I didn't realise that a new South Pacific movie had been remade until I chanced upon this DVD at the National Library at the Esplanade. Apparently, 16 million viewers tuned in for this ABC Television movie when it was screened in 2001 and this production took four years before it was finally completed. After watching this movie, although I still have my reservations about the casting and the singing ability of some cast members, overall, I think that this is an outstanding production which is probably better than the original 1958 movie version.

South Pacific is based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Tales From The South Pacific, and is set during World War II in the Pacific. It features two love stories and although war and love play two important themes in this musical, its main theme is on racial intolerance and prejudice. Nellie Fornbush (Glenn Close) is a young (sic) nurse who falls in love with the French planter Emile de Becque (Rade Serbedzija) only to have her doubts when she discovers that he has fathered two colored children with a deceased colored wife. The Marine Lieutenant Joe Cable (Harry Connick Jr.) falls for a Tonkinese girl Liat (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) but faces a difficult dilemma because he knows that his family back in the United States would never accept her as their daughter-in-law.

South Pacific features one of the finest scores and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and most of the original music has been kept for this TV adaptation, although the songs "Happy Talk" and "Loneliness Of Evening have been removed from this production (These two tunes do make an appearance in the background of two scenes). Cable's song "My Girl Back Home" was not screened on television when it was aired but it is included on the DVD as a "deleted scene". The DVD also includes an "On Location With Glenn Close" feature which is a 30 minutes behind-the-scenes look at the production of this television musical.

There are many things that are excellent about this adaptation. The scenery filmed in Queensland, Australia is as lush and beautiful as the musical score, although perspicacious viewers will notice that the eucalyptus trees in the opening scenes look like nothing that can be found in the South Pacific.

Robert Pastorelli deserves special mention in his role as Luther Billis. He provides the necessary comic timing in the opening "There's Nothing Like A Dame" and in "Honey Bun" and displays his heroism in the end to save Emile de Becque from the Japanese.

Glenn Close sings the best in this production and her voice sounds delightfully heavenly in many of her  numbers. Unfortunately, she has been terribly miscast in her role as Fornbush and one suspects that her being one of the executive producers has something to do with this. Her character Fornbush is supposed to be a young "cockeyed optimist" (as she sings in the song of the same name) fresh out of Little Rock, Arkansas. Having a 54 year-old Close play a character that is around 28 years of age makes many parts of the musical quite unbelievable. 

When Close sings that she is "mature and incredibly green" or that she is "a little hick", after some time, it stops even becoming funny. In de Becque's "Twin Soliloquies", he sings about how he has found someone "young and smiling". You almost expect the camera not to pan to Close but it eventually does. When Close is the first woman who peeks out in the Thanksgiving show put up for the rest of the Army, she is greeted by loud, wild cheers and wolf whistles and one almost feels sorry for the deprived personnel in the Army.

To Close's credit though, she does dance and prance around with the enthuasism and vivacity of someone much younger than her age, but it is unfortunate that the producers were unable to find someone who sings as well as Close but who is a fraction of her age.

The rest of the cast do not fare much better in the casting. The Croatian Serbedzija does a good French accent but he mangles the classic "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine"  with a wispy and flat singing voice. Lori Tan Chinn comes across more irritating and screechy as Bloody Mary than the curious enigma that she is supposed to be. Mendoza looks pretty as the Bloody Mary's daughter, Liat, but no insight into her character or what attracts Cable to her other than her looks is offered in this production. Two-time Grammy Award winner Connick sings "You've Got To Be Carefully Tonight" with the necessary intensity required for this song on racial prejudice but he croons his other numbers like "Younger than Springtime" in such a light, pop-like way, when a slightly stronger tenor singing style would have been more appropriate.

However, despite the numerous flaws in the cast for this production, the cast always plays a secondary role to the strong story and the beautiful songs in any South Pacific. In this aspect, this production succeeds in bringing out the strong emotions of the story. Of the two love stories that unravel in the movie, one doesn't end in a happy ending because a key character dies. While his sudden death from a mine while escaping from the Japanese was sensitively done, I felt that the producers took the easy way out by totally totally leaving out  this character's love interest and her emotions in the final scene. The other couple does have a happy and tearful reunion and if there is any strong message that comes out from South Pacific, it is that love can always transcend all racial boundaries. We just have to put aside all our prejudices and intolerances and look within our hearts.

Reviewed on 26 June 2004

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