The Hawaiians (film)
Encyclopedia
The Hawaiians is a 1970
American
historical film based on the novel Hawaii
by James A. Michener
. It was directed by Tom Gries
with a screenplay by James R. Webb
. The cast included Charlton Heston
as Whipple Hoxworth, and Geraldine Chaplin
. The performance by Tina Chen
led to a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actress.
The film was based on the book's later chapters, which covered the arrival of the Chinese and Japanese and the growth of the plantations. The third chapter of the book had been made into a film Hawaii
earlier in 1966.
to find his grandfather has died and left his fortune to Hoxworth's cousin, Micah Hale (Alec McCowen
). Hoxworth, the black sheep of his otherwise very conservative and disapproving family, starts a plantation, staffing it with newly-arrived Chinese indentured servants Nyuk Tsin (Tina Chen) and her man Mun Ki (Mako).
Mun Ki fathers children with Nyuk Tsin, all the while dreaming of returning to China and his wife. Nyuk Tsin, named "Wu Chow's Auntie" to support the fiction that Mun Ki's spouse is the real mother of the children, has other ideas.
Whip steals valuable pineapple
s from French Guiana in the hope that they will grow in Hawaii. He gives the forlorn plants to Wu Chow's Auntie, knowing that she has a "green thumb". When she succeeds in nurturing the plants into flourishing, the overjoyed Whip offers to buy her some land as a reward. Over Mun Ki's opposition, she accepts. This is the first step in the rise of both Whip and Wu Chow's Auntie, as well as the pineapple industry in Hawaii.
Meanwhile, Whip marries native Hawaiian Purity (Geraldine Chaplin) and has a son with her. However, because of her royal, inbred background, she is mentally fragile. Eventually, her mind gives way, and she can no longer abide to live with Whip. Their son Noel (John Phillip Law
) grows to manhood with an uneasy relationship with his father.
When Mun Ki contracts leprosy
, Wu Chow's Auntie accompanies him to the leper colony
on Molokai
. Upon Mun Ki's death years later, she returns to be reunited and reacquainted with her now-grown, educated, and prospering children.
A complication arises when Noel falls in love with Wu Chow's Auntie's only daughter. Neither parent approves of the idea of the marriage, but in the end, they grudgingly accept it.
called it a "movie with reasonable claims to having something for almost everybody", with "spectacle" that proceeds with "efficient and attractive modesty"; he complimented the director's craftsmanship and highlighted the performances of John Phillip Law
and Charlton Heston
, but said "Geraldine Chaplin
offers only a disturbing evocation of her father's
face, without the other qualities of his presence." He calls Tina Chen
"not remarkable" even though she has a "role almost equal to Heston's."
Time
magazine was even less complimentary, saying "The plot is laced with the usual colonial tensions and pretensions: Hoxworth feuds with a polyglut of races while his pineapple princess (Geraldine Chaplin) goes quietly mad. Every time the pace slackens, which is often, someone goes to sea, either to pick up field hands or to transport lepers to Molokai
. The incessant ebb and flow is intended as a metaphor for the turbulent tides of Hawaiian life. But the real metaphor here is the pineapple, which in the good old gangster days was a synonym for bomb
.
Tina Chen
received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress
. Bill Thomas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historical film based on the novel Hawaii
Hawaii (novel)
Hawaii is a novel by James Michener published in 1959. Written in episodic format like many of Michener's works, the book narrates the story of the original Hawaiians who sailed to the islands from Bora Bora, the early American missionaries and merchants, and the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who...
by James A. Michener
James A. Michener
James Albert Michener was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating historical facts into the stories...
. It was directed by Tom Gries
Tom Gries
Thomas S. "Tom" Gries was an American TV and film director, writer and producer....
with a screenplay by James R. Webb
James R. Webb (writer)
James R. Webb was an American writer. He won an Academy Award in 1963 for How the West Was Won.Webb was born in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Stanford University in 1930...
. The cast included Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
as Whipple Hoxworth, and Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
. The performance by Tina Chen
Tina Chen
Tina Chen is a Chinese American actress best known for her appearances in the films Alice's Restaurant, Three Days of the Condor and The Hawaiians....
led to a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actress.
