Fandom: Donovan's Reef Category: Movies Comments: Donovan's Reef is a morality play about racism disguised as a sixties action-romcom starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin.
It takes place in French Polynesia, in the sixties. Twenty years earlier during WWII, three US Navy guys washed ashore and fought the Japanese with the help of the natives.* Two of them (Dr. William Dedham and "Guns" Donovan (The Duke)) stayed, one to open a hospital, one to run a shipping company and a bar. The third (Gilhooley, played by Lee Marvin) is a disreputable sailor who shows up regularly to start bar fights. Dr. Dedham married the Polynesian princess Manulani and had three children with her, Lelani, Sally, and Luke.
Lelani is a beautiful, poised, teen girl at home in her role as royalty but conscious of what it means to not be white. At the start of the movie, Manulani has been dead for years and Doc is headed off on one of his regular traveling-hospital type trips around the islands, where he will be incommunicado for some time.
BACK IN BOSTON, we find that Dedham has a grown (white) daughter Amelia who has never met him, who is now the CEO of the family shipping business, a very proper (and hypocritical) New England operation. An aunt has just died and left most of her stock to Doc Dedham, which the family (not approving of him running off to the Pacific 20 years ago) wants to swindle him out of. So Amelia sets out to French Polynesia to dig up a reason they can declare that he's not "of sound moral character." (For example, that he's gotten up to something with "one of those native women.")
Miss Amelia Dedham of Boston, inquiring where she might find her father.
Guns, Gilhooley, and the Governor of French Polynesia get wind of her visit and decide that the best thing to do is to pretend that Lelani, Sally, and Luke are Guns' children until the Doc gets back to explain things to his Boston daughter.
The Governor, Gillhooley, and Guns
And so begins the farce. Amelia is charmed by Guns' three "half-caste" children, the governor wants to marry Amelia for her $18 million, Guns and Amelia are sparring and flirting, Gilhooley is picking fights, and Amelia's trying to figure out who this Manulani person was, why her father has a portrait of her, and why no one will talk about her. Amelia and Manulani's portrait
Meanwhile, the three kids (particularly Lelani) are watching this from the sidelines, unable to greet their sister as a sister because they are not white. Lelani watching from the sidelines
It all turns out well in the end--Amelia learns the kids are her siblings and embraces them, realizing (at least a little) how wrong prejudice is, and its costs. (She also agrees to marry Guns, but the romance is fairly trite and predictable and there's not much chemistry between the two actors, so I don't usually pay much attention to the love story.) Meanwhile, Lelani is mature and proud of her heritage, and stands up for herself even when that means contradicting an older sister she desperately wants to please.
Now, the movie isn't perfect. It was made during the sixties, and there's plenty of misogyny to go around. And the casting director didn't quite get the distinction between "Asian" and "Polynesian" at all times. And there's some anti-Asian bigotry and stereotypes played for laughs. (Yes, John Wayne character is also played for laughs at times, but it's different for a straight white man who gets some heroic and romantic stuff too. Also, the acting isn't always the greatest, particularly the actress who plays Amelia. On the other hand, the actress who plays Lelani is fabulous. And their handling of the racial issues are surprisingly non-faily for the era, all things considered--I love how Lelani quietly puts Amelia in her place when Amelia starts trying to mock her for following her peoples' religious traditions.
*Okay, in reality the Japanese never reached French Polynesia, please don't let minor details like that get in your way.
Links:
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<b>Fandom:</b> Donovan's Reef <b>Category:</b> Movies <b>Comments:</b> Donovan's Reef is a morality play about racism disguised as a sixties action-romcom starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin.
It takes place in French Polynesia, in the sixties. Twenty years earlier during WWII, three US Navy guys washed ashore and fought the Japanese with the help of the natives.* Two of them (Dr. William Dedham and "Guns" Donovan (The Duke)) stayed, one to open a hospital, one to run a shipping company and a bar. The third (Gilhooley, played by Lee Marvin) is a disreputable sailor who shows up regularly to start bar fights. Dr. Dedham married the Polynesian princess Manulani and had three children with her, Lelani, Sally, and Luke.
Lelani is a beautiful, poised, teen girl at home in her role as royalty but conscious of what it means to not be white. At the start of the movie, Manulani has been dead for years and Doc is headed off on one of his regular traveling-hospital type trips around the islands, where he will be incommunicado for some time.
BACK IN BOSTON, we find that Dedham has a grown (white) daughter Amelia who has never met him, who is now the CEO of the family shipping business, a very proper (and hypocritical) New England operation. An aunt has just died and left most of her stock to Doc Dedham, which the family (not approving of him running off to the Pacific 20 years ago) wants to swindle him out of. So Amelia sets out to French Polynesia to dig up a reason they can declare that he's not "of sound moral character." (For example, that he's gotten up to something with "one of those native women.")
