User Reviews

Not many movies have been made that show Hawaii outside of the Honolulu environs. So, "Diamond Head" is a good film just for its panoramas and depiction of ranching and farming on the outer islands. As others have noted, the movie doesn't have anything to do with Diamond Head itself. But the title is a colorful beacon for the film, much as the crater promontory is a striking backdrop to Waikiki Beach.

As others have noted, much of the plot is about the racism that existed at the time. The main character, King Howland, played by Charlton Heston, is conflicted over racial differences. He doesn't appear to look down on native Hawaiians or Asians, and he comments that the whites-only club keeps out the people who make the best company. He has a relationship with a Chinese woman, Mai Chen, played by France Nuyen, who seems to be the love of his life, and he says so. But, he draws the line against interracial marriage in his family. So, he won't marry Mai Chen and he can't accept her having a baby. King's deceased wife's sister, on the other hand, is a hard-nosed racist. King raised his much younger sister, Sloane, played by Yvette Mimieux. She is the catalyst who would bring change into the Howland family by her plans to marry a native Hawaiian whom she has known since childhood. She notes that other mixed marriages take place in Hawaii.

Some other factors enter into the plot. King is tabbed to run for one of the first U.S. Senate seats in Hawaii. His mistress, Mai Chen, becomes pregnant with his baby. How all of this plays out is the substance of the movie. The setting is 1959, and Hawaii has just become the 50th state in the United States. The Howlands own their own island in the Hawaiian chain, Lanoalani. They have their own plane to fly to and from their fictitious home. The island is home to a ranch of 250,000 acres that appears to produce pineapples, sugar cane and cattle.

The movie is based on a novel by a Honolulu newspaperman, Peter Gilman. But it departs from the book considerably. The screenplay eliminates some major characters who are important in the novel, "Such Sweet Thunder." So, we movie viewers are left without any clear picture of Howland's father, wife and half-brother. We do know that after his parents died, King raised his baby sister. He also married and had a son, and his wife and son were killed in a tsunami some years before. Since then, his sister-in-law came to live with him to help raise Sloane.

With that background, I'll leave off comments on how the movie plays out. But I thought movie lovers might be interested in some trivia about Hawaii that relates to the movie plot.

The Howland island and ranch are fictitious, but Hawaii did have some large ranches in the past. The largest of those, the Parker Ranch, was established in 1847 on the big island, Hawaii. It has 250,000 acres and is one of the largest and oldest ranches in the entire U.S. The last of the blood and marriage line of Parker owners died in 1992, and the ranch today is operated by a charitable trust. The Parker ranch mostly produces livestock.

While the movie was made and released in 1963, its setting is in 1959. In 1960, the world's largest recorded earthquake struck Chile. The 8.8 or 9.5 temblor created a major tsunami. A 35-foot wave struck Hilo Bay on the big island with deadly force. It killed 61 people and destroyed more than 500 homes and businesses in downtown Hilo. The population of Hawaii Island's largest city then was about 25,000, and today it's about 45,000. Other areas of the islands had much less damage. But Hawaii has a history of many tsunamis. The U.S. Geological Survey lists 50 tsunamis in Hawaii since the early 1800s. Seven of those have caused major damage.

The tsunami that took the lives of King's wife and son may have been fictitious. Or, the book author may have intended it to be the 1946 tsunami that struck Hawaii. That would have been 13 years before the opening of the movie, and seems to fit with King's loss of his family. The 1946 tsunami was the worst of modern history in the islands. An earthquake in the Aleutian Islands triggered it. But unlike the 1960 event, for which there was considerable warning, the 1946 tsunami struck without warning. It killed 170 people – mostly around Hilo. The bay wave was 30-feet high and the maximum wave reached 55 feet at the northern tip of the island.

