South Pacific [VHS]

Great classic Rogers & Hammerstein movie. I loved this musical many years ago (even though I'm usually not a big fan of musicals) and have tried to find it streaming for free on Netflix or Amazon Prime for so long, I finally gave up and sprung for streaming it on Amazon for the paid 48-hour rental fee. Enjoyed the movie a lot, but a couple of technical aspects to note:First off, be warned: This movie starts out with NO PICTURE at all, just an instrumental soundtrack of the film's many songs playing over a completely blank screen. Just know that this is NOT your disc player or a streaming problem; it is made that way, and if you sit it out for a few minutes ( or advance ahead if you don't want to listen to the glorious soundtrack), the picture comes along and then the credits begin to roll. As another reviewer noted, that's the way the movie was made! It's something they used to do with big motion pictures with spectacular orchestral soundtracks back in the 50's, playing this "overture" in the theater while people are taking their seats and before the picture starts up. Same deal with the "intermission" midway through the film. Just enjoy a few minutes of listening to the music while you take a quick bathroom break and run to the snack bar without having to pause the movie. The movie really should have some kind of warning about this when you buy or rent it, because so many people these days would have no idea that that's why they're getting sound with no picture, and I bet countless younger viewers have been fooled and frustrated by this, and waste their time or money on trying other formats or players, or simply give up and return the movie.The other not-so-groovy thing about seeing this movie in its remastered or HD digital version is that is has some VERY distracting, over-the-top, cheesy coloration issues that seriously brought it down a notch or two in my eyes. Even though it was already made in Technicolor and contained a lot of gorgeous colorful scenery and cinematography, it seems they got the not-so-bright idea of changing the hue of the scenes in which some of the songs are being sung by the characters, and also giving a large area of the picture a fuzzy/blurred-out, soft vignetting around the edges framing the singer. Cheesy. Just cheesy, I'm afraid. Distracting and unnecessary, so it constantly drew attention to itself.The hue-altering first came in on the song "Bali Hai", when Bloody Mary was sing about this magical, mystical island, so I thought maybe the subtle color change over the whole picture was meant to have that effect for that scene only, but then the color change became so extreme and UN-subtle that you start to realize this must be computer-generated tinkering for effect, and the colors go way too extreme, swinging from all-over purple to way too greenish-yellow during the song, until it feels like some amateur was just fooling with the basic color adjustments in a cheap video app. It was a relief when the song ended and normal color ranges returned to the screen. Unfortunately, they do this silly effect again repeatedly on other songs, where any magical, mystical island effects have nothing to do with it, so it just serves no good purpose. Ugh.As for the blurring around the edges during musical numbers, same thing. Distracts from the original film, which should be thought of as a stage play brought to the "big screen" to really appreciate what you're looking at to begin with, so seeing anything about it that looks like special effects layered onto it just kind of pops you out of the good old fashioned place you're trying to put your mind in to enjoy this in the first place.It is, after all, very old fashioned, as a story set in World War II and produced in the late fifties. This movie is a pretty fun romp I f you like to spend a couple of fairly light-hearted hours immersing yourself in that bygone era when women (or "girls") were called "dames" and the idea of people bursting into song every two minutes onscreen was much more common, so why remind the viewer repeatedly that they're seeing a new, updated copy of this film, which is, keep in mind, really a pretty out-of-date vehicle for singing, acting, storytelling and expressions in dialogue that you'd never see in today's movies. For an old classic like this, it's all about "suspension of disbelief." The music is fun, the lyrics are admirable, the acting is old-style, the stereotypes are not today's version of PC, but it's Rogers & Hamm at their best -- you know what you're getting here; if you're into that, or willing to check it out (and be prepared for these old-style musicals to be much slower paced than today's blockbusters), just enjoy the ride for what it is. That's the way I view it, anyway, so I just feel the after-the-fact adding on of PhotoShop-like effects is anachronistic and annoying.All that said, I still find this to be a fine example of a fun musical from the heyday of big picture musicals, filled with a lot of good songs that stand the test of time, memorable characters, and great scenery, and would recommend it. And if you know where to find an un-retouched version of it, probably even better.

