Hurricane

Set in the 1920s in Pago Pago, Eastern Samoa, Charlotte, an American painter, arrives from Boston on the island of Alaya to visit her father, U. S. Navy Captain Bruckner, whom she hasn't seen in quite some time. Bruckner is the U.S. Congress-sanctioned Governor of the island, and he rules it with a stern, patrician, and thoroughly patronizing attitude towards the natives. Charlotte is somewhat taken aback by her father's rigid adherence to the law, particularly when she tries to intervene on behalf of Bruckner's charge/houseboy Matangi, who has involved Charlotte in a scheme to get Bruckner to toss out a harsh penalty issued to a native man who stole a boat "for love." Bruckner refuses, pish-poshing all this talk of love over the law, and severely reprimands Matangi, much to Charlotte's dismay.Bruckner comes to regret that intractability because Matangi is soon anointed the High Chief of his island, Alava. Matangi isn't as willing to whole-heartedly accept the edicts of the U.S. forces, particularly if they go against the well-being of his own people. His stubbornness quietly enrages Bruckner. After a public showdown between Matangi and Bruckner at Matangi's coronation comes a suggestive dance by Matangi and his intended, Siva.Charlotte wants to stay for a month on the island, chaperoned by Dr. Danielsson and Father Malone, missionaries who both reside on Alava. Despite Captain Bruckner’s jealousy over his daughter’s attraction to Matangi, he agrees to the stay and sails off for a month. Bruckner’s absence is just what the doctor ordered for Matangi and Charlotte, who quickly become lovers. When this is discovered by her father, he has Matangi arrested on a trumped-up charge. He escapes, with Charlotte's help.The lovers' fate soon rests with nature, not Captain Bruckner. Just as tensions are beginning to boil, disaster strikes in the form of a giant hurricane, bringing inevitable destruction and death with it. When the winds die down, how many lives will be shaken up?

In my opinion, Dayton Ka'ne is the star attraction of this film. Beautiful Cinematography, where the movie was filmed completly on location on the island of Bora Bora. Cast also includes, Mia Farrow, Jason Robards, Max Von Sydow, Timothy Bottoms, James Keach, Trevor Howard, Ariirau Tekurarere and Manu Tupou. I felt that Mia Farrow was miscast in this film. Although I do know people liked her in the tv serial, "Peyton Place" and the film,  Rosemary's Baby  (1968). Dayton Ka'ne sizzles the screen and his acting is honest, smooth and natural. His love scenes are tender and passionate. Those honey-colored eyes! His dancing will have you begging for more. The ceremonial dance sequences are very captivating. The Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Road To...movies were never like this. On the Road With Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Collection (Road to Singapore/Road to Zanzibar/Road to Morocco/Road to Utopia) . Dorothy Lamour was in the original movie,  The Hurricane [Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour ]. What is missing from this story is how Charlotte was able to obtain a connection to Matangi for it to become romantic so quickly. Perhaps a few more reaction shots is what we needed. The special effects of the hurricane will hold your attention. Dayton Ka'ne did one more film completed in 1979. BEYOND THE REEF (1981,) aka SHARK BOY OF BORA BORA and SEA KILLER, also produced by Dino De Laurentiis. The VHS version is in standard full screen. Released by Paramount Pictures.  Hurricane  (1979) is also available on DVD.

"You've been playing the fool, Matangi, making cow eyes with the governor's daughter. But don't despair, there's hope for you. If foolishness was a mortal sin, Hell would have been full up years ago from overcrowding."A one-time Roman Polanski project until his, er, legal problems intervened, 1979's Hurricane may boast some arthouse talents on the credits but it's got a Harlequin Romance mentality. A big budget reworking of John Ford's classic but rarely revived 30s forbidden love story cum disaster movie, it's the kind of film where the budget rarely seems to translate on screen, with $22m buying a rather second rate star cast - Mia Farrow, Jason Robards, Max Von Sydow, Timothy Bottoms and Trevor Howard, still playing the priest from Ryan's Daughter in all but name - and one of the least exciting natural disasters ever filmed. This time round rather than Jon Hall's unjustly imprisoned native sailor fighting the elements to return to wife Dorothy Lamour, it's Mia Farrow, daughter of Jason Robard's stern governor, failing to take Von Sydow's advice "In the tropics, take passion lightly and always with a grain of salt" and defying convention to fall for local chief Dayton Ka'ne. At times it's hard to tell whether Robards objects because he rather fancies his daughter himself or because their love scenes are so corny ("Marry me at once or leave my island!" "Do you hear that, gods? The high chief has spoken!"), but pretty soon he and racist Marine James Keach are sending him to certain death in prison and nature, clearly abhorring the vacuum the film exists in, gets bored and throws in a hurricane in the last half hour to try to liven things up. Nature loses.Jan Troell's unenthusiastic direction takes a tortoise and the hare approach to storytelling and a clinical, almost ant farm approach to the love story. You can almost imagine a scientist with a clipboard making notes. So disastrously short of passion it's like watching two tortoises mate, his detached style is almost heroically at odds with Lorenzo Semple's often inane, wilfully tongue-in-cheek direlogue like "It's astounding that I would ever accept love as an excuse for criminal conduct!" or "You see one palm tree, you've seen `em all." Amazingly, even a scene where a ship crashes into a church doesn't kick much life in to the picture.It's easy to see what might have appealed to Polanski - a defloration ceremony that goes violently wrong ("Don't go there, Charlotte, you wouldn't like it") and a scene where Farrow hints to her father that she'll sleep with him if he frees her lover - but the result is the kind of movie where a TV network could cut 29 minutes and nobody would complain. There are a few unintentional laughs and it's fun to catch composer Nino Rota taking his revenge on producer Dino De Laurentiis for costing him his Godfather Oscar by creeping its theme into his Hawaiian theme bar score from time to time, but it's all too easy to see why this massive money loser was so quickly forgotten - it's just dull. Even Paramount wanted nothing to do with the DVD release, sublicensing it to Legend Films, who offer a reasonable 2.35:1 transfer with only the original trailer as an extra. It's all too revealing about the film that even that can't summon up much enthusiasm until it stops showing scenes from the film and resorts to a montage of still photos to up the tempo!

