Hawaii | |
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Directed by | George Roy Hill |
Screenplay by | Daniel Taradash Dalton Trumbo |
Based on | Hawaii by James A. Michener |
Produced by | Walter Mirisch |
Starring | Julie Andrews Max von Sydow Richard Harris |
Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
Edited by | Stuart Gilmore |
Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
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Running time |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $15 million [1] |
Box office | $34.5 million [2] |
Hawaii is a 1966 American epic drama film directed by George Roy Hill. It is based on the eponymous 1959 novel by James A. Michener. It tells the story of an 1820s Yale University divinity student (Max von Sydow) who, accompanied by his new bride (Julie Andrews), becomes a Calvinist missionary in the Hawaiian Islands. It was filmed at Old Sturbridge Village, in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and on the islands of Kauai and Oahu in Hawaii.
The film was released on October 10, 1966. It received mixed reviews but was a box-office success. It received seven nominations at the 39th Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (for Jocelyne LaGarde).
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(April 2022) |
In 1819, Prince Keoki Kanakoa appeals to the Yale Divinity School to bring Christianity to the Islands of Hawaii. Newly ordained minister Reverend Abner Hale is among those who volunteer, but all missionaries must be married. Reverend Dr. Thorn introduces him to his young niece, Jerusha Bromley. Jerusha is in love with Captain Rafer Hoxworth, a whaler away at sea who has apparently forgotten her.
Abner and Jerusha marry and go to Lahaina, Maui, where Keoki is reunited with his parents and sister. The missionaries are shocked by what is considered the islanders' sinful ways. Half-naked girls have sex with sailors, and the natives worship Hawaiian idols. Worse, Keoki's father, Kelolo, is both the husband and biological brother of Keoki's mother Malama Kanakoa, the Aliʻi Nui (ruler) whom the natives consider a "sacred person". Incest is believed to maintain a pure royal bloodline, and Keoki is expected to marry his sister, Noelani, who will one day become the Ali'i Nui. However, Keoki, waiting to be ordained a Christian minister, rejects this, creating discord within his family.
The Hales live in a grass hut and work to build a church. Jerusha helps the natives and tries to end the practice of drowning disfigured or deformed infants after rescuing an infant with a facial birthmark. After a difficult labor, Jerusha gives birth to her first child, a son named Micah. Abner baptizes his first convert, a young Hawaiian girl named Iliki who was given to the Hales as a servant.
Malama agrees to learn about Christianity but resists being converted because she would have to send away Kelolo. At the Hales' urging, Malama enacts a curfew for sailors and forbids them fraternizing with island girls. The sailors riot in protest, led by Captain Hoxworth, who has made a stop on his whaling voyage. Hoxworth discovers Jerusha is in Lahaina and married to Reverend Hale, whom he despises for inspiring Malama to impose the restrictions. The sailors partially torch the church, but the Hawaiians help save it, then chase the sailors back to their ships. As retaliation against Abner for marrying Jerusha, Hoxworth entices Iliki to leave the island with him. He tosses Abner overboard when he tries to retrieve her. Abner is attacked by a shark in the sea, leaving him permanently lame.
Malama, on her deathbed, agrees to be baptized a Christian and renounce Kelolo as her husband. As the natives foretold, upon an Ali'i Nui's death, a strong gale blows and destroys the church. Keoki disavows Christianity and returns to his native religion after Abner reveals that he will never be ordained because he is not white.
Noelani becomes the new Ali'i Nui. Abner discovers that Keoki and Noelani have married and Malama only became a Christian for her people’s good. Noelani and Keoki's baby is born horribly deformed. Abner refuses Jerusha's plea to save the infant, believing it is God's punishment. Keoki drowns the child. A measles outbreak decimates the native population, killing hundreds, including Keoki, who dies renouncing God.
Years of overworking and childbearing have weakened Jerusha, resulting in her early death. After losing Jerusha, Abner becomes more loving and protective of the Hawaiians. He joins them to curtail white settlers and plantation owners from taking more land. When the other ministers vote to own and profit from the land, Abner opposes them and is reassigned to a parish in Connecticut. He refuses to leave Hawaii and sends his three children to the Bromley family in New England. Returning to his hut, Abner finds a young Hawaiian man waiting who wishes to be his assistant. He is overjoyed upon realizing the young man is the disfigured baby Jerusha saved from being drowned many years before.
