Hawaii (1966) review

Reverend Abner Hale (Max von Sydow), a recent Yale Divinity School graduate, takes his virginal bride Jerusha (Julie Andrews) to Hawaii from New England, where his mission is to "convert" the "savages" to Christianity: at first he meets island matriarch Malama (Jocelyne LaGarde) who asks Jerusha to teach her how to write in English, faces resistance from the locals who aren't swayed by his preaching and then Jerusha's true love Captain Rafer Hoxworth (Richard Harris) and his whalers keep showing up to get liquor and cavort with the ladies.  The script (credited to Daniel Taradash and Dalton Trumbo), which is based on James A. Michener's doorstop, has all the elements of a potboiler (including topless Hawaiian girls!) but director Hill is too "serious" in his approach for it to truly be entertaining, and then there's the issue with Von Sydow's repugnant lead character, whose constant finger-wagging and moralizing brings the movie down - he only mellows out in very old age (long after his wife is buried) when the location is mostly white-washed.  Harris' Hoxworth is a considerably livelier individual, but the film clearly agrees with Hale ... although his advising against incest isn't the worst idea.