This was a huge critical and commercial "disaster"on its release in 1979.The disaster movie boom was over and most other movies of its kind released at the same period bombed aswell.Think of "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure","Meteor","When Time Ran Out" and of course "The Swarm".Massive casts and minimal box office each and every one.I like them all and had not seen "Hurricane" in years and then only on a full screen, ropey,blurry old video tape.WoW.To see it in a beautiful print like this was a whole new experience.The cinematography was stunning in places and added to the sweet romance between Mia Farrow and Dayton Kane (what happened to him).If you like a story that makes you care about the characters leading upto the big effects laden finale then this is for you.The climactic hurricane of the title is an amazing feat of old school SFX .In other words no CGI.Its all done on huge sets with real water destroying everything.Who lives?Who dies? Purchase it at a really cheap price(as I did,great bargain) and enjoy classic disaster movie clichés and effects.

Not often seen disaster movie good specialEffects for the time

Delighted - this was to replace my VHS copy now and was at a great price.

Huracán es una de mis películas favoritas de los 70/80 y lamentablemente no había recibido una edición en video decente en España hasta ahora. Fué editada anteriormente tanto en VHS como en DVD pero en versiones censuradas con más de 10 minutos de metraje amputados y una imagen bastante atroz.Así que es una gozada por fin tener a nuestra disposición una copia "prensada y licenciada" y no otra de esas basurillas en DVD-R/BD-R que por desgracia pueblan España en lo que se refiere sobre todo a la re-edición de títulos de cine clásicos.Divisa (imagino que gracias al excelente master de Studio/Canal) se ha puesto las pilas y ha hecho una edición más que decente que incluye la película tanto en Blu Ray (1080p) como en DVD (576p) lo que nos permite por fin tener una copia íntegra del film con calidad Full HD.La película fué injustamente masacrada por la crítica que la tachó de muy inferior al original "The Hurricane/Huracán Sobre La Isla" (1937) pero en mi opinión se cebaron básicamente por el odio que le tenían a todas las producciones de aquella época del famoso productor italiano Dino De Laurentiis. También masacraron su versión de "King Kong" (1976) con Jeff Bridges y Jessica Lange é incluso la hoy en día considerada obra maestra del cine de superheroes camp "Flash Gordon" (1980)Huracán (1979) no pretende ser más de lo que es. Un drama épico/romántico combinado incluyendo una catastrofe ambiental que no es más que una metáfora de que el amor verdadero no puede ser vencido ni por los elementos. Recuerdo que leí que ese precisamente fué el concepto que el director originalmente contratado para llevarla a cabo Roman Polanski tenía en mente. Por desgracia se tuvo que apartar del proyecto pero Jan Troell desarrolló su idea estupendamente.Tanto la fotografía exquisita de Sven Nykvist como la maravillosa partitura de Nino Rota dotan al filme de un romanticismo etéreo casi en cada plano, en la línea de películas como "El Lago Azul"Un reparto de lujo con veteranos como Jason Robards, Trevor Howard, Timothy Bottoms y el siempre magnífico Max Von Sydow es siempre de agradecer y unos protagonistas como Mia Farrow (de belleza frágil) y el sensual nativo Dayton Ka'Ne acaban de redondear el producto.Como anécdota final comentar que se pueden ver algunos planos de "Huracán" en la intro de "Flash Gordon" cuando Ming y Klytus están disfrutando al castigar a la Tierra con diferentes cambios climáticos. Obviamente De Laurentiis amortizó las escenas catastróficas.

I love this story and took me a long time to find it. It is now part of my collectible library!!