Bette Midler also had her first on-screen movie appearance as an extra in the film (she can be seen behind a woman covered in a white shawl during Abner's sermon). Heather Menzies (who co-starred with Andrews in The Sound of Music a year earlier) appears as Jerusha's sister Mercy Bromley. The film's costume designer Dorothy Jeakins makes a credited cameo as the Hales matriarch Hepzibah Hale.
The film was based on the book's third chapter (out of seven), entitled From the Farm of Bitterness, which covered the settlement of the island kingdom by its first American missionaries. [3] There are some differences between the novel's third chapter and the film, such as Abner, who was already lame when the time they landed in Lahaina, the riots had already started before Malama enforces laws in the Island, Urania Hewlett's difficult childbirth was changed into Jerusha's, Rafer's character was introduced earlier in the novel (before the missionaries landed in Hawaii), the whistling wind scene was more chaotic in the novel than in the film (several whaling ships sank) and occurred the day after Malama's funeral, and other key scenes (such as Rafer bombarding Lahaina and damaging the Fort and the Mission House) were omitted for the film.
Needing a Polynesian female for the key role of Malama, the Alii Nui, the producers hired a native Tahitian for the role. French-speaking Jocelyne LaGarde had never acted before and could not speak English; however, her screen test showed a powerful presence, and the producers hired a coach to train her phonetically to handle the character's dialogue. Of the all-star cast, LaGarde would be the only one to earn an Academy Award nomination and the only one to win a Golden Globe Award. Making early screen appearances in this film were Bette Midler, John Cullum, and future Oscar winner Gene Hackman.
Originally, it was to be directed by Fred Zinnemann, and intending to cast Audrey Hepburn and Alec Guinness as leads. But Zinnemann had fought with United Artists a few years before the film was made and left the production to go to England, to work on A Man for All Seasons . Director George Roy Hill was subsequently asked to work on the film, which he agreed to do, and the film became the only epic he directed. To cast the lead roles, Julie Andrews, fresh from her role as the titular character in Mary Poppins , signed in December 1964 while Max Von Sydow and Richard Harris on February and March 1965 respectively. The film would also feature appearances from Henrik von Sydow and Claes von Sydow, the real sons of star Max von Sydow, who play Abner's son Micah at different ages.
The film was filmed in various locations throughout Oahu in the state of Hawaii, the perfect replica of Lahaina during the 1820s is built on Makua Beach and the surrounding Makua Valley. [4] Despite the Hawaiian setting and filming locations, a significant portion of the props used in the film were imported from Mexico, Taiwan, Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines. [5]
Principal Photography began in April 1965, on Location in Old Sturbridge Village for scenes set in Walpole, New Hampshire and the Hales' farm (Interiors were filmed in Hollywood soundstages for seven weeks, along with scenes set in Yale College and on board the Thetis). Then on location in the island of Oahu in Hawaii in June. Location filming in Oahu bogged down with heavy rain and tidal wave alerts, which caused the budget to balloon to over $10 million; despite this Producer Walter Mirisch sacked Hill as director, and intended to hire Arthur Hiller as director. Polynesian extras protested and refused to work with another director, so Hill was hired back. Principal Photography ended in November 1965.
Andrews received top billing around the world except in continental Europe, where Sydow's contract stipulated that he receive first and same line billing. [6]
Hawaii had its premiere at the DeMille Theatre in New York City on October 10, 1966. It also opened the same week at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. [7] [8] It expanded into five further cities the following week, including Honolulu, and another three the following week. [9]
The film as originally released ran 189 minutes (including overture, intermission, entr'acte, and exit music). This roadshow version would be issued on VHS and LaserDisc from the best available elements. For general release, this was then subsequently cut by United Artists to 161 minutes and is the version seen on the 2005 DVD release from MGM Home Video (as the best elements suitable for DVD came from the general release). Both versions have been broadcast on Turner Classic Movies and This TV Network.
On October 9, 2015, Twilight Time Movies announced on the Home Theater Forum that they would release a Blu-ray edition of Hawaii (along with The Hawaiians) on January 19, 2016. [10] The Hawaiians would be released the next month on February 9, 2016. The Hawaii Blu-ray has both the long and short versions, but the long, original version is in standard definition and not anamorphic widescreen.