This is a great DVD copy of the Award winning Movie “South Pacific”. It shows a time when our “Greatest Generation” did what they needed to do to save the world from Nazism and Japanese Imperialism. The musical Geniuses “Rogers and Hammerstein” made a great musical play out of the book written by the Great American author James A. Michener.This movie was produced from the book and the play. If you have never seen this movie, you should and if you ever get a chance to see the play you should do that as well.

I saw this movie with my grandmother at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood when it first came out. It made a lasting impression on me as a child and I was delighted to be able to purchase the DVD on Amazon. It dates itself with prejudice of the time but if you can get past that, the music is wonderful.

Love everything about this product and movie.

DVD is fine. Thumbs up!

First of all, the format description stating this is "1 disc" is wrong. It has 2 Blu ray discs. Disc one contains the original movie, and Disc Two contains the "Roadshow" edition of the film, with "Overture" (NOTE: the screen is BLANK during this part! it is NOT a flaw!!!), "Entr'acte" music between acts 1 and 2, and closing music at the end. Roadshows were created for BIG films, treating the showings like the opening night of a Broadway play. They were shown in large markets like LA, NY, Chicago, Detroit, and other large metropolitan areas. So, like a live play, they would provide an "overture" (selections from the songs) to be played while people seated, an "entr'act" or intermission (for longer films 2:30 and longer), and "exit" music to be played at the end while people were leaving. Women dressed in evening gowns and men in tuxedos or evening clothes. These were big events. They disappeared decades ago.As to the movie. Five stars. It is classic Rodgers & Hammerstein with unforgettable songs like "Some Enchanted Evening," "Bali Hai," "I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy," and "Younger Than Springtime." Some of which have become standards. All of the actors' songs were dubbed, with the exception of Mitzi Gaynor, but this doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the film, and are not noticeable. Famous Metropolitan Opera singer Giogio Tozzi sang Brazzi's songs. Oddly, Juanita Hall's songs were dubbed even though she sang the role in the original Broadway cast!This was a movie, in 1958, ahead of its time, dealing directly with racial bigotry, especially biracial sex and marriage. The song "Carefully Taught" takes this head-on. Although mild by today's standards, it was very controversial when R&H used it in the original show in the late 40s and in the movie in 1958. They were pressured to remove it from the original play, but they were adamant, saying that this is what the play is all about. They stood their ground, and it remained.Typically movie versions remove songs from original plays to save time (and maybe to make the movie move ahead faster? Fear of 'too much"?). SP was just the opposite. Director Joshua Logan (a good friend and colleague of R&H) actually added "My Girl Back Home," a lovely song of homesickness at being so far away during war, removed from the original for time considerations. I'm glad he did it. It is a great duet with Lt. Cable (John Kerr) and Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor).A controversial part of the film, technologically, was Logan's use of filters to add various emotional responses to scenes of the movie, such as in the song "Bali Hai," "Cock-eyed Optimist" and others. It was overused some, and Logan later apologized for it, taking the blame publicly! But it is a small, insignificant "mistake," and has actually become so strongly associated with the film that fans ignore it. Logan was actually attempting to recreated the lighting changes used in the original play (he was a theatrical director before making this, his first film).The plot, the story, the romances, the beautiful filming locations in (I believe) Hawaii, make for a memorable experience. I took my daughter and grandson to see it at a 60th anniversary showing by TCM at a local cinema, and they loved it. Even the 18-year-old! Most highly recommended! (Oh, the Blu ray version is spectacular).

This comes with a copy of the special original high quality road release video. MUCH better than the TV and general distribution movie release. Has some "cut" seines that were not included in the standard versions. Good 5.1 stereo too. Well worth it for collectors or just to enjoy the great music.

