Directed by George Roy Hill
Abner Hale, a rigid and humorless New England missionary, marries the beautiful Jerusha Bromley and takes her to the exotic island kingdom of Hawaii, intent on converting the natives. But the clash between the two cultures is too great and instead of understanding there comes tragedy.
Hawaï, Havaí, Гавайи, Гаваї, Хавай, Хаваји, 夏威夷, 하와이, Hawaje, Havaj
USA 
Germany12 Germany USA 
There’s an inverse proportionality between how much I want to visit Hawaii and how much I want to revisit the movie Hawaii 😒
“When Captain Cook discovered these islands fifty years ago, they were a true paradise. Infectious disease was unknown. They didn’t even catch cold. There were 400,000 of them, now there are less than 150,000. You and I may well live to see the last Hawaiian lowered into his grave. With proper Christian services, of course.”
Telling of the epoch when Christianity took root in Hawaii, the 1820’s, this film boasts a deep cast, attention to period details, and gorgeous cinematography at the Makua Valley, Oahu (though it’s set in Lahaina, Maui). It’s got the first indigenous person ever nominated for an Academy Award, Jocelyne LaGarde, playing the role of a queen based on Kaʻahumanu, who converted to Christianity in 1824…
*WAY* too long and boring and ever so problematic. The performances were enough to validate spending three hours watching this and the visuals are breathtaking. If I had to watch it again, I’d definitely want to see it remastered.
Julie Andrews & Jocelyne LaGarde were bright points for me. Von Sydow is actually quite good here too. Just not likable.. at all..
It’s colonialist at best. And it’s not a good look. All white men have is the audacity to think they’re so much better than anyone who doesn’t look like them.
An impressive assemblage of Hollywood talent comes together to make an epic mondo costume drama and thereby get paid. Hawaii was the second-highest grossing film of 1966, and was something of a unique stopping point for quite a lot of people. George Roy Hill, more notable for directing films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, leads the way in his only big-budget epic production. Max von Sydow stars in one of his earliest mainstream Hollywood roles. Julie Andrews solidifies her position after bursting onto the scene in the prior two years in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Gene Hackman is here in one of his earliest roles. And is that Archie Bunker I spy?…
If you wanted to look at Max von Sydow, Julie Andrews, Richard Harris, and Gene Hackman in their early-to-mid 30s in a super wide Panavision shot epic about 19th century missionaries colonizing Hawaii, then this film has exactly what you're looking for. Hawaii was the highest grossing film of 1966 in North America, an era where the Hollywood of Old was on the death vine, right before the Hollywood of New was about to take off, which probably helps to explain why a film like Hawaii can be the most forgotten #1 film of the box office year, maybe ever?
too long, too racist, too colonialist, too boring, too shit.
Thanks to screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and director George Roy Hill, "Hawaii" is a pleasure to watch almost 60 years after its theatrical release. Max von Sydow is excellent as a Calvinist pastor committed to a literal reading of the Holy Scriptures. The filmmakers are careful not to confuse the colonialism of religious thought with colonialism as we commonly understand it: the imposition of a new economy and the encroachment of a new culture that prefers to replace the old one rather than attempt the assimilation of indigenous and local values with the ones they bring.
Only for the most curious among us.
Perhaps a mistake to observe our two protagonists in their family environs at the beginning of the picture, since Max von Sydow is the only one of his family with a Swedish accent and Julie Andrews is the only one of her family with an English accent. But since thereafter we have Julie's crisp diction and Max's growly tones, we will forgive any degree of dubious parental provenance.
Hawaii is very much Max's movie, Julie mostly relegated to looking concerned and progressively rather sickly, and Rev. von Sydow is tremendous as the preacher who could do with a smidge more humanity to leaven his godfearingness. Richard Harris gets a sizeable paycheque for turning up on a tropical beach and doing…
An epic motion picture which stands head and shoulders above all others, from its opening prologue of the incipient Hawaiian's journey across the Pacific to escape from the cruel gods of Bora Bora to their subsequent enslavement by the pale Haoles from a far off country who steal their land, defile their women, and infect them with terrible diseases, all the while shaming them and their native customs in order to subjugate them to a Christian god who consigns them to Hellfire while simultaneously teaching them of the Christ who died for their sins.
Julie Andrews is unalloyed radiance, love, and forgiveness, while Max Von Sydow epitomizes the flip side of the Calvinist coin which judges his parishioners and finds…
George Roy Hill’s multi-Oscar-nominated drama in which missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands fight nature, disease and their own passions. Starring Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow and Richard Harris.
In the middle of the 1820s, a bossy young minister, Abner Hale (Max von Sydow), and his sympathetic wife (Julie Andrews), go on board a hazardous sea journey to Hawaii.
When they reach their destination, Jerusha helps the Hawaiian people and holds their taxes and philosophy, while Abner, committed on changing them to Christianity, sees them as pagan barbarians. Jerusha grows unfortunate with her marriage and starts to adore Rafer Hoxworth (Richard Harris), a previous lover.
Max von Sydow gives a very good performance in his role as the overbearing minister who…
The moral of this film is probably that it's better to live in a peaceful society rife with incest than it is to suffer the horrors of colonialism and Christianity. The most notable thing about it for me is probably that I knew Gene Hackman was in this but didn't recognise him. When I checked afterwards I still didn't think it was him. Otherwise this film is as expected. It's okay. Looks good but is very long.
My girlfriend and I are headed to Maui in a week, so this seemed like a convenient way to pop in a few days early. Even though this film got me there two centuries too soon of course. James A. Michener is a name my mom introduced me to quite early in life. She read a ton of his books growing up, losing herself in the episodic chronicles of exotic, faraway places. I only made it through two: “Alaska” and “Mexico”. The former is more representative of his style, a sweeping saga set over millennia that covers the geographical and historical aspects of the region through an ensemble of both historical and fictional characters. It’s revealing that this almost three-hour…
