South Pacific

This version of South Pacific is not half bad....that's the good half. The other half is bad, very bad indeed.

You'll notice straight away there are actually black people in the navy and no one wears tighty-whities or midriff bearing t-shirts. Amen for that! But, hey, who had the bright idea of casting Glenn Close as a twenty-somthing? Oh yeah....GLENN CLOSE. Much too old for Nellie. I'd believe she's in her late thirties at the youngest. When she sings "Cockeyed Optimist" the pancake layers of white concealer is woefully apparent. (She and the other navy women wear these khaki slacks which are really unflattering to the hind region!) And what about the character of her love interest, Emile? This guy looks like the spazzed out postal worker who delivers my mail on a daily basis. I wouldn't believe for one minute he's wealthy or dashing!

Luther seems like a dude who just took a nasty fall out of 1984 and unwittingly stumbled into a reality show called "World War II". You almost feel sorry for him.

Most disappointing of all, however, was Bloody Mary. Everyone take cover and duck! She sounds like Roseanne Barr after an all nighter alcohol and heroin binge. Her singing voice? It's slightly better, with the attributes of a cat being painfully executed. Overall she just screams, "Am I Pacific-Islander enough? Am I offending as many people as I can?" How 'bout them lips on Cable?! There was a semidramatic close-up during the Bali Hai number where I thought those things were gonna come through the screen and smother me alive!

With that being said, let's not dwell any longer on the negative. As aforementioned, some aspects of the musical were well done. No weird purple and orange lighting, mostly good vocal performances, and better costumes made this worthwhile. Also, I noticed the musical numbers were sequenced differently (probably to make it faster paced). Even with the unfortunate absence of Stew Pot, I would watch it again!

While I had high hopes for this remake of South Pacific,I regret to say it fell far below My expectations.With a strong cast (including the much too old Glenn Close) I at least expected this film to be an improvement over the original Rosano Brazzi version.

The first problem was the cutting down of the supporting characters. Poor Jack Thompson,who was brilliantly cast as Capt. Brackett had all of his best moments left on the cutting room floor,Bloody Mary was unfairly deprived of "Happy Talk" and Robert Pastorelli's Billis did not get his wonderful scene in Brackett's office following the "diversionary tactics".

Secondly,the rearanging of the score blunted the emotional impact of some of Hammerstein's most heart wrenching moments. Having Cable sing "Carefully Taught" alone in his his Hospital room instead of to Emile blunts the songs impact. The same with Emile's "This Nearly Was Mine". For these songs to work they need another presence in the scene.

As for the acting. Glenn Close does her best but falls short of Mitzi Gaynor's on the money portrayal,Rade Serbedzija gives us a fine,sympathetic Emile and Equals,if not exceeds Brazzi's portrayal.Harry Connick is a great choice for Joe Cable and sings and acts his role well.Unfortunately the score was not recoreded lushly enough and some of the other vocals are a bit weak (Serbedzija's singing for example comes no where neat the immortal recording of Ezio Pinza.)The supporting cast does what it can whith their condensed roles but if would have been nice to have them fleshed out more. This film could have been a masterpiece if all the pieces were assembled properly,instead its a watchable but far from perfect screen adaptaion of a much better musical play.

This is what many cultured people should call "a true desecration of a classic." They ruined this musical from what it was supposed to be! Glenn Close is obviously far too old to be playing a twenty-something year old. She's a decent singer but her singing was terrible for this role. The filmmakers obviously needed to cast someone much younger who could sing. A young woman could carry this role convincingly, Glenn Close could not. Glenn Close was not at all convincing in this role because she was too old. Harry Connick Jr. was probably the best part of this whole desecration. He can carry a tune, but his singing is not the greatest.

Overall this movie was utter nonsense, and they trashed it up even! Why do filmmakers think that they can remake classics? These days filmmakers are stupid in thinking that they can modernize classics and turn them into trash in order to please the stupid people. If you are a purist for musicals, do not see this movie for your own good.

Without a doubt Glenn Close an exceptional actress with many brilliant performances throughout her career is horribly miscast as "Young" Ensign Nellie Forbush. This more than anything sent this made for TV production of this classic musical and James A. Michener story right into the bilges. She resembled nothing less than a female Naval Officer who is in her mid 50's and would be more interested in romantically pursuing the other nurses than the Emile de Becque character. If you want to watch this story then the 1958 version with Mitzi Gaynor and Ray Walston is the one to go with because this one gets the Deep Six.

I found the DVD of this version of South Pacific at my local public library. Glenn Close has never been one of my favorites, she has hard, pointy looks that made her perfect for roles where she plays a hard, mean woman. She doesn't really fit my image of what Nelly Forbush should look like. Still, she has a good stage singing voice and she does a credible job here. I especially like the job Harry Connick Jr did. He is the most believable actor.

This film looks like a film, not a stage production, and there is relatively little singing. Near the end, there is some legitimate war action with the Japanese on an adjacent island. Overall a very enjoyable film version of South Pacific. I rate it "7" of 10.