Given the epic nature of James Michener's thousand-page novel "Hawaii," if the first film did any kind of positive business whatsoever, a sequel was bound to happen. The result is actually quite good, though nowhere near as good as George Roy Hill's original. Practically none of the original cast or crew has returned. Hill was succeeded as director by Tom Gries; Trumbo and Taradash are replaced on script duty by James R. Webb ("How the West Was Won," "Cheyenne Autumn"), who certainly had a bizarre gift for crafting intelligible and reasonably entertaining stories out of momentous historical hoopla. And since it takes place a couple generations after the end of the first film, obviously the cast is all gone. Charlton Heston adds more than prestige (he also adds presence and strength) to the central character of Whip Hoxworth, with Geraldine Chaplin decent but underused as his odd wife Purity. Mako is terrific as a Chinese peasant farmer who comes to Hawaii after cheating himself a new wife-- Char Nyuk Tsin, played by Tina Chen in a performance that starts off rather uninteresting but blossoms into a real stunner. The story goes on through racial strife, economic and ecological developments on the islands, political turmoil, and personal tragedy, very much in the spirit of the first "Hawaii" but without all the buildup (remember how much time had passed before we saw the islands in the first one?) and with a quicker pace. The film is lush, intriguing, and adequately enacted, but there are a few obstacles to overcome before you can really get into it. The worst of these is Henry Mancini's tacky, obvious, ethnic cliché-infused score, which comes nowhere near the scope, emotion or wonderment of Elmer Bernstein's original. If Bernstein couldn't have been secured, surely there was a better option (Jerry Goldsmith springs to mind) than Henry "The Pink Panther" Mancini. But the score does have a few moments of... well, adequacy. Given that the film obviously failed and-- having never been released on either VHS or mass-market DVD-- both suffers in obscurity while toiling in notoriety, and given that the first film was (at least to this reviewer) almost thoroughly a masterpiece, "The Hawaiians" is much better than can be expected. And compared to the lame sequels that stuff the cineplexes these days, it plays off like a "Citizen Kane" or a "Godfather."

I'm sure that what attracted Charlton Heston to sign on for The Hawaiians was the fact he'd be working with director Tom Gries with whom he had done Will Penny and Number One. Will Penny was Heston's favorite film. The Hawaiians would mark the third and final joint project the two men worked on.Heston plays the grandson of that New England sea captain Richard Harris from the film Hawaii and the James Michener book it is based on. He's every bit the hell raiser that grandfather was, but has an eye for business and does have a vision for Hawaii. Of course it's not the same vision as the native Hawaiians had or the same vision that Chinese and Japanese immigrants have. That in a nutshell is the history of Hawaii.The rest of the white characters are descendants from the characters in the first film. The added component are the characters of Mako and Tina Chen who immigrate to Hawaii from China and found a small dynasty of their own. Their story and that of Heston and his family entwine over several decades.One thing I will say about The Hawaiians that is most admirable. The Asian and Pacific Islander characters you see here are portrayed as three dimensional and with dignity. No fortune cookie stereotypes are to be found in The Hawaiians. I've always been of the opinion that you cannot make a bad film about Hawaii because the scenery is so beautiful. The Hawaiians is no exception and the film did get an Oscar nomination for costume design.Tina Chen does a remarkable job as the matriarchal head of her family after Mako dies of leprosy on the island of Molokai. In a patriarchal culture that was by no means an easy thing. Her performance is the best acting in The Hawaiians.The Hawaiians has an Edna Ferber like sweep in its plot and its subject. It's also sticking close to the facts in terms of Hawaiian history, a very worthy film to see.

The impact "The Hawaiians" has made on this viewer stretches over many years. Not only because it finishes the story initiated by the earlier film release, "Hawaii," which is readily available on video. But also because within this film we enjoy an epic life's story of a Chinese m woman, played by Tina Chen, who only speaks the Hakah mountain dialect. She arrives in Hawaii with almost no English, but a strong desire to survive and succeed. She is the center figure of the story and as such, she gives birth to five sons and ultimately one daughter all by a man, also from China, played by Mako. She dedicates herself to him. This guy, by the way, is already married to a woman still living in China,his first wife, who he sends much of his earnings to. So our Heroine, must be her own children's "auntie."When her husband contracts Leprosy, Wu Chow's Auntie, as she is now called by everybody who knows her, nobly follows her husband to the outcast Island of Molokai where she takes care of him until he dies.(Mako is not Chinese but an excellent Japanese-American actor. We can see him in his latest film as the Admiral who attacks "Pearl Harbor."} Thanks to the friendship of the Hawaiian Island Master played by Charlton Heston, this great lady, who miraculously does not contract the dreaded Leprous disease, is allowed to return to her children, now grown to teenagers. All five boys,and the youngest, a girl, born at the Leper Colony and sent home just after her birth, have all managed to still be living together at the old homestead. Although missing for so many year, they are nevertheless, glad to see their mother, but when Wu Chow's Auntie begins to take charge and direct them, declaring which son will be a lawyer and which a doctor etc.; they are astonished and resistantly shout questions ... " How can we do this, we have no money. " Wu Chow's Auntie listens patiently to all the reasons for why her expectations are impossible. Then the noble mother pulls herself to her fullest height, surely no more then five feet, and declares, looking each child in his eyes until he is forced to lower them: "Impossible has come back from Molokai." Naturally to find out what happens to this woman you have to read James Michener's epic novel. This one scene alone, would make the film a MUST SEE in my opnion. I really am impatient with the controllers who are delaying the release of this wonderful story. Come on guys, get moving.. Give us "The Hawaiians," on VHS and DVD too.

Out of all of the "Hawaiians" conversions of James Michner's novels, I lke this one best("The Hawaiians"). It has a possible plot of how Hawaii began its Pineapple industry. The Pineapple actually being in the Palm Tree family and what a person is eating is the soft inner pulp of the tree. It is was actually produced in New Guinee and it was a death offense to transport live Pineapple from there.