Miss Amelia Dedham of Boston, inquiring where she might find her father.
Guns, Gilhooley, and the Governor of French Polynesia get wind of her visit and decide that the best thing to do is to pretend that Lelani, Sally, and Luke are Guns' children until the Doc gets back to explain things to his Boston daughter.
The Governor, Gillhooley, and Guns
And so begins the farce. Amelia is charmed by Guns' three "half-caste" children, the governor wants to marry Amelia for her $18 million, Guns and Amelia are sparring and flirting, Gilhooley is picking fights, and Amelia's trying to figure out who this Manulani person was, why her father has a portrait of her, and why no one will talk about her. Amelia and Manulani's portrait
Meanwhile, the three kids (particularly Lelani) are watching this from the sidelines, unable to greet their sister as a sister because they are not white. Lelani watching from the sidelines
It all turns out well in the end--Amelia learns the kids are her siblings and embraces them, realizing (at least a little) how wrong prejudice is, and its costs. (She also agrees to marry Guns, but the romance is fairly trite and predictable and there's not much chemistry between the two actors, so I don't usually pay much attention to the love story.) Meanwhile, Lelani is mature and proud of her heritage, and stands up for herself even when that means contradicting an older sister she desperately wants to please.
Now, the movie isn't perfect. It was made during the sixties, and there's plenty of misogyny to go around. And the casting director didn't quite get the distinction between "Asian" and "Polynesian" at all times. And there's some anti-Asian bigotry and stereotypes played for laughs. (Yes, John Wayne character is also played for laughs at times, but it's different for a straight white man who gets some heroic and romantic stuff too. Also, the acting isn't always the greatest, particularly the actress who plays Amelia. On the other hand, the actress who plays Lelani is fabulous. And their handling of the racial issues are surprisingly non-faily for the era, all things considered--I love how Lelani quietly puts Amelia in her place when Amelia starts trying to mock her for following her peoples' religious traditions.
*Okay, in reality the Japanese never reached French Polynesia, please don't let minor details like that get in your way.
<b>Links:</b> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Donovans-Reef-John-Wayne/dp/B002DHXUCI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443285506&sr=8-1&keywords=donovan%27s+reef"For rent on Amazon</a> It's also available for free on Youtube, but the quality is pretty poor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFFdWGDk19A
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Category: Movies
Comments: Donovan's Reef is a morality play about racism disguised as a sixties action-romcom starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin.
It takes place in French Polynesia, in the sixties. Twenty years earlier during WWII, three US Navy guys washed ashore and fought the Japanese with the help of the natives.* Two of them (Dr. William Dedham and "Guns" Donovan (The Duke)) stayed, one to open a hospital, one to run a shipping company and a bar. The third (Gilhooley, played by Lee Marvin) is a disreputable sailor who shows up regularly to start bar fights. Dr. Dedham married the Polynesian princess Manulani and had three children with her, Lelani, Sally, and Luke.
Lelani is a beautiful, poised, teen girl at home in her role as royalty but conscious of what it means to not be white. At the start of the movie, Manulani has been dead for years and Doc is headed off on one of his regular traveling-hospital type trips around the islands, where he will be incommunicado for some time.
BACK IN BOSTON, we find that Dedham has a grown (white) daughter Amelia who has never met him, who is now the CEO of the family shipping business, a very proper (and hypocritical) New England operation. An aunt has just died and left most of her stock to Doc Dedham, which the family (not approving of him running off to the Pacific 20 years ago) wants to swindle him out of. So Amelia sets out to French Polynesia to dig up a reason they can declare that he's not "of sound moral character." (For example, that he's gotten up to something with "one of those native women.")
Miss Amelia Dedham of Boston, inquiring where she might find her father.
Guns, Gilhooley, and the Governor of French Polynesia get wind of her visit and decide that the best thing to do is to pretend that Lelani, Sally, and Luke are Guns' children until the Doc gets back to explain things to his Boston daughter.
The Governor, Gillhooley, and Guns
And so begins the farce. Amelia is charmed by Guns' three "half-caste" children, the governor wants to marry Amelia for her $18 million, Guns and Amelia are sparring and flirting, Gilhooley is picking fights, and Amelia's trying to figure out who this Manulani person was, why her father has a portrait of her, and why no one will talk about her.
Amelia and Manulani's portrait
Meanwhile, the three kids (particularly Lelani) are watching this from the sidelines, unable to greet their sister as a sister because they are not white.
