emile de Becque (Rossano Brazzi).  She learns that he has fled France when he murdered the local bully.  She has no problems with that so their love will be smooth sailing.  If you believe that, you have never seen a musical or a romance.  Or any movie.  Why not double the romantic suspense?  Cable starts wooing a local girl named Liat whose mother is Bloody Mary.  This romance will also hit a road block.  Bloody Mary is the island entrepreneur, but she lives on the supposedly Shangri-laesque island of Bali H’ai.  There’s a third island in the movie.  This is the one that Cable and de Becque sneak onto to become coast watchers.  One of them will not come back in a pretty shocking development for a family-friendly 1950’s musical. So one of our racist subplots will remain unresolved.

                “South Pacific” is a must-see movie for cinephiles, so I am glad I checked that box.  It was slightly better than I expected and I was surprised that it can be easily argued to be a war movie.  There are “shots fired” within the first minute as The Bouncing Belch comes under anti-aircraft fire.  Then we sit through a bunch of songs before Cable and de Becque kick a hornet’s nest on the Japanese island.  The movie had cooperation from the Department of Defense so we even get dive bombing and strafing by F6F’s.  (Don’t climb out of your cave to huff about Hellcats playing the role of Wildcats.)  Although the movie portrays Seabees as slackers who are only interested in broads and making money, the movie balances that with a tribute to coast watchers.  (However, if you want that in a more entertaining package, watch “Father Goose”.) 

                On the plus side, the songs are the draw here.  Several are iconic and I had heard several of them somewhere or other over the years.  (A statement non-Baby Boomer can’t make.)  The acting is not as broad as you would expect, although the performances are “theatirical”.  The humor is not as slap-sticky as some musicals.  Well, Luther does get a dart in his ass, but that’s about it.  Speaking of which, Ray Walston is the main reason for most war movie male fans to see the movie.  My Favorite Martian sings his own songs!  Mitzi does too and she is clearly talented, but not hot enough to attract most guys today.  And for you female war movie fans, I have to warn you that I doubt you will be pining for Rossano.  He ain’t no Cary Grant. If you are going to dub the part anyway, why not get a better star?

                I started by mentioning that this movie was up against “King Rat” in the tournament.  It’s not as big a joke as I thought when I first saw the bracket, but do I have to tell you that “King Rat” is a much better war movie?  Give me George Segal over Mitzi Gaynor even though you’d prefer Nellie for a next door neighbor.  However, she’s generic, whereas Corporal King is one of the great anti-heroes and “King Rat” is one of the best prisoner of war movies.  I have seen enough musicals to know that “South Pacific” does not stand out like that.

GRADE  =  C