To me, this movie is perfection.

Just perfect...

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

South Pacific (1958): Dir: Joshua Logan / Cast: Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall: Colorful scenery highlights this musical about the distractions life can issue when turmoil looms. The war against Japan is in full but one island off the Pacific holds a private paradise. Rossano Brazzi plays Emile de Becque, a good man who fled from France after accidentally killing a man. He is sought after for his military background for a mission. Mitzi Gaynor plays Ensign Nellie Forbush, a nurse who has a romantic fling with Emile but is troubled when she is asked to seek out information on him. John Kerr plays Lieutenant Joseph Cable who has just arrived on the island and ready for service but is sighted for a romance. Ray Walston provides comic relief as Luthor Billis, who ends up in dangerous situations while he only desires to quest to another island to enjoy the paradise offered there. Juanita Hall plays Bloody Mary who provides a welcome entertainment to the soldiers while suiting Joseph Cable up with her daughter. The scenery is stunning but the musical numbers are hardly memorable and are mostly dubbed. Director Joshua Logan paints the scene with luscious colors that highlight a theme that reminds viewers that while life presents its share of trauma, there is always the calm after the storm that momentarily distracts us. Score: 9 / 10

Two love stories, each involving an American and a non-American, occurring in some unnamed small island grouping in the SW Pacific, near Japanese-held Solomon Islands, in WWII, form the 'heart' of this R&H musical. The two love affairs are based on two different stories from James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific". Some other aspects of the screenplay are derived from some other 'tales'. Near the end, looks like both these romances will fizzle because of indirect racial prejudice. Specifically American navy nurse Nellie(Mitzi Gaynor) discovers that her beau : middle-aged wealthy French expatriate Emile, has two children from a deceased Polynesian wife, which she cannot emotionally accept. Meanwhile, Lt. Cable, after an erotic whirlwind romance with young Tonkinese(Vietnamese)Liat, whose mother(Bloody Mary) was brought to this island by French colonialists, implies he can't marry her because she wouldn't be accepted by his upper crust family and friends , back in the US. The film ending suggests that Nellie eventually overcame her emotional prejudice sufficiently to marry Emile, who unexpectedly arrives back from a dangerous war mission he barely survived. After, initially rejecting taking part in this mission, because he was sure he would die, he signed up after Nellie told him she decided not to marry him. Lt. Cable decided he would remain in this area after the war, implying that he now felt he could marry Liat. However, he never got the chance, as he was killed on this mission. Thus, this secondary romance, as in the case of the secondary romance in the subsequent "The King and I", has a tragic ending, with the fate of the girl undetermined. Actually, in Michener's story, Emile had 8 children, all illegitimate, from several mothers: some Asian , other Polynesian or perhaps Melanesian. It is the latter than Nellie cannot accept, initially.The racial and location aspects are rather disjointed and confusing. We have light-skinned mulatto Juanita Hall playing a Vietnamese. Her daughter, Liat, is played by part Vietnamese France Nuyen. The people, dances and costumes at the Bali Ha'i festival suggest a mix of Polynesians and Melanesians present : an unlikely mix. Probably , the location is meant to be in the (then) New Hebrides, to the south of the Solomon Islands, where the nearby Japanese are. The New Hebrides were a joint protectorate of France and the UK, with the natives nearly all Melanesians. Michener met an old lady there, called Bloody Mary, who was imported by the French from Vietnam, to work the plantations there. This is the origin of the character in the film. Contrary to the general assumption that Bali Ha'i was named after the Bali in Indonesia, it was actually named after a family pig that Michener happened across in his tour of the South Pacific!Emile explains that he was motivated to emigrate from France to this isolated island group after a brawl with the village bully, in which the bully died accidentally. He was generally considered a hero, but not by the judicial system. Thus, he hopped a freighter and eventually landed here. During this screenplay, he becomes a much greater hero by guiding the mission to spy on the Japanese in the Solomons.Nearly all the featured singing was dubbed, except for Mitzi Gaynor's several songs. Even true for Juanita Hall, who actually sang her parts in the stage version. The other leads were replaced from the Broadway version. Ezio Pinza, as Emile, had since died, and Mary Martin, as Nellie, was consider too old, especially since there is some discussion on the pros and cons of marrying an older man. Her mother favored it, but Lt. Cable didn't. Thus, after "The Cock-eyed Optimist" is seduced, as Emile sings "Some Enchanting Evening", she has a moment of doubt, expressed as "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair", as she is washing her hair, followed by a quickly reconsidered "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy", when Emile appears : my favorite of her musical performances. The extensive lyrics of the first major song "There is Nothing Like a Dame" I found clever, as expressed by several SeaBees. But, the most memorable song for me is the haunting "Bali Ha'i", which most succinctly expresses the charm and mystery of these islands and their native peoples.After 3 very successful stage productions or films scripted as taking place within the US, and involving only Caucasians in the cast, R&H did 3 very successful plays, followed by film adaptations, scripted as taking place far from the continental US. South Pacific still included a dominating Caucasian American presence among the characters, but included several other ethnic groups. The later "King and I" and "The Sound of Music" lacked any significant American characters. The dominating American military presence, along with the spectacular tropical settings, periodic inclusion of exotic cultures and a variety of memorable songs makes for a memorable film that Americans could easily identify with. However, the periodic extreme use of color filters(red, yellow or blue) I found quite disconcerting. Also, the depiction of the mission to assess the Japanese in the Solomons is quite amateurish and overblown...The romance between Cable and Liat seems forced and all too spontaneous, initially. Obviously, Liat was coached by her mother to immediately fall for Cable, as the most available US naval officer.

I'm sorry but I found this movie 'corny', not entertaining and the vocal performances were not what I call good. Some of the songs performed in the show, themselves, are good tunes when performed by more talented vocalists. One such song is "Some Enchanted Evening". I guess I'm just not a very big fan of any of the 'stars' either. There would have been other picks for the castings in this show that would have probably made it much better. Why this show got such a high rating of 7 stars is beyond me. Maybe I'm at fault here but I just don't credit it as a good musical either in script or performances. Of course that was a different era!

I have always had a soft spot for this musical, as I recall my parents (my mother, especially) playing the original LP over and over. My uncle, who served in the Navy in the South Pacific during WWII, loved it, too. The Blu-ray transfer is breath-taking and it is fun to see the restored version (though for those bits, the picture quality is quite faded). Yes, it's old fashioned, yes, it's a bit creaky, and, yes, those filters are a little strange, but just listen to that glorious R&H score, look at the beautiful scenery, and immerse yourself in excellent performances, and you have be taken away. I am a fan of Mitzi Gaynor, though many feel that Doris Day should have played the role. Doris could have done it justice, no doubt, but Mitzi had a wide-eyed freshness, excellent voice, and believability that was refreshing. They don't make musicals like this any more and I'll take this any day over most of the frenetic musicals of today (with their unmelodic scores).