Today, we can fast-forward through the 20 minutes in the center of the film that shows Jeffrey Hunter, David Jensen and Vic Damone sitting in a room with two Japanese women and American Patricia Owens, and all of a sudden a jazzy dance sequence begins. It's World War II, and Hunter, playing a Mexican-American who has been raised by a Japanese family, and his buddies, are on break from active duty. This segment goes on pointlessly, and after the first dance, I decided to fast forward since this segment had become annoying and pointless. It goes right into a a battle sequence which should be the most important points of this movie, followed by the aspect that Hunters character was raised by Japanese Americans.
Playing the real life war hero Guy Gabaldon, Hunter certainly is handsome but he doesn't look Hispanic at all and is thus miscast. At least the Greek George Chakaris looked Puerto Rican in "West Side Story". Outside of the opening scene where guy as a child is identified by his teacher as being Hispanic, that is barely even dealt with in this film. He is fine acting-wise and I don't begrudge him a job, but it's very jarring after reading the true story even if the script does allow his big heart to shine through when he comes across a wounded little Japanese girl, a scene that is very hard to take. The presence of George Takei in the small role gives authentication to the true life historical aspects of Japanese-Americans. I think a good 20 minutes could have been trimmed from the film, particularly at that unnecessary club sequence.
That being said, I can't recall any other films made prior to "Come See the Paradise" that dealt with the issue of the Japanese internment camps, and this does at least bring the subject up when his adoptive family has to go to one. This family is not presented as too good to be true but you can't help but want to hug his surrogate mother who calls him her son as she heads off to the camps. His surrogate siblings are typical American youth, feisty and interested in things that twenty somethings in the early 40's would be interested in. It's ironic that I randomly chose to watch this movie on the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and while it does not show the attacks (only heard being talked about on radio), the battle sequences that it does show are realistic and not without blood. Perhaps it should have been made in color to have had more of an impact. But as an introduction to Guy's life, it is a good film although I would like to see more of the true story and a more realistic presentation.
Playing the real life war hero Guy Gabaldon, Hunter certainly is handsome but he doesn't look Hispanic at all and is thus miscast. At least the Greek George Chakaris looked Puerto Rican in "West Side Story". Outside of the opening scene where guy as a child is identified by his teacher as being Hispanic, that is barely even dealt with in this film. He is fine acting-wise and I don't begrudge him a job, but it's very jarring after reading the true story even if the script does allow his big heart to shine through when he comes across a wounded little Japanese girl, a scene that is very hard to take. The presence of George Takei in the small role gives authentication to the true life historical aspects of Japanese-Americans. I think a good 20 minutes could have been trimmed from the film, particularly at that unnecessary club sequence.
That being said, I can't recall any other films made prior to "Come See the Paradise" that dealt with the issue of the Japanese internment camps, and this does at least bring the subject up when his adoptive family has to go to one. This family is not presented as too good to be true but you can't help but want to hug his surrogate mother who calls him her son as she heads off to the camps. His surrogate siblings are typical American youth, feisty and interested in things that twenty somethings in the early 40's would be interested in. It's ironic that I randomly chose to watch this movie on the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and while it does not show the attacks (only heard being talked about on radio), the battle sequences that it does show are realistic and not without blood. Perhaps it should have been made in color to have had more of an impact. But as an introduction to Guy's life, it is a good film although I would like to see more of the true story and a more realistic presentation.