The supplements on the lavish new Blu-ray edition of 1958’s South Pacific explain at length why the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s musical broke new ground when it debuted in 1949. Adapted from James Michener’s short-story collection Tales Of The South Pacific, the play used a group of sailors stationed in the South Seas during World War II to explore racial prejudice. It was a daring topic, one Hammerstein had approached before with Showboat, and it found a receptive audience, thanks in no small part to songs—“Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “Happy Talk,” “There Is Nothin’ Like A Dame,” and others—that became an indelible part of the post-war soundtrack. The play’s success fed into the era’s interest in all things South Pacific; the film version arrived at a moment when widescreen epics dominated. So shooting it on location—or at least using Hawaii as a substitute—seemed like a natural approach. Yet if there was ever a movie that added up to less than a sum of its parts, it’s this one.
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