Hawaii (1966 film)
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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).
Plot
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.
Cast
- Julie Andrews as Jerusha Bromley Hale
- Max von Sydow as Reverend Abner Hale
- Richard Harris as Capt. Rafer Hoxworth
- Gene Hackman as Dr. John Whipple
- Carroll O'Connor as Charles Bromley
- Jocelyne LaGarde as Aliʻi Nui, Malama Kanakoa
- Manu Tupou as Prince Keoki Kanakoa, narrator in the prologue
- Ted Nobriga as Prince Kelolo Kanakoa
- Elizabeth Logue as Noelani Kanakoa
- John Cullum as Rev. Immanuel Quigley
- George Rose as Capt. Janders
- Lou Antonio as Rev. Abraham Hewlett
- Torin Thatcher as Rev. Dr. Thorn
- Michael Constantine as Mason, sailor
- Malcolm Atterbury as Gideon Hale
- Diane Sherry as Charity Bromley
- Lokelani S. Chicarell as Iliki
- Robert Oakley as Micah Hale (4 years old)
- Henrik von Sydow as Micah Hale (7 years old)
- Claes von Sydow as Micah Hale (12 years old)
- Bertil Weriefelt as Micah Hale (18 years old)
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.
