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4.0 out of 5 stars
Julie suffers in edited version of epic, July 15, 2005
In the mid 1960's, Julie Andrews was the biggest movie star the world. Her success came on the strength of two block busters, 1964's "Mary Poppins" and 1965's "The Sound Of Music", the two films for which she will be forever identified. However, her body of film work in the 1960's, though only 7 films in all is impressive in it's scope and content. Of these films, one of the best and most successful was the epic "Hawaii".
The film tells the story of a zealous but misguided missionary, Abner Hale (Max von Sydow) and his loving, forthright wife Jerusha (Julie Andrews) who try to bring Christianity to the native Hawaiians. Both von Sydow and Andrews give magnificent performances, bringing humanity to two characters that could have been cardboard, stock figures in less talented hands. Indeed, these two characterisations work well because of each other with the unsympathetic Hale coming off as human after all due to being loved by his wife. Together, von Sydow and Andrews make an impressive team. The cast is rounded out beautifully by a raft of excellent players including Richard Harris, Gene Hackman, Carol O'Connor and even Bette Midler in her first film as an extra on the ship headed for Hawaii.
When the film was originally released, it was as a 189 minute roadshow production with overture, intermission, entr'acte and exit music. The film was later presented in an edited, 161 minute version. It is this version that has been released on DVD. This begs the question, what's missing from the DVD version?
The majority of cuts appear in the film's first half with entire scenes being removed. The second half is virtually intact with only some trimming of scenes. The deleted scenes in the films first half are as follows:
At 0:15:37 Hale says goodbye to his family
At 0:27:06 After her wedding to Hale, Jerusha says goodbye to her little sister prior to leaving for Hawaii
At 0:35:26 On the voyage to Hawaii, Hale makes a convert in the crew
At 0:35:44 The Captain charts the course and large bunches of bananas are brought on board
At 0:37:30 Hale force feeds a seasick Jerusha bananas
At 0:38:30 Hale condemns the convert he made among the crew because of drunkenness
At 0:39:21 The Captain requests Hale's prayers prior to sailing through the Evangels
At 0:46:05 The Captain throws his novels overboard (his part of a deal with Hale for praying in the ship's behalf) followed by Jerusha throwing the bananas overboard
At 1:16:12 Sister Hewlett dies after giving birth
At 1:17:57 Hale assures Jerusha that he can deliver her baby and that she will not die in childbirth
At 1:52:50 Hale recovers in bed after a shark bite and Jerusha tells him that a wife needs to be loved not worshipped (final scene in the first half of the roadshow version)
There are also some trimmed scenes in the first half such as the farewell scene prior to Hale and Jerusha leaving for Hawaii as well as the elimination of the entr'acte.
It is Julie Andrews' Jerusha that suffers most at the hands of the editor. Some of her most powerful acting (the force feeding scene and her subsequent reaction to this in throwing the bananas overboard and calling her husband a bully, and again when she walks out on her husband's sermon when he condemns the incestuous marriage of the new Queen, for example) was removed. The result of this it to make one of Julie's most absorbing characterisation seem less moving and less three dimensional. In the full version, Jerusha is a devoted wife but is also capable of standing up to her husband and asserting her own personality and beliefs. The shorter version presents less of this side of her character and leaves Jerusha as a submissive wife with a bully of a husband. However, Julie Andrews is incapable of a bad or uncommitted performance and even in the edited version is at the top of her game matching von Sydow's Hale (a more flashy character) every step of the way.
Here's hoping that M-G-M will eventually release a fully restored DVD of the roadshow version to show what a fine film this really is and let us see the complete performances of two great actors, Andrews and von Sydow.
My recommendation: it's worth a look in its edited form but would have been better is presented complete.
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