South Pacific (1958)
Directed by Joshua Logan
Can a girl from Little Rock find happiness with a mature French planter she got to know one enchanted evening away from the military hospital where she is a nurse? Or should she just wash that man out of her hair? Bloody Mary is the philosopher of the island and it's hard to believe she could be the mother of Liat who has captured the heart of Lt. Joseph Cable USMC. While waiting for action in the war in the South Pacific, sailors and nurses put on a musical comedy show. The war gets closer and the saga of Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque becomes serious drama.
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What critics compared South Pacific to
As the haunting South Pacific standard “Bali Hai” plays on the radio, Winslet moves in on Hemsworth’s bare chest with her measuring tape and he whispers sweet nothings in her ear as she works.
Results are results, and there’s no harm in a bit of romantic idealism (represented by repeated spins of the South Pacific soundtrack album).
Hogan employs “Bali H’ai” from South Pacific as the movie’s theme—an inspired, theater queen, connection to the Australian cult filmWelcome to Woop Woop.
One of my colleagues has already noted that with acres and acres of corn rising "as high as an elephant’s eye," in the words of the lyric in South Pacific by Oscar Hammerstein II, there’s no sign of any farm equipment or chores.
Irrepressible impresario Zidler (Jim Broadbent) performs “Like a Virgin,” updating Luther Billis’s “South Pacific” comic relief.
Two of Miranda's more brazen nods to show-tune geekiness are to "South Pacific" --"I'm with you but the situation is fraught/ You've got to be carefully taught," Burr sings in a number set in a pre-revolutionary tavern) -- and Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance," when George Washington (Chris Jackson) introduces himself as "the model of a modern major general/ the venerated Virginian veteran whose men are all/ Lining up, to put me on a pedestal."
Theater fans who mourn that so many Broadway shows are retreads of the oldies; “South Pacific,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “West Side Story,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Music Man,” will cheer that “Hamilton” is thoroughly original.
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That it is sentimental can hardly be disputed, and the songs are undoubtedly a bit sweet and gooey, but whatever, it works as cinema: much, much better than the stiff and soulless like of My Fair Lady , and considerably better than any of the other films based on Rodgers & Hammerstein's earlier (and mostly superior) shows, ranging from the grimly average ( Carousel ) to the grotesquely unacceptable ( South Pacific ) - I understand that there are those who admire the 1956 movie of The King and I , and good for them.