7/3/2023 0 Comments Joe cable south pacific![]() ![]() While the ending is apparently neat and clean, one does not go away with a sense of a feel good tale - in fact, there is a sense of dread.WHAT: Lakeland Community Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific."ĪBOUT THE MUSICAL: "South Pacific" is a timeless, still relevant musical that won 10 Tony awards when it hit Broadway in 1949. He is after all white - though in possession of questionable offspring. The French colonial de Becque survives, and Forbush can safely marry him. He dies heroically, though far off stage, so that he does not have to return to Liat and decide what the heck to do with her after the war. This is accomplished in South Pacific by killing off Lt. Whatever happened in Asia was exciting, perhaps even enriching, but it will not infect the monogamous tranquility of post-war America. Then again, the musical must allow the American wives, whose husbands have come home presumably to set up a safe domesticity, to feel not threatened. On the one hand they want to cater to the white male fantasy - especially with the tens of thousands of GI's who have encountered "bar girls" and other typical colonial sexual encounters during their tour. ![]() South Pacific, like these other films, had a complicated fence to straddle. Like the famed Douglas Sirk and the noir films of the 50's, it manages to capture the anxiety Americans felt in the supposed afterglow of World War II. Perhaps South Pacific, and Hammerstein's rendering of the tale, is more nuanced than the reviews. That's as far as his solidarity or insight can go. Ishmael's moment of epiphany (white guys always "learn something" from their Asian fantasy loves) is when he decides to give evidence which will keep her husband from going to prison for life. But the hero, the white guy Ishmael (again, the white guy is the subject), is deeply in love with Hatsue the Japanese American woman who is imprisoned during World War II in an internment camp. Yes, it all takes place in the US, in the Northwest. One of the more touching recent Orientalist films (and novels) was Snow Falling on Cedars (1999). Even in its more modern iteration, the western narrative has a difficult time breaking from this sexual fantasy, from a story which keeps the white man in the middle of things and the Asian woman on her back. Check out Teahouse of the August Moon (set in post war Okinawa), The World of Susie Wong (American artist falls in love with prostitute in Hong Kong), and Tai Pan (set in the 1840's) as other examples of this genre. But of particular interest is the American fantasy about the Asians they encountered during and after World War II. Look at the Charlie Chan movies as well as Fu Manchu. Check out the Oriental Tales comic books of the thirties, with the constant snarling, inscrutable male and the sexualized female. ![]() It is, of course, a fitting inheritor of the tradition of Asian fantasy stories and films in American culture. But, come on, can't someone mention that South Pacific is a textbook example of Orientalism, that western mania for dominating the lives and dismissing the souls of those who are not white? What is most stunning is how this musical is greeted so uncritically, as if it could tell us something we desperately need to know in this era of globalization and imperial crisis.īut we can go a bit further, because the South Pacific phenomenon is fascinating and filled with insights. The music is infectious, the dancing is superb, the story is compelling. Apparently, this Rodgers and Hammerstein 1949 musical is considered a bold stand against racism, something that we sorely need in our times. Coming out of the local theater showing of Hollywood Chinese, I found myself reflecting on the recent breathless reviews of the revival of South Pacific on the New York stage. If you want to see a fantastic overview of the struggle of Asian-Americans in film in the US, a struggle to be included, a struggle for a voice, a struggle for some truth, be sure to check out Hollywood Chinese, a recently released documentary directed by Arthur Dong. ![]()
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