Customer Reviews

The Hawaiians [Region 2]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I, too, am irritated that the only available copies of "The Hawaiians" are in the Spanish format and can't be played on American machines. I remember seeing this back in the 1970s and loving it. What neither of the other reviews I've read here mention is that it is primarily the story of two young Chinese who are brought to Hawaii to work on Charlton Heston's plantation. They are played (wonderfully) by Tina Chen and a very young Mako. They eventually marry and have five sons. When Mako's character contracts leprosy and is sent to the leper colony on Molokai, his wife follows him there, stays with him and nurses him till he dies, then returns and begins (through clever investment, saving of every penny and a brilliant business sense) to build an empire of her own. When one of her sons responds to one of her suggestions with "I'm sorry - That's impossible," she draws herself up and fiercely spits back "Impossible come back from Molokai!" (A genuine friendship gradually builds between this remarkable woman and Charlon Heston's character - based on mutual respect for each other's ambition and determination.)
It's the third section of Mitchner's "Hawaii" book, which deals with ALL the cultures (Polynesian, New Englanders, Chinese and Japanese) who eventually created the "Golden Men" - the modern Hawaiians.

This is the sequel to the movie Hawaii with Julie Andrews. I saw this just last year on T.V. and it' a movie about the eldest Hale son who comes back to Hawaii after attending college where his grandparents lived. He deals with the Chinese workers and their culture, and becomes one of the first pineapple growers there. This is a good movie about he early lepers, and how they were dumped on Molokai, and left until their dying days there. It's too bad they don't make this for the real Hawaiians to see, after all, people in Spain could care less about Hawaiian history! This movie needs to be formatted for the U.S., where the movie is originally made to begin with. We want a copy of this on DVD too, but can't find it anywhere except here, where it's not only in Spanish, but in a different code, so it can't be played on our DVD players in the United States. What's up with that? If you live in the U.S., don't buy this DVD from this company, it won't play on your DVD player. This is an excellent movie, and we all want to view it too!

Isn't it crazy how you can only get this film on DVD from Spain, and with a Region 2 ratio slapped on it so that unless you've got a multi-region player you won't be able to view any of THE HAWAIIANS? Well boys and girls, remember, this is the sequel to HAWAII, and you'll recall the trouble we had seeing that one in proper form for so many years, and if truth be told the correct roadshow version is still out of print, and the version on DVD is still the same old cut print pretty much, spruced up a little of course.

In the case of THE HAWAIIANS, it is amusing to listen to this film with the Spanish track turned up. The actors on screen are speaking a combination of languages, and certainly Charlton Heston and Geraldine Chaplin do not sound like they're from the same country, and by the way has anyone ever been able to figure out what country John Philip Law is from? (I know it's some angelic space like Venus.) Heston must have felt a sense of deja vu for his role, that of the autocratic owner of a pineapple plantation, is markedly similar to the part he played in the superior NAKED JUNGLE of 1954 with Eleanor Parker as the mail order bride, and an army of red killer ants besides. Heston is supposed to be playing the grandson of Richard Harris (in the first HAWAII), and Chaplin is sort of a princess type who intermarries with the Hoxworth clan and suffers a severe nervous breakdown when exposed to Heston's domineering ways. You can tell a lot about a character when his name is "WHIP"!

The music is by Henry Mancini in his best THORN BIRDS mode with plenty of lush, melodic themes and a hint of native percussion.

Whip goes head to head with the incredibly evil Alec McCowen. If you like your Charlie Chan movies you will be thrilled to see Son #1 (Keye Luke) and Son #2 (the luscious Victor Sen Yung) both in the same picture! And if you press the right button you can hear them both speaking heavy Spanish.

MGM has now joined the ranks of movies-on-demand marketing, and have released THE HAWAIIANS as of February 2011 on DVD-R. The print is in very good shape and the transfer is anamorphic scope (2:35 to 1 for 16X9 televisions) with 2-track monaural audio. A 4X3 trailer for television is the only extra. The mastering could use some improvement as there is very noticeable ghosting in the image, particularly during the title sequence where double-edges appear on the credits and long shots of the ship's rigging - apparently too much sharpening as been executed on the image, although grain is readily apparent in the print. These presentation artifacts tends to be more annoying the larger the viewing screen. Columbia-Sony and Warner Archive MOD titles appear far more impressive than this first string of Fox-MGM releases for 2011.
The film itself is more worthy than the DVD-R presentation. It's a first-rate effort to continue United Artists big-budget attempt at the gigantic Michener novel. Heston is perfectly suited to carry on the Hoxworth patriarchy representing white imperialism on the islands; but it is the secondary, Oriental family saga that dominates and enriches the film. Tina Chen steals the show, but all the performances are excellent, and the evocative, Henry Mancini score is introduced by one of the great main-title sequences.

The quality of this dvd is terrible. Very hard to get it to start and when it does you cannot use the functions of the player such as fast forward. reverse, ETC. I have purchased hundreds of dvd,s but not like this one.

I was lucky enough to catch The Hawaiians movie on Turner Classic Movies a while back. Since that time I have been trying to buy the english version. After reading everyone's comments I decided to search Turner Classic Movies and POOF I found it at Movies Unlimited. Here is the link:

[...]

If the link doesn't work just google Turner Classic Movies. Once there search for The Hawaiians.

Enjoy! I sure will.

Some of these MGM on demand DVD's have been very nice, but this one has very poor quality. There is extreme ghosting in the image. Chuck Heston looks like he has two noses in an early scene! Even the MGM Home Video logo looks terrible. Probably wouldn't be too horrible on a really small television, but this is a mess on bigger screens. Avoid it. They need to re-author this DVD. It's amazing this got released.

I remember seeing this film when it was released nearly 40 years ago. Fine performances by Charlton Heston as Whip Hale ("I pity the pious, they can be bastards and never even know it."), Tina Chen and Mako. An interesting chapter in the history of the Hawaiian islands -- the introduction of the pineapple, workers from China and Japan. Well worth viewing -- if you could!

The film is still enjoyable, doesn't seem dated. Other reviewers note the ghosting and quality of image, some saying it should only be viewed on smaller screens, but I found it to be, with the exception of a few short scenes, clear and sharp. Considering that I viewed it on a front projector system using a 12 food diagonal screen, I'd say that only the most critical viewers will object to the picture quality and those who are willing to accept small compromizes in order to add this film to their collections will be well pleased.

The hawaiians dvd is very clear, i was able to see a
great movie, i have no complaint on the film i give
it five stars.