As Hawaii moves well into the 19th century, sea captain Whipple "Whip" Hoxworth (Charlton Heston) returns to Hawaii to learn that his grandfather has died and left the family businesses to Micah Hale (Alec McCowen), Whip's cousin and the husband of Whip's sister Malama (Mary Munday). The will leaves Whip only with the Hanakai plantation, "8,500 acres of nothing", on which he decides to try growing pineapples. Meanwhile, young Chinese immigtant Nyuk Tsin (Tina Chen) also arrives in Honolulu with her "husband" Mun Ki (Mako). Their lives are about to intertwine as the story unfolds over the next 30 to 40 years.
The Hawaiians is a sequel to the 1966 movie Hawaii (1966), both of which are based on American writer James Michener's epic novel Hawaii (1959). Although the novel spans the eleven centuries between the ninth century C.E. and the mid-1950s, The Hawaiians focuses only on events taken from chapters four and five ["From the Starving Village" and "From the Inland Sea"] that were set in Honolulu during the last half of the 19th century. Those two chapters were adapted for the screen by American screenwriter James R. Webb.
The only major character from Hawaii to return in The Hawaiians is Micah Hale, the eldest son of Reverend Abner (Max von Sydow) and Jerusha (Julie Andrews) Hale, who was sent back to Boston at the end of Hawaii in order to attend Yale University. Mention is also made at the beginning of The Hawaiians of Rafer Hoxworth (Richard Harris) as the recently-deceased grandfather of new principal character Whipple Hoxworth and his sister Malama. Two other new characters—Dr Whipple Jr (Chris Robinson) and Janders (Lyle Bettger)—are presumed to be descendents of characters introduced in Hawaii, i.e., Dr John Whipple (Gene Hackman) and Captain Janders (George Rose).
An exact time span is not given in the movie, but an estimate can be made. The movie opens with the recent death of Rafer Hoxworth. Based on the movie Hawaii, Rafer was around 40 years old in 1835 when Jerusha Hale died at the age of 36. Assuming that Rafer lived long enough to become a grandfather to a grown-up Whipple Hoxworth, i.e., another 30 to 40 years, it would have been around 1865 to 1875 when Rafer died. In the second half of the movie, Queen Liliuokalani is shown on the throne. Liliuokalani's reign began in 1891 and ended with her abdication in 1893. In the final scenes of the movie, Whipple notes that Hawaii has finally been annexed to the United States, an action which occurred in 1898, and bubonic plague results in the burning of Chinatown, a real incident that took place in 1899. Altogether, these dates indicate a possible 34-year time frame that spanned from 1865 to 1899, i.e., the second half of the 19th century.
In the movie, the Punti are described as "mountain people" and the Hakka as "valley people". Punti actually translates literally as "original land" and Hakka as "guest family". The Punti are the original Chinese people who lived in Southern China. The Hakka Chinese migrated into the area because of social unrest during the Qing Dynasty. Puntis and Hakkas spoke different Chinese dialects and had been in conflict with each other for centuries for the rights to own and farm the lands. This conflict eventually lead to the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars [1855-1867].
The movie depicts Whipple's wife Purity (Geraldine Chaplin) as growing more and more mentally unstable as she became increasingly distant to her husband after the birth of their only son Noel, until she finally leaves Whipple and goes off to live as the native Hawaiians once did before the haoles came to the islands. Purity's "insanity" is explained as either postpartum depression or her being one-quarter royal Hawaiian, probably of the alii nui line, which had been interbreeding amongst themselves for centuries.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. Left untreated, it causes peripheral nerve damage, loss of sensation in the extremities, and disfiguring skin lesions. Not until the mid-20th century was there an effective cure for leprosy. Prior to that time, persons infected with leprosy were isolated in leper colonies, one of which was Kalawao on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, which is where Kee Mun Ki (Mako) was sent, accompanied by his wife Char Nyuk Tsin, Wu Chow's Auntie (Tina Chen). Although leprosy is considered noncontagious, it is still found in many countries worldwide. Since the 2000s decade, leprosy has emerged as a problem in HIV patients on antiretroviral drugs.
When the lepers have boarded the ship to Molokai, the captain calls out "All kokuas aboard!", and Wu Chow's Auntie joins her Mun Ki. "Kokua" means "helper" in Hawaiian. A kokua in the context of this movie is a nonleprous person who agrees to accompany an afflicted person to Molokai and care for him or her. A sick person with a kokua was better able to get the care needed, whereas a leper without a kokua was forced to care for himself. When the leper died, his or her kokua, if not afflicted with leprosy, was allowed to leave Molokai and return home.
Contrary to popular belief, pineapples are not native to Hawaii. Historical accounts place its origin in South America and claim that the fruit was actually introduced to Hawaii by Captain James Cook in 1770; and that Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adventurer who arrived in Hawaii in 1794 and became a trusted friend and adviser to King Kamehameha the Great, experimented with raising pineapples in the early 1800s. However, commercial cultivation did not begin until the 1880s, during the time frame of this movie, when steamships made transporting the perishable fruit viable. Whipple explains to Nyuk Tsin, when he gives her a dried-up pineapple plant and asks her to plant it in her little garden, that the French refuse to export pineapples and that, if she can get it to grow, he is willing to sail to French Guiana and smuggle some out.
Whipple's son Noel (John Phillip Law) returns to Hawaii, now a grown man. He meets and falls in love with Wu Chow's Auntie's daughter Mei Li (Virginia Ann Lee) and wants to marry her, but both Whipple and Wu Chow's Auntie are against it. Meanwhile, the plague has arrived on Hawaii, popping up in Chinatown. To prevent its spread, the authorities burn down all the buildings in Chinatown, leaving Mun Ki's family broke. After the fires have died down, Whipple and Wu Chow's Auntie discuss what they're going to do next. Whipple intends to buy up some land now that it's "dirt cheap", and he offers to loan her enough money to cover her debts plus enough to buy a little bit more land while it's still cheap. Wu Chow's Auntie agrees and adds "And Mei Li marry Noel." In the final scene, Wu Chow's Auntie is back on Molokai, talking to Mun Ki over his grave, telling him how many children each of his sons have.
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- How long is The Hawaiians?2 hours and 14 minutes
- When was The Hawaiians released?June 17, 1970
- What is the IMDb rating of The Hawaiians?6.1 out of 10
- Who stars in The Hawaiians?
- Who wrote The Hawaiians?
- Who directed The Hawaiians?
- Who was the composer for The Hawaiians?
- Who was the producer of The Hawaiians?
- Who was the cinematographer for The Hawaiians?
- Who was the editor of The Hawaiians?
- What is the plot of The Hawaiians?Captain Whip returns to Hawaii. He's inherited "worthless" land. He starts a plantation, staffed with a Chinese couple from his ship. Drilling thru lava for water and stealing/smuggling pineapple from French Guyana, things look brighter.
- How much did The Hawaiians earn at the US box office?$277,000
- What is The Hawaiians rated?R
- What genre is The Hawaiians?Adventure and Drama
- How many awards has The Hawaiians been nominated for?2 nominations
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