After hearing an appeal by Prince Keoki Kanakoa (Manu Tupou), Rev. Abner Hale (Max von Sydow) volunteers to bring Christianity to the island nation of Hawaii.  Dr. Thorn (Torin Thatcher), the head of the Divinity College at Yale, insists that all missionaries to the island must be married lest they fall into lustrous temptation by the native women.  Abner is then introduced to Thorn’s niece, Jerusha Bromley (Julie Andrews), who agrees to marry the newly ordained minister and join him on his mission.  Once on the island, Abner finds it challenging to get through to the people who are reluctant to give up their ways and worship, while Jerusha becomes very close to the Aliʻi Nui, Malama Kanakoa (Jocelyne LaGarde), teaching the leader of the island English and in turn, learning about the traditions of the island. 

Released by United Artists in 1966, Hawaii is an adaptation of James A. Michener’s novel of the same name, specifically the chapter “From the Farm of Bitterness” which examines the Christian ministry movement during the early 1800s.  After a fraught preproduction in which the director and stars were cycled through various permutations, George Roy Hill was finally announced to helm the epic with stars Andrews and von Sydow headlining the project.  The script was originally penned by Daniel Taradash when Fred Zinnemann was still attached to direct, but when Hill was given directorial duties, he brought in Dalton Trumbo to amend the script to fit his vision and both men retain credit.  The result was a luscious 189-minute adventure shot in sweeping color by Russell Harlan and included an overture, intermission, and exit music by Elmer Bernstein. While these musical elements were omitted from the general release of the film, slimming it down to 161 minutes, audiences nationwide were treated to a gorgeous film that highlighted the natural beauty of the Hawaiian islands. 

The film opens at Yale with an impassioned speech by Keoki asking for the ministry to come to Hawaii.  Shifting focus then to Abner – the film will thankfully not forget Tupou’s Keoki, but it does seem a little unsure of how to best utilize him – Hawaii spends a brief fifteen or so minutes establishing what will be a life-long romance between Abner and Jerusha in a way that only sweeping films of the era can.  Von Sydow has the almost impossible task of juxtaposing his height which has him physically taking up much of the frame while playing Abner to be a quiet and meek-mannered man. It is a rough opening and a rough bit of script that tries to lean into some humor as Abner is sick in bed and his sneezes cause the house to shake, but soon enough, the happy couple are on a boat headed to this new and exotic land. Though the benefit of hindsight, von Sydow’s role here seems to almost foreshadow his work with Jan Troell as Karl Oskar in The Emigrants (1971) where he plays the patriarch of a Swedish farming family on their way to the new world, but the two men are governed by very different philosophies. For starters, Karl Oskar is a happily married man when we first meet him, whereas Abner’s relationship with Jerusha is founded more on the necessity that he be married and their care for each other is only seen to have developed over their time together. Further, and more thematically relevant, is that Karl Oskar is much more willing to learn and assimilate into a new culture while Abner is there to convert, but his stubbornness and bullheadedness are far more malicious here than in Troell’s epic.  

As their ship approaches the island of Hawaii, Hill turns his attention to Keoki who is greeted by the natives – his family – specifically the Aliʻi Nui, a leader of the royal family on the island; and also his mother. Stripping off his shirt before diving into the crystal blue waters to meet his mother, Abner grows increasingly horrified at the open display of nudity as not only are the men bare-chested, but the women too. Upon returning to the ship, Keoki is scolded by Abner setting up a tragic dynamic for the young man trapped between worlds. He is the one who wanted to bring Christianity to the islands to help move his people forward in the changing world, but he did not want to erase his identity as a Hawaiian as Abner is requiring; a sentiment that will also be held by the Ali’i Nui who will insist one can believe and love in Jesus while retaining their native identity. It is a pity that the film does not explore this deeper, but across the almost three-hour runtime, it is almost exclusively told through Abner’s perspective, and he has a crucible of his own to endure.   

Jerusha tries to mellow her husband after the outburst against Keoki, something she will find herself doing time and time again in an effort to smooth Abner’s rigid, hardline edges. In the film’s characterization, especially in how differently Abner and Jerusha approach their changed environment, and Keoki who is caught between worlds, Hawaii seems to be following in the footsteps of another American epic: George Stevens’ Giant (1956).  Stevens’ work, also adapted from a prominent novel, is a mid-1920s set saga that follows Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), a wealthy ranch owner in Texas and his new wife, Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), a socialite from Maryland.  As for Topou’s Keoki who finds himself torn between which community he belongs, Sal Mineo fills the role of Ángel Obregón II, a Mexican American man who served in the United States Army during WWII only to return home in a casket. Like Hawaii, though, Giant only passingly interacts with the concepts of identity, and instead, it focuses on Bick who has trouble adapting to the changing world around him, a challenge that is accelerated when his youngest – and favorite – son, Jordy (Dennis Hopper) marries Juanna (Elsa Cárdenas), a Mexican woman.  Meanwhile, Leslie has always had sympathy in her heart for the Hispanic workforce on Bick’s ranch, and her fight for their wellbeing is what inspired Jordy to pursue a career in medicine.  In a similar way, Abner follows his own arc of resistance to change in how quickly and furiously he rejects the Hawaiian way of life.  Both men do come around by the end of their tales, and while the change of heart may certainly have been a bold move as products of their time, the impact may seem a little soft for modern audiences, but because of the strength of their respective scripts, the metamorphosis of these larger-than-life men still scale up and make for proportionate endings. 

