hyped garbage

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I loved this new fresh version of what has to be the best Rodgers and Hammerstein movie. The songs are beautifully delivered and being on a smaller screen (poverty wins at last!) means that wrinkles, pan-cake don't show. I missed "Happy Talk" (hence 8/10) but loved the remake unreservedly, as the colour changes in the original drove me crazy as did the original Luther Billis. I thought that this version had been remade perfectly for modern audiences who weren't old enough to have gone to the stage production or who weren't reared on Mitzi Gaynor and co. Today's audiences don't want to sit for 3+ hours, and I felt that this captured the spirit of it without labouring on. No problems here with Glenn Close, and I thought she would have been an older woman (we can't all be under 30)anyway, career nurse etc, making it all so reasonable.

Glenn Close was far too old, couldn't sing, and did not look soft and sweetly naive, but rather brusque.The only other cast member almost as bad as Close was the actress who played "Bloody Mary." She was funny looking, could not sing, and seemed downright evil.Gone was the comedy, which was needed. Not having painted backdrops instead of sets was probably the only improvement on the original. Whoever was responsible for this seemed to be trying to screw up the story line as much as possible in the name of originality.It was AWFUL. I will be shocked if this one is EVER repeated. It should be destroyed.

Contrary to what some believe, no one awaited this remake of Josh Logan's 1958 masterpiece. Simply put, this TV version is a Navy garbage scow filled to overflowing with every manner of rotting refuse.Everything about this production stinks to the high heavens. The inexplicably rewritten and mangled script makes little sense from one scene to the next, much less as a whole. There is no magic, no romance, no wartime nostalgia, no, well, writing. The magnificent score, arguably Broadway's greatest, is watered down to near-Muzak levels, and is at times barely recognizable.Glen Close is a fine singer, but does little of interest with a lapful of jewels. The other principals appear apologetic for forcing people to put up with their singing IN A MUSICAL.The only bright spots were when the chorus, both the sailors and the nurses, sang. They had little worthwhile to do, but, boy, could they sing! I suspect the choral numbers were recorded by professional singers and lip-synched by the actors since the sound, particularly the soloists, was most unlike what one hears onstage anymore.If this had opened on Broadway in 1949, it would have died a quick and painful death within a week, and SOUTH PACIFIC would have been lost to the ages. And this abominable remake is equal to the other ABC/Disney tragedies of recent years--ANNIE, Cinderella and particularly THE MUSIC MAN, the second worst offender of the lot. They are to be avoided at all cost. Under no circumstances should anyone ever waste time watching these horror shows. I am certain their creators are rolling in their graves at their existence. ("Jerry Herman is alive." "The ANNIE remake will kill him.")

I think this version of the classic stage musical works very well. It manages to capture the drama and a lot of the comedy of the original stage play, as well as fleshing out the locations and presenting the character drama very well.I especially like the way that the musical numbers are presented "dramatically"; not just glorified pop songs that are tacked on to the storyline as in a lot of contemporary musical films (like EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU and even MOULIN ROUGE). It helps that the songs are purposely written for the story. The lyrics are delivered like dialogue that has been set to music, and I can tell the actors have been told to play their characters even through the song numbers.It's the main reason I think Glenn Close actually works as the lead female role here - even if she may be technically a bit old for the young love-lorn romantic; she certainly has the personality, and presents her role with enthusiasm; which goes along way in musical presentations.And Robert Pastorelli as the mischievous Luther is also very well-cast and has the right "feel" for the role; even if he isn't the sort you would normally associate with a classic musical role.As as an Aussie I have to congratulate Jack Thompson for playing the role of the Commander, who I think is one of the most underrated non-singing comic support roles in a musical. He puts a lot of personality in the role, and his balance or enthusiasm and dramatic gravitas was very well presented.Harry Connick Jnr is still one of my favourite modern singers, and he handled the military aspects and the romantic ballads very professionally. His personality seems somewhat subdued in this production; though I personally attribute that to the rather bland character that I think Cable is. I haven't seen any performance of this character I would regard as memorable.Overall a very high standard production that plays the story very well - and really kicks the stuffing out of the earlier film version, quite frankly.