When Richard "King" Howland (Charlton Heston), a rich plantation owner, widower, and possible political candidate in Hawaii circa 1959, nicknamed "King" for the way he tries to control everything in his life, finds out that his younger sister Sloane (Yvette) intends to marry a local Hawaiian boy Paul (James Darren), even though she's long been pining for his racially mixed doctor brother Dean (George Chakiris of West Side Story fame), his seemingly almost ideal life comes crashing down around him when his stubborn, hypocritical racism leads to a series of misfortunes. Though he never thought much of intermingling "the races" before, even having a Hawaiian mistress himself, who is now pregnant with his child, the idea of his sister marrying one and having interracial children appalls him. After Paul dies in a fight that smears King's name and ruins his career, he continues to having falling outs with his sister in law Laura (Elizabeth Allen), who of course had feelings for him all along but could never reach him, his sister, and his mistress. Even as he begins to realize that his stubborn ways are destroying all that he holds dear he can't seem to let go. After his mistress dies giving birth to his son, Dean comes to finally make it clear that he and Sloane will be together regardless of whether or not big brother approves, King lashes out at both of them and rides off, blinded by anger and unable to think. Finally at the end of a long ride, King seems to have a moral awakening, then returns home to find Sloane & Dean gone with his son, he gets his closest servant to come with him as he drives out to reclaim his son.

Competently made drama about the futility of hatred and racism, generally well acted all around. Heston gives an overlooked yet interesting performance as a man who, as his mistress puts it, is determined to not to let himself be happy.

From the beginning of the film when manly Chuck Heston majestically rides his horse through the sprawling pineapple fields, to the triumphant swelling of a young John Williams' score, the viewer knows that this movie is BIG.

Well, it is big in the sense that it's one of those big soap operas that were popular in the mid-50's to the mid-60's, trademarks of producer Ross Hunter (not the maker of this one, though).

The plot is rather simple: plantation owner (Heston) has a little sister (Yvette Mimieux) that's carrying on with a native boy (James Darren), much to the displeasure of Heston, who himself is having a fling with a native girl (France Nuyen, looking appealing as ever). Thus, all things come out in the open, though tragically, and the hypocritical Heston finds himself a wealthy man, abandoned and alone.

Diamond Head was a so so to reasonable film about power and mixed marriage, but nothing special.

I did not care for any character in this film. Richard's suppose to be unlikable, but Sloane isn't much better, she will basically have anyone who will jump into the water with her. Jumping from one brother to the next. Sloane: Feel? That's just it, I don't feel. Anything. Paul must of loved me and all I felt was a blank. I don't know how to love. Then she gets with Dean after telling him this. This is a romance?? There was no chemistry between anyone. It was an interesting and engaging enough film though.

Unless I missed it, there's not a single reference to Diamond Head in this Hawaii-set soap opera. Nevertheless, the meaningless title is not the most perplexing thing about the film. What's astounding is how seriously Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, James Darren & George Chakiris take this melodrama. Heston is Richard "King" Howland, a modern day ruler of a plantation where nothing transpires without his input. Mimieux is his extraordinarily younger sister, bent on marrying islander Darren. A lot of lurid nonsense ensues as Heston's hypocrisy is revealed. There's no action, some fairly lousy acting and some rather dull direction by Guy Green. Heston says "damn" a lot, Mimieux gets drunk a lot and France Nuyen (as Heston's kept woman) espouses a lot of common sense advice to virtually everyone. Frankly, the film is so boring, an eruption by ANY volcano would have been most welcome.

This is a big film -- the kind of film made from big novels about big ideas about big people, like Charlton Heston's character (originally written for Clark Gable) "The King." In fact, it reminds me of Edna Ferber's "Giant", or James Michener's "Hawaii." The themes of racism and family strife that motivate the film might have been daring in the early 60s but aren't compelling enough at this point to power the film's entire running length.

The big revelation in the film, for me, was (3rd billed) George Chakiris' performance. I never really thought of him as much of an actor, but he definitely nailed this role. He's not a man who is unlikable, but rather a man who doesn't want to be liked (or, perhaps, who doesn't want to need to be appreciated, only respected). At first, his pride and resentment seem simply racially motivated and come off as jealousy; eventually, we begin to see Heston's "King" the same way Chakiris' character does.

James Darren is attractive and serviceable, and Heston approaches the role with his usual sincerity and self-sacrifice (he's not afraid to gradually turn this respectable powerful man into a heel). Yvette Mimieux has a bit too much of a baby face for the role.... at times it feels like a Gidget movie with her and Darren running around on the beach. But her performance is OK.

