Average Rating: 
Rating:  - More than a love story. And the music is great!
With the world a little shaky now, it's a real pleasure to be able to put on a DVD and take a trip down memory lane to 1958 when South Pacific was released in movie theaters. The Rogers and Hammerstein score sets the tone for this musical adaptation of the Broadway show that was based on Tales of the South Pacific" by James Mitchener.The story is set on an island in the South Pacific during WW2. The Japanese are entrenched in a nearby island and are bombing American forces that go near, but life is sweet for the G.I.s at the naval base. Mitzi Gaynor, cast as a nurse, is beginning a romance with an older distinguished French planter played by Rossano Brazzi. John Kerr is a young lieutenant who comes to the island to convince the planter to risk his life to spy for the Americans. And Juanita hall is the older native woman who pushes her daughter, the lovely France Nuyen, at John Kerr. The music is excellent and the words of the songs really do move the story along. The theme however, is more than a love story. It deals with racism and the tragedy of war too. And these themes are what held it all together for me. It's a great human statement surrounded by wonderful familiar melodies that I'm still humming this morning. I loved it. And I didn't even care that, with the exception of Rossano Brazzi and Ray Walston, whose role as a sailor who always has a scheme and adds some really funny comic relief to this tale of love and war, the acting in general was mediocre. Everyone else gave rather stilted performances, and Mitzi Gaynor might be pretty, but she can't quite show a wide range of emotion. Also, the songs were all dubbed and obviously so. But that was the way Hollywood did things in those days. It's also interesting to note what the standard for beauty was in 1958. With the exception of the dancers, it was youth alone and not workouts in the gym that shaped the actors' bodies. Narrow waists were in style for the women, but hips were allowed to flare naturally. I loved South Pacific in spite of its few faults. It was great entertainment even though it didn't make me forget the prospect of war. If you've never seen this film, don't miss it. And if you've seen it before, it's certainly worth a revisit. Highly recommended.
Rating: - South Pacific
In the summer of '59, I took my very first girl friend to see "South Pacific". It was playing at the Oneonta Theatre off Main St. in a small town in the Catskills. I really liked this girl and I loved the movie. Ever since I remembered it with great fondness. Popping it into the DVD player last night, it was thrilling to re-experience the beautiful music, the dynamic sound (sounding even better), the lush tropical settings, and the clean-cut characters of a simpler time (the terrifically handsome Brazzi resonating in Tozzi's operatic baritone, Mitzi Gaynor, the all-American girl-next-door, Kerr's quintessential young lieutenant, the gorgeous France Nuyen, Juanita Hall's magical Bloody Mary). All these things renewed my reverence for this superb movie musical. And watching it this time, sitting on the couch with my very last girl friend, it was as romantic an event as ever I remembered.
Rating: - It must be served better when seen in widescreen.
Before I begin, I just would like to correct a minor error on the part of the Amazon.com reviewer if I may. Juanita Hall actually did not sing in this movie. THough she starred and sang in the original Broadway show, she was dubbed in the movie by Muriel Smith, who played Bloody Mary in London. The dubbing, alas, in painfully obvious, since Hall's rather low speaking voice and Smith's high singing voice don't jive at all. (Everyone except for Mitzi Gaynor was dubbed, but more convincingly) And I agree that, yes, the performances and script, while pretty adequate, weren't quite as good as they could have been. But in spite of this, I don't think this film deserves the beating it's taken for years. The fact that I saw the widescreen edition of it may affect my opinion.Despite the film's flaws, should we really care or even notice them when we have that gorgeous, wonderfully orchestrated Rodgers and Hammerstein score to more than make up for every single one of them? The songs are the real stars here, and they are performed magnificently. The lush scenery of Hawaii also helps a great deal. I wasn't even bothered very much by the infamous colored filters. They caused my eyes to water a little bit at first, but I quickly got used to them and did not mind them at all. This film looks and sounds gorgeous, and that makes it okay in my book. I didn't even think about the film's flaws until near the end. Perhaps this is best served on widescreen. I'm sure it was great on Broadway, (The OBC recording grew on me after a couple of listens; at first, I didn't like it too much) but the film is fine, too, even in glorious Multicolor!
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