Having read many reviews here written probably 50+ years after the film was released I felt I had to write a review in response to the basic charge many are laying at the film - that it is 'racist'.
Firstly I believe the fact the film explores attitudes common at the time is exactly what Mitchener does in his novels. When Nurse Nellie says 'I can't explain it it's just emotional' in response to being asked to explain why she can't marry the man she loves because he had married a Polynesian woman - that cuts to the heart of the issue. Cable replies it isn't something people are born with it something people get spoken in their ears from age 6 or 7 to hate peoples of a different skin shade.
Even the women who sings 'Happy Happy' is called Bloody Mary and is prepared to sell her daughter to the Marine. There are extensive historical accounts of American servicemen having children with Polynesian women and leaving them after the war, similarly in the Vietnam War.
The film ends with Nellie realising her attitudes were racist and stupid and she changes. Unfortunately Cable dies before he gets the chance.
So how anybody can say the film is racist when the whole story is patently pointing out the stupidity of racism is beyond me.
Firstly I believe the fact the film explores attitudes common at the time is exactly what Mitchener does in his novels. When Nurse Nellie says 'I can't explain it it's just emotional' in response to being asked to explain why she can't marry the man she loves because he had married a Polynesian woman - that cuts to the heart of the issue. Cable replies it isn't something people are born with it something people get spoken in their ears from age 6 or 7 to hate peoples of a different skin shade.
Even the women who sings 'Happy Happy' is called Bloody Mary and is prepared to sell her daughter to the Marine. There are extensive historical accounts of American servicemen having children with Polynesian women and leaving them after the war, similarly in the Vietnam War.
The film ends with Nellie realising her attitudes were racist and stupid and she changes. Unfortunately Cable dies before he gets the chance.
So how anybody can say the film is racist when the whole story is patently pointing out the stupidity of racism is beyond me.