There's just nothing really compelling or moving about any of these characters. Overblown, novelistic dialog doesn't help. The film feels a travelogue with melodrama thrown in, like a 20s/30s MGM movie (with Clark Gable, of course!) by Victor Fleming or Woody Van Dyke movie, but cinematographer turned director Guy Green is no Victor Fleming. There are some awesome compositions, but they sort of fly by in the midst of the relatively trite plot directions. The characters take their situations so seriously that one is reminded of Douglas Sirk, sans irony.

This movie was a good one for showing another view point in racism with a wealthy young white heiress who lives in Hawaii getting engaged with a native of the island that she grew up with. Her brother who always thought he was unbiased until it came to his little sister's beau has a big problem with it.

Although, all along you get the feeling that she's only fond of him, after his death she goes on a binge. Not because she's sad, but because she's not sad. She states to his brother, Dean, (who she carries a torch for, and he also has wanted her for years) that his brother must of loved her but all she felt was a blank, she doesn't know how to love. She makes him leave her alone, but not long after she collapses from drinking an calls out for him. He comes to get her and takes her to his home where they come to terms with there feelings toward each other. Just when another wedding is being planned they fight and don't see each other for months. Until the birth of her brother's baby (that he doesn't want) when Dean realizes he can't go with out her anymore and comes for her. She apparently comes to realize she could love all along it just had to be the right man and agrees with a kiss. Then her brother, King sees and throws a fit, telling Dean to take her and riding his horse into the ground. At this point he seems to wake up. And endears himself by going to get his son.

There is mention about a incestuous undertone between Sloane and King. There wasn't any sexual tension between them, just plain tension. King had go use to her always being is baby sister, his pet. He didn't have anyone else in his life, didn't want anyone else, he just had her. Racism was a big part of his actions, selfishness at the forefront. The scene where Sloane is dreaming about skinny dipping (reference to an earlier remark made by Dean about the time she jumped into the water buck naked and urged him to join her, but he didn't) and motioning to Dean to join her and then Dean turns into Paul, who runs in and kisses her. When he pulls away he is still Paul and she's smiling, but when she opens her eyes he has turned into King and she jerks away in misery and desperation and starts going under the water as if she is drowning. I don't believe this was suppose to be in response to some incestuous feelings that may have existed between the two siblings. It was to point out that King pushed himself into every part of her life. He set out to live up to his name and dominate and rule every part of his life and Sloane couldn't escape him even in her sleep, he had become her nightmare, never giving her peace. She had feelings of at least a young crush on Dean at an early age and he wanted her as well, but, from comments he makes later, he knew that deep down King was a racist and would not take to the idea of him becoming involved with his sister and it could only cause trouble with the still too young Sloane. She grows up, get's with Paul when they are returning from college. She never loved Paul, though. Was just attracted to him and the idea of marrying him. King objects to her marrying an island boy. He became violent about is objections, Paul is accidentally killed and Sloane is upset because she's not upset. King pushed in between her and Paul and on some level it locked in her mind. King pushes himself into everything in her life, even a dream. She can't escape him.

I find Dean enthralling and loved the actor's performance. I don't think his upset was because he knew his brother would get trouble from the racial aspect, it was because he had feeling for Sloane. I'm sure he was worried for his brother, sure. But in a part of his mind he had marked Sloane for himself, even though he made up his mind to never have her. It just hit home when he found out about Paul and Sloane. You don't get a time stamp on these events, you just know it's been years. He cared about her regardless and when they were thrown together he only put up a slight hesitation before giving in to his feelings. Then of course they both had to be stubborn and fight, not talking for months until they were forced into proximity. Which was good in my opinion. Gave Sloane the time to work some stuff out in her mind (Dean said there was a war going on in her head and she had to decide who win's) and grow up. He realized that what he felt for her was too strong to ignore and he went to get her. I loved his arrogance, though it may not have been arrogance, maybe he just knew that she would be ready to take his hand if he held it out. He went to get her and it seemed almost a formality to go through the motions of apologizing and declaring his intentions out loud. He even told her "You know why I'm here". All he had to do was show up and he did. She wouldn't make the first step so he did. He knew all along it would be that way and she seemed to be waiting. Waiting on herself, mostly. She had to be ready. When he took her in his arms and held her tight she seemed happy for perhaps the first time in her life. Like coming home.