Movie Notes: Diamond Head
= 2 stars
Starring Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, James Darren
Directed by Guy Green
After watching Planet of the Apes I added some Charlton Heston films to my Netflix queue, hence this review of 1963’s Diamond Head, set in Hawaii of 1959. I grew up in Honolulu so this film was mix of amusement and annoyance. The film deserves a lot of credit for tackling the testy issue of interracial romance, but otherwise it’s unquestionably dated, and ultimately I only found it entertaining as a film record of late fifties Hawaii.
The distastefully cold bigot Richard “King” Howland (Charlton Heston) is a rich plantation owner running for senator of Hawaii. He’s displeased with the romance between his sister Sloane (Yvette Mimieux) and native Hawaiian Paul Kahana (James Darren). “King” Howland is also hypocrite, as behind closed doors he’s involved with a local, Mai Chen (France Nguyen), pregnant with his child.
The Howlands represent the imperialist goals of the mainland in the recently stated Hawaii, and I think the similarity of the name “Howland” and “haole + mainland” is intentional. Charlton Heston is gravelly and gruff, and turns in a solid performance of the rich loner. Unfortunately, a powerful racist is an odd character to center a film around. Yvette Mimieux’s soft, emotional contrast was much more appealing.
As one might expect, the portrayal of Hawaiian culture in Diamond Head is superficial, and at times unintentionally humorous. This is the Aloha shirt and tiki treatment with slide guitar. When the “full blooded Hawaiian” Paul Kahana played by teen idol James Darren first appears, it’s quite funny. Another truly laugh out loud moment is a dream sequence where Sloane swims naked in beneath a waterfall and invites her Hawaiian lovers to join her in the water. There’s also an obligatory “luau” scene where Sloane dancing the hula angers “King” Howland — It’s James Darren; relax!
Soon Diamond Head only remained interesting as cultural artifact and enjoyable look at 1950s Hawaii. We see people arriving from San Francisco on a Matson cruise line, large plantation style homes, and some slick vintage cars. And of course, we get to see old style Waikiki (largely devoid of insane crowds!) with the iconic Diamond head in the background.
Ultimately, “King” Howland gets his comeuppance. The locals don’t give a crap about this angry, rich plantation dude who hates them, and his campaign falls apart. His local lover leaves him and that subplot goes to melodrama hell. Soon he’s riding a horse, alone in the forest, considering a leap into a volcano (okay, I made that last part up, but you get the idea).
Since it takes considerable time for justice to be served, I only recommend this film for those curious about old-time Hawaii, or die-hard Charlton Heston fans.
IMDB: Diamond Head
Wikipedia: Diamond Head
Rotten Tomatoes: Diamond Head
I lived on Oahu for about three years before settling down in Chile. I can see how it was once a great place, and it is still ‘special’ in many ways to this day. But between the concrete jungles, congested highways, bloated real estate prices, methamphetimine abuse, and annoying tourists — I don’t think I could ever live there again.
South America is like Hawaii but instead of paying 2-million for a three-bedroom bungalo near Pearl City, you can get a giant beach mansion for under $500 k.
With that said, there will always be things about Hawaii that I miss (the uniquely ‘Hawaiian’ culture and pigeon dialect, my friends, when the Pali highway opens up to the valley and sea…) so it will always have a special place in my heart.
Long story short, I’m going to go rent this movie. Maybe it will bring back some memories.
Might want to check out a Hawaii Elvis flick like “Blue Hawaii” I think that’s my next stop for fifties Hawaii nostalgia.
[…] Charlton Heston (11 votes) I added this as a joke because I had just finished watching Diamond Head […]
[…] watching Diamond Head, I decided to check out Blue Hawaii, which provides a similar enjoyable look at retro fifties […]
its a great movie, thanz for info