No point in reviewing the movie. That is well covered in many other reviews though I will say it is one of my all-time favourite musicals, great story, great cast, Mitzi Gaynor shines.But I want to address the Blu-ray transfer compared to the DVD I have had for many years. The DVD was formatted for 4x3 screens so I always had to use the aspect ratio controls to bring it up to the full width of the TV but on my Panasonic Plasma TV this looked quite good. There were problems on that DVD to do with how it was reconstituted from the black and white colour separations, with some shrinkage of the film stock resulting in some pronounced blue fringing late in the movie, particularly noticeable when Rossano Brazzi was sitting with his head in his hands. Also the scene where Mitzi was dancing on the upturned boat was rather poor. But these scenes were faultless in the Blu-ray. Throughout I was impressed at the definition and colour purity. There were a few scenes that to my eyes were a little on the dark side and a few scenes where the colour saturation was either a bit too high or a bit too low. But that comes under nit-picking. Compared with the DVD I noticed a few times that there were some subtle facial expressions I was seeing that I had not noticed while watching the DVD.The Blu-ray version is very well worth getting.

I first saw South Pacific back in 1958. Weeks before the film's arrival in our town, it was quite a talking point, as the cinema needed revamping to show the movie in the new high resolution widescreen format Todd-AO, with surround sound. Seeing the film was a memorable experience due to the brilliant cinema photography, the interesting story line and, of course, Roger and Hammerstein's excellent music.Because the film made a lasting impression on me, I decided to buy the DVD and watch it again. I was not disappointed. The movie has not dated, possibly due to its wartime theme. Also because of the high quality format of Todd-AO, a modern high resolution TV presents the movie perfectly without any sign of graininess. The sound quality is also excellentThoroughly recommended!

Many years since I watched this movie and I loved the Blu-ray upgrade.Cannot believe the number of memorable songs, everyone a “ hit” in its day.The lead actors could not be better and the second disc has a super documentary with many of the original cast and crew.Good to hear the “ coloured filters” were not popular at the time, and I hated them , the South Pacific landscapes look match better in natural colour.Sad that not all Rogers and Hammastien musicals are not in Blu-ray for the UK viewer.

Initial thought I had an issue of blank screen as the disk was playing despite it stated as compatible with my Blu-ray player and correct region. Anyway, found out it does take a little while before the film starts even though music playing in the background. Back to the film, I don't recall seeing this film as a child but there were music in it that I recognized as heard it before. Brilliant scenic and vibrant colours throughout with romances thrown in. Great movie for indulging whilst in isolation.

This two disc Blu-ray set, packed with extras as well as two versions of the film (the main theatrical plus extended 'Road Show' versions) will be a dream ticket for all those who saw the original cinema production and have known the DVD to fall short of that memory.There are, of course, dated aspects of both plot and screenplay. These need to be expected and accepted as the inevitable consequence of watching a film from 1958. Utopia was much more easily achieved way back then than seems possible in our multi-layered and more complex modern world!However, more importantly, this film / musical must be seen and appreciated simply in the context of what it was and still is - a wonderful escapist vision where love finally conquers all and where the ideal becomes reality! The songs are, of course, glorious peaks of the American Songbook and the emotional icing on the cake. They follow one after another with utterly memorably melodies combined with equally memorable lyrics - a tremendous example of sustained musical invention at the highest level in this genre.The technical restoration of this film is a remarkable achievement with finely restored Todd-AO colour and a well restored soundtrack in 5.1 surround. The Road Show version is in stereo only but most will choose to watch the original theatrical version.In my opinion this is a totally successful restoration of a perennial favourite and fully deserving of a 5 star rating. It should give much pleasure to all of those who are returning to it with rose-tinted glasses as well as having much to offer for younger viewers!................................Further information kindly supplied by Al Baker:Some confusion here as to what constitutes the original version. The so called theatrical version is the cut version produced for 35mm screening on general release (cut in order to get more screenings in during the day). The original première version is the roadshow version and it is a great pity that this has not been fully restored.........................................Some dialogue from the comments section that may offer further help:Some confusion here as to what constitutes the original version. The so called theatrical version is the cut version produced for 35mm screening on general release (cut in order to get more screenings in during the day). The original première version is the roadshow version and it is a great pity that this has not been fully restored. (U.K. review)............................................