Rating: 
Summary: SOUTH PACIFIC ENTERTAINS, UPLIFTS, TUGS AT YOUR HEART
Review: Recently I watched Rodger's & Hammerstein's South Pacific and thoroughly enjoyed it. This love story, filled with singing and dancing and light-hearted comedy is sure to warm your heart in a feel-good sort of way. The duo themes of love and loyalty to one's country are tested in this movie which depicts life in the South Pacific during WWII. Citing Rade Sherbedgia who starts a French Planter in love with a navy nurse (Glenn Close)--"When a man faces death, he must weigh his values very carefully; he must weigh the sweetness of his life against the thing he's asked to die for."
Rating: 
Summary: Modification O.K. music appalling
Review: Screenwriter's license allows for some deviation forms the original. I have to admit I like the original movie much better. For that mater the musical was better. However it is everyone's right to try something different. Who knows until you try? However there is no excuse for the unprofessional singing and there was more missing than they said there would be. (See my review of the soundtrack ASIN: B00005ARDV April 1, 2001) Just put the ASIN number in the search box. Now trying to forget the 1956 movie. This still was stilted and unprofessional. The people did not fit the position they played. And the story was much harder to follow. I can understand trying something different. But who thought that it would sell?
Rating: 
Summary: I embrace Glenn!
Review: Sometimes a classic can just be sinfully fun with a fresh coat of paint...and that is exactly what Ms. Close has brought us. This somewhat flawed original story - is easily overlooked considering the lush photography and beautifully recorded score. A great DVD feature is a fun "home video" look at Glenn's producing the project on location - artfully crafted to really help us understand the passion and commitment this fine cast made to re-producing this film. I can't wash this film out of my mind!
Rating: 
Summary: JOSHUA LOGAN, YOU'VE BEEN VINDICATED!
Review: The 1958 film version of SOUTH PACIFIC, although musically about as perfect in performance as this score is ever likely to be, is far from being a cinematic masterpiece like the film versions of THE KING AND I and THE SOUND OF MUSIC but the picture was enormously popular in its time and as this recent "beyond terrible" TV remake proves, SOUTH PACIFIC can be done immensely worse. As for the score, all you have to do is listen to the TV remake (if your ears can stand it) to appreciate what can happen when unbelievably lousy singers and inept musical hacks are allowed near this normally wonderful music. And whose brilliant idea was it to add further insult to the injury by hiring a tenth rate composer to write a new incidental background score instead of adapting Richard Rodgers original melodies? I guess the producers didn't think Rodgers' music was good enough, which explains why most of the songs are either truncated or missing from this version. In fact, the song score is musically distorted almost beyond recognition. Glenn Close would have made a marvelous Nellie in 1968, and tries to sing the role with conviction; but her voice has seen better days and now she is much too old to play this part convincingly. Rade Sherbedgia can barely carry a tune in a role that was written for a world-class bass baritone and he acts the role as if he is on Valium most of the time. Worst of all is Harry Connick, Jr., who uses a phony Cajun accent for the Philadelphia bred Lt. Cable, which is the least of his problems, since he can neither act nor sing. The biggest problem with the 1958 film was that Joshua Logan, director of the original stage version, didn't seem to have enough confidence in the play and the music to allow himself to transfer it to the screen without distractions like the color filters in the songs and the freeform but unorganized choreography that mars what could have been a sensational picture. Nevertheless, the 1958 film is still a zillion times better than this unfortunate and ill-advised Glenn Close TV remake, which is so bad that if someone had deliberately set out to defile and ridicule the memory of Rodgers and Hammerstein and their work, they couldn't have done a better character assassination than allowing this TV movie to be made.
Rating: 
Summary: A non-musical musical
Review: The good news first. This isn't terrible. The bad news? It's not all that good either. What it is, I guess, is a musical for people (namely younger viewers) who've grown up on action TV and movies and don't really understand Broadway musicals. The radically different approach may not bother some, but to me, this version of the classic R & H musical comes off mainly as an action drama where the songs are treated as an after-thought. They're there and mostly acceptably done (except for the whispered rather than operatic basso profundo performances of the French planter). The shuffling of the songs isn't that bothersome but that change of focus is. Glenn Close isn't the brassy young filly of the original, and that's OK. She finds a new way to do it. And she's a muscial comedy pro, with B'way credentials. The rest of the performers (who aren't) are just OK and their roles are acted than sung. At least this version doesn't indulge in the weird color effects Joshua Logan attempted in the theatrical film.
