I am really not one who watches a lot of movies--especially older classics and films so all of these films are new to me. While new to me, it is very entertaining to me because I was not even aware of Hawai'i being portrayed through the eyes of pop culture and media like this until now!
So in class the first film we watched was "Bird of Paradise". WOW! What a JOKE!?! It made me laugh and chuckle a lot because of how much Hollywood really sought to create quite the fantasy! This film is about a young sailor man named Johnny who falls in love with a local Hawaiian woman named Luana. Even though they don't speak the same language or are of the same race, they run away from everyone who is opposed to their being together and start off their lives on a secluded part of the island. After some time, the young couple decide to return to Johnny's homeland. At the start of their sailing journey, Johnny becomes sick and Luana believes that it is because the Hawaiian God 'Pele' is angry that Luana did not sacrifice herself. In an attempt to save Johnny from the punishment placed upon them by Pele, Luana returns back to the island to sacrifice herself.
Okay, I am not one for a sad, unhappy, or unresolved ending to a movie so...for this film to end in such a way...lame! Haha! I am one who likes a good ending and I didn't think it was necessary for Luana to sacrifice herself. But then I guess if you think about, there is a comment made in the film, "East is east and west is west" and of course according to this, it is not right for two different ethnicities to come together. It's sad that Hollywood is so racist in that sense but I feel that it's true. There must've been a lot of racist people during the time of this film and the comment stated that it really was the unacceptable thing.
I think that the film really failed to portray Hawaii in reality. Hollywood really took particular things of the polynesian cultures and twisted them to create living fantasies in order to appeal to all audience viewers. It also made Hawaii seem as if it is the place to escape to for sex and thus get away with it. Oh dear, anything to attract viewers, huh?! I feel that the film overall is disrespectful to polynesian culture and really makes a mock out of Hawaii. People who have never been to Hawaii get the wrong idea of Hawaii and really can base their views, opinions, and dreams of Hawaii on what Hollywood or pop culture and media portrays it as. I guess I could say that I give the film credit for being very entertaining. Although the whole film seems like quite the joke, it is entertaining in a sense. Being that I am an islander myself, I saw this film as a joke and something that entertained me to laughter because of the falseness of it. For other viewers I think it could stir one up to be angry with the false display of Hawaii, or foster feelings of desire to be in Hawaii to live up a fantasy, or to escape reality to the land of all dreams to find just that--their bird of paradise!?!
2 comments:
You brought up some good points when it came to this film that were similar to mine. First of all, you had a great point about "East is east and west is west", which was totally true. In the film, they had a mix race relationship, which was obvious looked down upon at the time because people tended to couple up with there own race. They had mix race couples seem normal until the natives sacrificed Luana to keep Pele happy. Ultimately, I think they didn't need to push it by actually killing her off.
Also, I agree with you about how the portrayed Hawaii. Hollywood took a small glimpse of what Hawaii really is like and turned it into some sort of fantasy dreamland. They made everything seem so fake and unauthentic. You are totally right about people from elsewhere getting the wrong idea of what Hawaii really is like. Hawaii on screen isn't Hawaii in reality. Overall, you made some really good points about this film.
I found myself, like you, lughing throughout much of this movie. Obviously it was written from a perspective of people who had no idea about what Hawaii was really like. The most disturbing parts to me were the way they completely butchered the Hawaiian language (especially Luana), and how they had the Hawaiians climbing posts and acting like barbaric animals. I also didn't like how Luana ended up having to learn English to replace her own language and none of the visitors were shown even attempting to try and learn anything in Hawaiian. It was entertaining, but very much NOT an accurate representation of reality.
Post a Comment