Rogers &
Hammerstein’s South Pacific In Concert From Carnegie Hall (McEntire/Baldwin)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Concert: B-
U.S. Navy men have landed in the islands of the South
Pacific in 1942 and instead of war; they discover the mysticism of a
far-off land. Of the many Rogers and
Hammerstein Musicals, this is one of the more politically incorrect ones, if
not as bad as Carousel was. It
is still one of the popular favorites, enough to sell in its feature film
version every time it comes out on video and Rhino has decided to offer a very
recent Carnegie Hall version with Reba McEntire as the nurse, Brian Stokes
Mitchell as the rich painter, Alec Baldwin as the lead sailor and Lilias White
as Bloody Mary.
McEntire is really good, handling the narrative
storytelling vocals as easily as any of her best Country material, while
Baldwin is amusing in his interpretations of the macho approach. Mitchell is more Broadway-styled like the
rest of the cast and White is almost operatic above everyone else in her
approach. The mix is decent, but I was
not always impressed. Sometimes, the
songs do not work as well, and Bali Hai here looses some of its power by
being less mystical. Since the film, it
in particular (along with There Ain’t Nothin Like A Dame) have become
camp favorites, but the original contexts of the song had more to do with
mortality and loneliness than camp and the production tends to loose sight of
that throughout as it is more concerned with being classy than expansive. Nevertheless, it still has some good moments
and is recommended second to the feature film on DVD.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a bit soft
and detail poor, but is a simply shot stage performance not unlike the old days
of live radio. The lack of .1 LFE bass
furthers this impression. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix is a little better than the 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic
surrounds, but it is never spectacular and I would argue not as interesting as
the older mix on the feature film.
There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
