A Song of Love: ‘South Pacific’
Monthly Theme Prompt Response: Essay
“I am as corny as Kansas in August
I am as normal as blueberry pie:
No more a smart little girl with no heart,
I’ve found me a wonderful guy…’
Set in 1943, on an island in the South Pacific, the 1958 American musical film ‘South Pacific’ was loosely based on James Michener’s ‘Tales of the South Pacific.’ The film was, of course, based on the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name. The film was directed by Joshua Logan, and it stars Mitzi Gaynor, France Nuyen, Rossano Brazzi, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall and John Kerr. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and won the Academy Award for Best Sound, for Fred Hynes.
The film is replete with songs, every one of them melodious and hummable. One of the songs which seemed to have been edited out was a song that John Kerr’s character sings, which says, that you have to be taught to hate what looks different from you…A rather sinister touch, but most versions don’t have it anymore, I think.
Although there are several themes woven into the movie, the one I like the best is the theme of hope and optimism and a belief that love conquers all. And there is nothing that expresses all these themes, as well as this one song sung by Mitzi Gaynor. Sung with a touch of defiance, she asserts that she doesn’t care what people say, she would then, and always believe in love:
“I’m in the conventional dither,
With the conventional star in my eye
And you’ll note
There’s a lump in my throat
When I speak of that wonderful guy…”
Maybe it is irrational and illogical to believe in these rosy pictures, and maybe these will never materialise: but I would, like Nurse Nellie, still hope that this kind of love would drop, like manna from heaven, into every person’s life.
For me, this song will always be a song of love and hope and optimism.
©️ 2022 Suma Narayan. All Rights Reserved.
This is the fifth in a series of essays about some of the music and songs which move me. It is a response to Ravyne’s prompt, tweaked a little:
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