The film's critical response was mixed. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that "one comes out the theater not so much moved as numbed — by the cavalcade of conventional if sometimes eyepopping scenes of storm and seascape, of pomp and pestilence, all laid out in large strokes of brilliant De Luxe color on the huge Panavision screen." [3] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety stated, "Superior production, acting and direction give depth and credibility to a personal tragedy, set against the clash of two civilizations." [11] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that even at three hours in length, the filmmakers "still haven't given themselves enough leeway" to adapt Michener's epic novel, but "'Hawaii' will still be one of the outstanding Hollywood pictures of 1966." [12]
Time magazine felt that "Instead of portraying the death of one culture and the birth of another, he [George Roy Hill] has restricted himself to the story of one man and his ministry. The spectator is rather too frequently allowed to feel that he is watching a rather small film on a very large screen and to wonder, with a mounting sense of lumbar crisis, why he must pay advanced prices $2.25 to $4.25) for the privilege of sitting through a 3+1⁄2-hour story that could have been told just as well in two." [13] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post found the romance between Abner and Jerusha "more trite than credible" and wrote that Max von Sydow "seems to have based his concept of the leading role on a quick course in Roots of Modern America." [14] Brendan Gill of The New Yorker called it "perhaps the biggest empty movie, or the emptiest big movie, ever made. Despite its length and its look of being extremely ambitious, it contains scarcely a single action worth dramatizing." [15] The Monthly Film Bulletin praised the "intelligent and literate" script and "deeply felt performances from the whole cast," but felt "a distinct slackening of interest" after the intermission, as once Malama dies "there is little left except for Jerusha to join her. The real drama is over, and a colorful local wedding hardly compensates for the lack of tension." [16]
The film holds a score of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews. [17]
After expanding to 10 cities, Hawaii reached number one at the US box office. [18] In its first seven weeks of release, it had grossed $1,545,688. [9] The film grossed $34.5 million in North America, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1966. It went on to earn $15.6 million in theatrical rentals. [19]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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Academy Awards [20] | Best Supporting Actress | Jocelyne LaGarde | Nominated |
Best Cinematography – Color | Russell Harlan | Nominated | |
Best Costume Design – Color | Dorothy Jeakins | Nominated | |
Best Original Music Score | Elmer Bernstein | Nominated | |
Best Song | "My Wishing Doll" Music by Elmer Bernstein; Lyrics by Mack David | Nominated | |
Best Sound | Gordon E. Sawyer | Nominated | |
Best Special Visual Effects | Linwood G. Dunn | Nominated | |
Golden Globe Awards [21] | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Max von Sydow | Nominated |
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Jocelyne LaGarde | Won | |
Best Original Score – Motion Picture | Elmer Bernstein | Won | |
Laurel Awards | Top Song | "My Wishing Doll" Music by Elmer Bernstein; Lyrics by Mack David | Nominated |
National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actor | Max von Sydow | Nominated |
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Oahu is the most populated and third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. The island of Oahu and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands constitute the City and County of Honolulu. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. In 2021 Oahu had a population of 995,638, up from 953,207 in 2010.
Lahaina is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. On the northwest coast of the island of Maui, it encompasses Lahaina town and the Kaanapali and Kapalua beach resorts. As of the 2020 census, Lahaina had a resident population of 12,702. The CDP spans the coast along Hawaii Route 30 from a tunnel at the south end, through Olowalu, and to the CDPs of Kaanapali and Napili-Honokowai to the north.
The ʻIolani Palace was the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi beginning with Kamehameha III under the Kamehameha Dynasty (1845) and ending with Queen Liliʻuokalani (1893) under the Kalākaua Dynasty, founded by her brother, King David Kalākaua. It is located in the capitol district of downtown Honolulu in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi. It is now a National Historic Landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, the building was used as the capitol building for the Provisional Government, Republic, Territory, and State of Hawaiʻi until 1969. The palace was restored and opened to the public as a museum in 1978. ʻIolani Palace is the only royal palace on US soil.
Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop KGCOK RoK was an aliʻi (noble) of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii and a well known philanthropist. At her death, her estate was the largest private landownership in the Hawaiian Islands, comprising approximately 9% of Hawaii's total area. The revenues from these lands are used to operate the Kamehameha Schools, which were established in 1887 according to Pauahi's will. Pauahi was married to businessman and philanthropist Charles Reed Bishop.
Mauna ʻAla in the Hawaiian language, is the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii and the final resting place of Hawaii's two prominent royal families: the Kamehameha Dynasty and the Kalākaua Dynasty.