The film was based on the book's later chapters, which covered the arrival of the Chinese and Japanese and the growth of the plantations. The third chapter of the book had been made into a film Hawaii
Hawaii (film)
Hawaii is a 1966 American film directed by George Roy Hill and based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener. It tells the story of an 1820s Yale University divinity student who, along with his new bride , becomes a Calvinist missionary in the Hawaiian Islands...
earlier in 1966.
Plot
Whipple "Whip" Hoxworth (Charlton Heston) returns home to HawaiiHawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
to find his grandfather has died and left his fortune to Hoxworth's cousin, Micah Hale (Alec McCowen
Alec McCowen
Alexander Duncan "Alec" McCowen CBE is an English actor. He is known for his work in numerous film and stage productions. He was awarded the CBE in the 1985 New Year's Honours List.-Personal:...
). Hoxworth, the black sheep of his otherwise very conservative and disapproving family, starts a plantation, staffing it with newly-arrived Chinese indentured servants Nyuk Tsin (Tina Chen) and her man Mun Ki (Mako).
Mun Ki fathers children with Nyuk Tsin, all the while dreaming of returning to China and his wife. Nyuk Tsin, named "Wu Chow's Auntie" to support the fiction that Mun Ki's spouse is the real mother of the children, has other ideas.
Whip steals valuable pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
s from French Guiana in the hope that they will grow in Hawaii. He gives the forlorn plants to Wu Chow's Auntie, knowing that she has a "green thumb". When she succeeds in nurturing the plants into flourishing, the overjoyed Whip offers to buy her some land as a reward. Over Mun Ki's opposition, she accepts. This is the first step in the rise of both Whip and Wu Chow's Auntie, as well as the pineapple industry in Hawaii.
Meanwhile, Whip marries native Hawaiian Purity (Geraldine Chaplin) and has a son with her. However, because of her royal, inbred background, she is mentally fragile. Eventually, her mind gives way, and she can no longer abide to live with Whip. Their son Noel (John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law was an American film actor with over one hundred movie roles to his credit. He was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law .He was best known for his roles as the blind angel Pygar in the science fiction cult...
) grows to manhood with an uneasy relationship with his father.
When Mun Ki contracts leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
, Wu Chow's Auntie accompanies him to the leper colony
Leper colony
A leper colony, leprosarium, or lazar house is a place to quarantine leprous people.-History:Leper colonies or houses became widespread in the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe and India, and often run by monastic orders...
on Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
. Upon Mun Ki's death years later, she returns to be reunited and reacquainted with her now-grown, educated, and prospering children.
A complication arises when Noel falls in love with Wu Chow's Auntie's only daughter. Neither parent approves of the idea of the marriage, but in the end, they grudgingly accept it.
Reception
Writing for The New York Times, Roger GreenspunRoger Greenspun
Roger Greenspun was an American journalist and noted film critic. He is best known for his work with The New York Times in which he reviewed near 400 films, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for Penthouse in which he was a columnist throughout much of the late 1970s and 1980s...
called it a "movie with reasonable claims to having something for almost everybody", with "spectacle" that proceeds with "efficient and attractive modesty"; he complimented the director's craftsmanship and highlighted the performances of John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law was an American film actor with over one hundred movie roles to his credit. He was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law .He was best known for his roles as the blind angel Pygar in the science fiction cult...
and Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, but said "Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
offers only a disturbing evocation of her father's
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
face, without the other qualities of his presence." He calls Tina Chen
Tina Chen
Tina Chen is a Chinese American actress best known for her appearances in the films Alice's Restaurant, Three Days of the Condor and The Hawaiians....
"not remarkable" even though she has a "role almost equal to Heston's."
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine was even less complimentary, saying "The plot is laced with the usual colonial tensions and pretensions: Hoxworth feuds with a polyglut of races while his pineapple princess (Geraldine Chaplin) goes quietly mad. Every time the pace slackens, which is often, someone goes to sea, either to pick up field hands or to transport lepers to Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
. The incessant ebb and flow is intended as a metaphor for the turbulent tides of Hawaiian life. But the real metaphor here is the pineapple, which in the good old gangster days was a synonym for bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
.
Tina Chen
Tina Chen
Tina Chen is a Chinese American actress best known for her appearances in the films Alice's Restaurant, Three Days of the Condor and The Hawaiians....
received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
. Bill Thomas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Home Media
The Hawaiians was released on a home video format (DVD) for the first time on January 28, 2011, as part of the MGM Limited Edition Collection series.External links
- The Hawaiians, video on demandVideo on demandVideo on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
from HuluHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...