I'm Gonna Wash That Man Outta My Hair!

Source: South Pacific (1958) (imdb.com)

So yesterday, I was rummaging through my DVD collection, and I found one in particular which I'd forgotten I had - it was a copy of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (which came as a set along with The Sound of Music and West Side Story), and I realised I had not seen it before - so here's a quick one on what I thought of it.

The film was made in 1958, 9 years after the musical's premiere in New York (which famously had its star Mary Martin wash her hair on stage every night), and is set in a set of southern Pacific islands, where some US soldiers were based in the war against the Japanese. And my first point to mention is that the film did a great job showing the beauty of the islands and how colourful they were - I certainly wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny like that when I had finished the film!

The songs were typical Rodgers and Hammerstein in that they were very enjoyable and did a good job in pushing the story along, and you could well know a few already such as Some Enchanted Evening or There Is Nothing Like A Dame - I'm Gonna Wash That Man Outta My Hair is now probably going to be my new go-to song to sing in the shower; though there was one little thing that annoyed me almost every time a song was being played, and that was there seemed to be another colour tinting the camera as it recorded - like an Instagram filter - and it was sometimes a bit of a strain on the eyes.

Moving on from that, I enjoyed the story as much as liked listening to the songs - I liked how it integrated themes of sex, gender roles and racism without being too in-your-face, and the relationships between Emile + Nellie and Lt Cable + Liat (who really reminded me of Kim and Chris in Miss Saigon), were really touching and heartfelt.

All in all, I did enjoy watching South Pacific, though I did not think it on the same par as the other two films it came as a set with. But if you want to try it out, definitely go for it!