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERFUL PRODUCTION OF A GREAT MUSICAL
Review: There's a reason that this production of SOUTH PACIFIC is the most watched TV movie musical of all time ~ it's brilliant! If you're one of those purists who thinks that this script doesn't need to be tinkered with, think again! A lot of the original ideas are outmoded, but the new screenplay adds dimension to the story and characters only hinted at 50 years ago. The restructuring of the material, opening the show with THERE IS NOTHIN' LIKE A DAME, making Nellie Forbush, brilliantly and vibrantly played by our greatest American actress, Glenn Close, older, and strengthening the mission the DeBecque and Cable take on, are just some of this version's better changes. There's nothing in the story that says Nellie needs to be in her 20s, and Glenn Close fulfills the promise of movie musical magic she hinted at during her engagement onstage in SUNSET BLVD. When she stands on the balcony and sings the TWIN SOLILOQUIES, you feel her falling in love with Emile. This Bloody Mary, small and mean as can be, a woman who would sell her daughter if she can make a profit, is a frighteningly real woman, not the caricature she's been played as in the past. (In a college production I saw, they had to do BALI HA'I as a comedy song because Bloody Mary couldn't pull off the drama!) Harry Connick,Jr. is absolutely right as Lt. Cable,and his romantic renderings of CAREFULLY TAUGHT, YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME, and (on CD) MY GIRL BACK HOME show that he's the greatest crooner of standards in pop music. Take a different viewpoint when you watch this SOUTH PACIFIC. See it, not as a film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest libretto, but as a genuine presentation of World War II. When looking at it as a war picture, it takes on a new dimension, and plays as the very real drama Michener portrayed in his novel, and which was what was hoped for on the stage. Be thankful that those awful filters which ruined the 1959 version are gone, and that Bali Ha'i is seen in Cable's mind, as it was meant to be seen. Enjoy the lively dance on the beach as Nellie and the girls perform A WONDERFUL GUY, and melt as Emile sings SOME ENCHANTED EVENING. This SOUTH PACIFIC is a triumph! It's a masterful production of a great musical. Let's hope that upcoming productions (how about Ann Margret as MAME?) will come close to this great show!!!
Rating:
Summary: Glad I watched it, but I prefer the original
Review: Things I liked:
Harry's singing,
and actually, Glenn's singing. She really got into "I'm gonna wash that
man..." (although she wore a get-up that I can picture my mom wearing in a
hot-tub. Glenn does not fit the shorts.)
Glenn grew on me, and so did Luther Billis.
They expanded on some themes a little. Lt. Cable and Bloody Mary sort of
struck up a nice friendship.
Even though Glenn is way old, you can tell she has a lot of fun with the
good songs, and actually sounds pretty good. Things I disliked:
Emile de Beque. Oh it was just awful. He sounds like a weasel singing "Some
Enchanted Evening".
Bloody Mary is painful to look at when she sings "Bali Hai", and they have
her sing it in a thick phony accent. ughhh
Instead of that "darn malaria" putting Joe in the infirmary, they have him
get drunk and get in a fight.
I never got a sense of romance between Nellie and Emile. It isn't her fault,
but his. He was just waaaay wrong for this part. Puts no heart into it. This
movie has none of the cuteness of the original.
BIG disappointment - they cut "Happy Talk"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All that Lt.
Cable wants and gets from Liot is boom-boom. Everytime he shows up, she
disrobes before he can even say bonsai uh er bonswa uh er hello. Things I am indifferent about:
The added drama. This movie isn't fun. Wait 'til you see the attempted
rescue off of Marie Louise, and this dumb scene with the heads.
Glenn Close is not cute. She sports Khaki pants in every scene but 2.
However, as I stated before, her part grew on me. In summary, this movie can not and should not be compared with the original.
It is in a class of its own. Definitely approach it that way when you watch
it, or you will just be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacifice 2001
Review: This has got to be the worst remake of a classic motion picture in history. Most of the characters are not believable and most cannot sing. For a 50+ year old woman to try and play a 20 year old is a stretch and Glen Close did not come close. The picture dragged and seemed out of step with the original play and movie. There were only two bright spots in the whole movie, Billis and Ensign Cable. I would not place this picture in my collection if it was given to me.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Effort
Review: This is a worthy effort and it is probably not bad for a TV production. However, the images and mystique will remain ingrained in anyone who has ever seen the original movie. Singing and acting performances aside in this production, the cinematography of the original film has left a strange indelible aura that can never be recaptured. This current movie acts as a springboard to get the original movie out and revisit it. I am somehow thankful that this production has rekindled interest in the original.
Rating:
Summary: I love this musical!
Review: This is the movie I give my friends as gifts. It is the one I play when I need a lift. I like it even better than I did the original. This one is more realistic. The characters are real people, without taking anything away from the beauty of the music, the setting and the story. This one rates 5 stars.
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