Jocelyne Bredin LaGarde was a Native Tahitian actress who became famous for her first and only acting role in the 1966 motion picture, Hawaii, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
A heiau is a Hawaiian temple. Made in different architectural styles depending upon their purpose and location, they range from simple earth terraces, to elaborately constructed stonen platforms. There are heiau to treat the sick, offer first fruits, offer first catch, start rain, stop rain, increase the population, ensure the health of the nation, achieve success in distant voyaging, reach peace, and achieve success in war (luakini).
Kalanikauikaʻalaneo Kai Keōpūolani-Ahu-i-Kekai-Makuahine-a-Kama-Kalani-Kau-i-Kealaneo (1778–1823) was a queen consort of Hawaiʻi and the highest ranking wife of King Kamehameha I.
The Hawaiians, released in the UK as Master of the Islands, is a 1970 United States historical epic based on the 1959 novel Hawaii by James A. Michener. Starring Charlton Heston at the head of an ensemble cast, the two and one-half hour saga was directed by Tom Gries from a screenplay by James R. Webb. Tina Chen received a Golden Globe best supporting actress nomination.
Kaniakapūpū, known formerly as Luakaha, is the ruins of the former summer palace of King Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Built in the 1840s, and situated in the cool uplands of the Nuʻuanu Valley, it served as the king and queen's summer retreat after the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii moved from Lahaina to Honolulu in 1845. It was famous for being the site of a grand luau attended by an estimated ten thousand guests during the 1847 Hawaiian Sovereignty Restoration Day celebration. The palace had fallen into ruins by 1874; no records exist about its condition in the intervening years. Rediscovered in the 1950s, the site was cleared and efforts were made to stabilize the ruins from further damage by the elements and invasive plant growth. The site remains officially off-limits to the public and trespassers are subjected to citations, although the site is not regularly monitored.
Kameʻeiamoku was a Hawaiian high chief and the Counselor of State to King Kamehameha I. He was called Kamehameha's uncle, but he was really the cousin of Kamehameha's mother, Kekuiapoiwa II.
Kalaninuiamamao was a prince of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, or 1st Aliʻi Nui of Kaʻū, an ancestor of the Queen Liliuokalani. He is probably the Hawaiian chief with the most varied spelling of his name.
The island of Maui with a relatively central location has given it a pivotal role in the history of the Hawaiian Islands.
The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands which existed from 1795 to 1893. It was established during the late 18th century when Hawaiian chief Kamehameha I, from the island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi, and unified them under one government. In 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were fully unified when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau voluntarily joined the Hawaiian Kingdom. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom, the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.
Dwight Baldwin was an American Christian missionary and medical doctor on Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands, during the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was patriarch of a family that founded some of the largest businesses in the islands.
Lorrin Andrews was an early American missionary to Hawaii and judge. He opened the first post-secondary school for Hawaiians called Lahainaluna Seminary, prepared a Hawaiian dictionary and several works on the literature and antiquities of the Hawaiians. His students published the first newspaper, and were involved in the first case of counterfeiting currency in Hawaii. He later served as a judge and became a member of Hawaii's first Supreme Court.
Waiola Church and Cemetery in Lāhainā is the site of a historic mission established in 1823 on the island of Maui in Hawaiʻi. Originally called Waineʻe Church until 1953, the cemetery is the final resting place for early members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Ulumāheihei Hoapili was a member of the nobility during the formation of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was a trusted military and political advisor to King Kamehameha I, known as "Kamehameha the Great". Although trusted with one of the last symbolic rites of the Hawaiian religion, he later became a supporter of Christian missionaries.
Ke AliʻiKilinahe was a kaukau aliʻi noble who served under the ruling ali'i nui of the islands of Hawaii, Maui and Oahu, during the Kingdom of Hawaii. He is of the House of Moana and a collateral family of the House of Kamehameha. He performed his hana lawelawe or "service task" under Ka'ahumanu and Kamehameha III, starting as a kāhili bearer and royal attendant. He was brought into the Royal Court by Charles Kanaina to assume all of his duties and responsibilities. He toured Oahu with the Royal Circuit and managed the chief's goods. Kilinahe, in the Hawaiian language, means "light rain".
Jonah Kapena, also spelled Iona Kapena, was a royal advisor and statesman in the Kingdom of Hawaii who helped draft the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii. In addition to his legislative career as a member of the House of Nobles, he also served as a judge and became an assistant judge of Hawaii's first Supreme Court.