HAWAII - DVD review

One word pretty much says it all: Michener.

Devoted fans of the author already know what they're going to get when they see one of James Michener's single-word titles: a sprawling saga about a single place, from the time that the Earth's crust was still shifting and evolving in prehistoric times, through periods of early settlement and conflict, to the less colorful but more complex contemporary history. Michener covers it all, like a timeless beat reporter whose fascination with a place can become contagious.

He did it with "Centennial," which told the story of a town in Colorado, and he did it with "Chesapeake," "Texas," "Alaska," "Poland," "Caribbean," and "Iberia." But he did it first with "Hawaii" in 1960, 13 years after he won the Pulitzer Prize for a collection of short stories that inspired the musical "South Pacific."

The 1966 film version of "Hawaii" originally weighed in at 189 minutes, then it was whittled down to 171 minutes for television, and now it seems to have been pared even more for the DVD release, at 161 minutes. Purists will scream we want ALL the sprawl, and who can blame them? Though the DVD print still captures the sweeping feel of a Michener novel and upholds the tradition of Hollywood epics as visual feasts, there are moments (particularly in the last third) that feel excessively choppy. And yet there are other moments when the film starts to feel a bit plodding, as if even more could have been left on the cutting-room floor. As it is, "Hawaii" only deals with Part III of Michener's novel, focusing on the story of the first wave of missionaries to travel to Hawaii in the 1800s, following in the wake of lust-minded sailors and whalers (another part spawned "The Hawaiians").

From the moment we first see Calvinist hopefuls applying to be sent overseas, it's assume the missionary position, because evangelism gets the pat-down "suspect" treatment throughout the film—and deservedly so. At its worst, the missionary movement was a cultural steamroller, a force as destructive and full of self-interest as imperialism. Max von Sydow plays the uptight and self-righteous Rev. Abner Hale with the all the flair of a Shakespearian tragic hero—more misunderstood than genuinely evil. But as the captain chides, when Rev. Hale rains fire and brimstone on the crew, "To an ignorant man, the Bible can be a terrifying book." Those words never sink in, because Rev. Hale continues in his rock-jawed stubbornness, so bullish on trying to win converts that he doesn't care what china he breaks in the process. And by the middle of the film, he's positively Dickensian, as annoying as a stove-pipe hatted hatemonger can be.

When the missionaries first arrive—by the way, pay close attention to the seasick passengers en route, because Bette Midler makes an uncredited appearance—they get an eyeful. But Rev. Hale is as put off by the bare-breasted beauties that swim out to greet their ship as John Ashcroft was by the nude statue of Justice personified in the Department of Justice—and just as eager to cover them up. But the veins in Hale's head practically pop out when he learns that incest is practiced among the Lahaina, Maui islanders, including the queen and her brother/husband.

Leave it to Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp to show what proselytizing should be like. As Jerusha, a woman so full of Christ that she opts for an arranged marriage just to accompany her reverend husband to Hawaii, Julie Andrews turns in an understated performance that's strong and winning, preferring the God of Mercy and Love to her husband's God of Vengeance—though the most likable character by far is Queen Malama.

"Hawaii" received nine Academy Award nominations—including cinematography, costume design, special visual effects, score, song, and sound. But the film only earned one nomination for acting, and that was for Jocelyn LaGarde's robust portrayal of the Hawaiian queen, a monarch every bit as fascinating and complex as Yul Brynner's King of Siam. Amazingly, the Tahitian knew no English and learned her lines phonetically. But she's such a dynamic character that when the focus shifts at the two-thirds mark, the film becomes far less interesting. No amount of windstorms, firestorms, or plagues can compete with this robust force of nature for our attentions. And when Andrews takes her leave, leaving us with her stick-up-his-whatever husband, it almost seems an act of cruelty.

Von Sydow isn't bad, mind you, nor is Richard Harris as the whaling captain who had a thing for Jerusha and tries all he can to win her back. Gene Hackman seems positively miscast as the rational and soft-spoken Rev. John Whipple, and yet we forget that he was ever Popeye Doyle. Even Carroll O'Connor in a beard, playing Jerusha's father in a brief role, is surprisingly believable. But aside from the breathtaking scenery (the film was shot on location), it's the performances of the two women—Andrews and LaGarde—that give this epic heart. And of course, both women are deliberately portrayed in a more sympathetic way, since they're carriers of Michener's message. While her husband tries to convert by force, and reacts with rage at every "heathen" custom, needing to be restrained half the time, Mrs. Hale ministers to the people the way a nurse would, or a mother. And when, after Hale curses the people, an outbreak of measles, brought to the island by one of the sailors, threatens to wipe out half the population, he assumes it was his call to God that brought the plague. "What else has the power to annihilate them?" he asks his wife. And through Jerusha, Michener lets him and others like him have it right between the eyes: "Disease, despair, our lack of love, our inability to find them beautiful, our contempt for their ways, our lust for their land, our greed, our arrogance—that is what kills them, Abner, and that is what you must save them from."

Unfortunately, the turnaround made by the aging Rev. Hale (who begins to look a bit like Alastair Sim's Scrooge) is too sudden, and not nearly developed enough. I don't have a 189-minute print to make comparisons, and it's been so long since I've seen this film, but my guess is that most of the missing 27 minutes came from the second half of the movie. One leap is particularly jarring, whether it was in the original version or a jump cut made for continuity. As the Rev. Hale's young son shouts "Father, Father!" we fast-forward a good 10 years as the husky-voiced fellow in his late teens shouts the same thing. And the overlapping between the church and land-grabbing politics isn't explored nearly enough. In short, "Hawaii" was an enjoyable "7" for the first two-thirds, but the herky-jerky last third drags it down.

Video: At least the aspect ratio was preserved, with the unrated film (there are several National Geographic-style scenes of topless Hawaiian women) looking breathtaking during sweeping shots of sunsets and mountains in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1 ratio). There's slight graininess in some scenes, but overall the picture quality is quite good.

Audio: The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is clear and relatively free of distortion, but Elmer Bernstein's soundtrack would sound so much better with a 5.1 mix. The 2.0 Mono is inoffensive, but also nothing that really enhances the viewing experience. Subtitle options are English, French, and Spanish.

Extras: In addition to the trailer, there's an interesting "making of" featurette that's vinage—and it shows its age. The sound is extremely rough, and the color is washed out—with the quality as bad as those old 8mm home movies discovered years later in a bedroom closet. But Andrews does a voiceover and is shown on camera during location filming, and we learn that the sea crossing sequence was filmed near the Artic Circle, while other portions were filmed on location in Massachusetts and Oahu—where the crew constructed a historically accurate Lahaina whaling town from the 1800s. It took seven years of preparation and three years in production (including a month filming in Hawaii) to make the epic, and it's a shame that after all that work and attention to detail the final DVD print isn't the original version.

Bottom Line: It's impossible to tell if the original 189-minute print doesn't exist anymore, or if MGM felt that today's ADD audiences couldn't handle a film that long. But "Hawaii" will leave viewers wondering whether the flaws in the film are a result of contemporary editors trying to fit it onto a single disc, or the director's flawed vision. That's too bad. But fans of Michener and and those who yearn for paradise will still want to own this one, and roll with the waves. Bernstein's music and gorgeous footage of Hawaii can help to smooth things over, and two solid thirds of an epic is still worth watching.