Once settled onto the island, the narrative falls into a problem-solving pattern where Abner is confronted with the island way of life and stubbornly offers up the Christian way, often to mixed results. Slowly, the natives begin to accept his solutions more and more, though this is more than likely them following the Ali’i Nui’s lead and not a sign of Abner’s effectiveness as a teacher and a leader. This all comes to a head when Jerusha is going into labor with her first child and Abner sends away the midwives, insisting that he deliver the baby himself while he fumbles over the instructions in the medical book. He will go to incredible lengths to make sure that he conquers this land, this people, and everything they are on his mission to bring God to this land, even if it puts his wife and his child’s lives at risk. It is in these sequences of incredible brashness on behalf of Abner that von Sydow’s performance is at its strongest when he is beating his fists against the forces greater than he. At first, it is against the island way of life, and later it is against the consequences of his own actions. Everything is working towards the singular goal of the mission, and Abner – in both his arrogance and his ignorance – sees the building of the church as a sign of his victory over the traditional way and not for what it actually is; a sign of respect towards the Ali’i Nui and the influence on which she has over the day-to-day life on the island. The first act is very much a story of Abner’s hubris, and while his rise is not as meteoric as he believes it to be, the crashing collapse of his mission is almost biblical itself in scale and scope, and it is only after this humbling before both God and men will he truly be able to begin his mission in earnest. 

When we return from the entr’acte, it is 1928, the city of Lahaina is thriving, and the Ali’i Nui is gravely ill. Upon her death, the great winds decimate the island and level the church that was built with solid walls despite the warnings of the native builders to allow for openings for the wind to pass through. Disease comes and takes hold of the nation, killing many, and turning what few converts to Christianity Abner did have against him claiming the religion worships a cruel and vengeful God; a sentiment held by Keoki and his wife, Noelani (Elizabeth Logue), his sister and the new Ali’i Nui of the island. Soon after, news arrives from the mainland that Charity, Jerusha’s sister has died. It is no coincidence as the virtue of charity has long been absent from the island after Abner’s arrival, though while it is easy to condemn Abner’s actions across the film – he makes for a very difficult protagonist – there are some fleeting moments where he proves that his ultimate goals are true and pure.  

His disinterest in the island way extends so far that he has no inkling to ever exploit the export potential of the island for his own gain or the wealth of unclaimed land, and when he rejects the opportunity to turn this mission into a private fortune as the other missionaries are wont to do, he is ousted from his own parish and reassigned to a church in Connecticut. That vote of non-confidence takes place in some of the final minutes of the film, but much earlier during a rare moment in mutual rejection of the island tradition by both husband and wife, the Abner and Jerusha agree to save an infant who was to be drowned because of a birthmark that obscures his face. In the final scene of the film, after Abner sends his children to the mainland for school and a visit to Jerusha’s grave, he returns to his hut where a man greets him asking to be brought in as his assistant. The man has a birthmark obscuring his face and Abner, decades after his arrival, finally learns – albeit too late – that his mission will only be achieved through kindness and compassion instead of fury and rage. 

Hawaii, like many epics of its time, required an arduous and expensive shooting schedule, and while it may not be as well regarded or remembered as some of its contemporaries, it did go on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards. It does flounder a little bit in the second half as the excitement and sensationalism of adventure has passed and with the passing of Ali’i Nui, the stage is being reset for Abner to fight a much more internal battle. Andrew’s calming presence is a welcome salve to von Sydow’s more abrasive role, but it is that abrasiveness that makes the film so fascinating. The film does not treat Abner with any undue kindness, but rather his arc is defined by a perpetual karmic give and take, and since for much of the film he is beating against the will of the people it is only a matter of time before the film breaks him down, stripping him of everything. Whether the change of heart at the end is believable will vary from audience member to audience member, not because it is especially ambiguous but just by the very fact that the story reaches its end point as Abner enters a new chapter of his life. While a disingenuous reading might say that Abner in those final scenes is a scared man desperate to hold on to his legacy, there is much more evidence in the script that he deeply regrets his actions and is resolved to continue his mission with a purer idea not only about his religion, but also of his purpose. 

NOTE: This review was scheduled months in advance to commemorate the anniversary of Hawaii’s statehood on August 21, 1959. To donate funds to the relief effort in the wake of the devastating wildfires, please consider the Maui Strong Fund which is focused on “providing financial resources that can be deployed quickly, with a focus on rapid response and recovery” to the affected communities.