Lelani watching from the sidelines
It all turns out well in the end--Amelia learns the kids are her siblings and embraces them, realizing (at least a little) how wrong prejudice is, and its costs. (She also agrees to marry Guns, but the romance is fairly trite and predictable and there's not much chemistry between the two actors, so I don't usually pay much attention to the love story.) Meanwhile, Lelani is mature and proud of her heritage, and stands up for herself even when that means contradicting an older sister she desperately wants to please.
Now, the movie isn't perfect. It was made during the sixties, and there's plenty of misogyny to go around. And the casting director didn't quite get the distinction between "Asian" and "Polynesian" at all times. And there's some anti-Asian bigotry and stereotypes played for laughs. (Yes, John Wayne character is also played for laughs at times, but it's different for a straight white man who gets some heroic and romantic stuff too. Also, the acting isn't always the greatest, particularly the actress who plays Amelia. On the other hand, the actress who plays Lelani is fabulous. And their handling of the racial issues are surprisingly non-faily for the era, all things considered--I love how Lelani quietly puts Amelia in her place when Amelia starts trying to mock her for following her peoples' religious traditions.
*Okay, in reality the Japanese never reached French Polynesia, please don't let minor details like that get in your way.
Links:
<b>Category:</b> Movies
<b>Comments:</b> Donovan's Reef is a morality play about racism disguised as a sixties action-romcom starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin.
It takes place in French Polynesia, in the sixties. Twenty years earlier during WWII, three US Navy guys washed ashore and fought the Japanese with the help of the natives.* Two of them (Dr. William Dedham and "Guns" Donovan (The Duke)) stayed, one to open a hospital, one to run a shipping company and a bar. The third (Gilhooley, played by Lee Marvin) is a disreputable sailor who shows up regularly to start bar fights. Dr. Dedham married the Polynesian princess Manulani and had three children with her, Lelani, Sally, and Luke.
Lelani is a beautiful, poised, teen girl at home in her role as royalty but conscious of what it means to not be white. At the start of the movie, Manulani has been dead for years and Doc is headed off on one of his regular traveling-hospital type trips around the islands, where he will be incommunicado for some time.
BACK IN BOSTON, we find that Dedham has a grown (white) daughter Amelia who has never met him, who is now the CEO of the family shipping business, a very proper (and hypocritical) New England operation. An aunt has just died and left most of her stock to Doc Dedham, which the family (not approving of him running off to the Pacific 20 years ago) wants to swindle him out of. So Amelia sets out to French Polynesia to dig up a reason they can declare that he's not "of sound moral character." (For example, that he's gotten up to something with "one of those native women.")
Miss Amelia Dedham of Boston, inquiring where she might find her father.
Guns, Gilhooley, and the Governor of French Polynesia get wind of her visit and decide that the best thing to do is to pretend that Lelani, Sally, and Luke are Guns' children until the Doc gets back to explain things to his Boston daughter.
The Governor, Gillhooley, and Guns
And so begins the farce. Amelia is charmed by Guns' three "half-caste" children, the governor wants to marry Amelia for her $18 million, Guns and Amelia are sparring and flirting, Gilhooley is picking fights, and Amelia's trying to figure out who this Manulani person was, why her father has a portrait of her, and why no one will talk about her.
Amelia and Manulani's portrait
Meanwhile, the three kids (particularly Lelani) are watching this from the sidelines, unable to greet their sister as a sister because they are not white.
Lelani watching from the sidelines
It all turns out well in the end--Amelia learns the kids are her siblings and embraces them, realizing (at least a little) how wrong prejudice is, and its costs. (She also agrees to marry Guns, but the romance is fairly trite and predictable and there's not much chemistry between the two actors, so I don't usually pay much attention to the love story.) Meanwhile, Lelani is mature and proud of her heritage, and stands up for herself even when that means contradicting an older sister she desperately wants to please.
Now, the movie isn't perfect. It was made during the sixties, and there's plenty of misogyny to go around. And the casting director didn't quite get the distinction between "Asian" and "Polynesian" at all times. And there's some anti-Asian bigotry and stereotypes played for laughs. (Yes, John Wayne character is also played for laughs at times, but it's different for a straight white man who gets some heroic and romantic stuff too. Also, the acting isn't always the greatest, particularly the actress who plays Amelia. On the other hand, the actress who plays Lelani is fabulous. And their handling of the racial issues are surprisingly non-faily for the era, all things considered--I love how Lelani quietly puts Amelia in her place when Amelia starts trying to mock her for following her peoples' religious traditions.
*Okay, in reality the Japanese never reached French Polynesia, please don't let minor details like that get in your way.
<b>Links:</b> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Donovans-Reef-John-Wayne/dp/B002DHXUCI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443285506&sr=8-1&keywords=donovan%27s+reef"For rent on Amazon</a>
It's also available for free on Youtube, but the quality is pretty poor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFFdWGDk19A