I have a sort of on-the-fence feel about this film. I know this is a result of its time, including clichés of the Polynesian people that you have to take with a grain of salt. The 1930s were not exactly a time period of embracing diversity and fighting against racism. It also includes certain tropes of adventure movies that are sexist, such as the main male character Taro kidnapping his bride Lilleo from another island because "that's what his tribe does". Followed by her falling in love with him through what is basically Stockholm Syndrome. That being said, this is one of the few early Hollywood movies I have ever seen which tried to show the abomination of enslaving a group of people. It doesn't do it well, but it gets a C for effort. The film shows everything through the eyes of Taro and the other Polynesians. You see their lives and hear their language (which was probably a Hollywood, bastardized version of a Polynesian language- I'm not entirely sure). They are simply people living out their daily lives, although their daily lives are made out a little like a travel brochure. You see the way the islanders are tricked by by the mining company and then worked to exhaustion. Despite the cheesy romance and rather slapped together ending, this has the underlying message of the cruelty of stealing another person's life for greed. Overall, it is still tame in comparison to history. Also, I understand this is credited as being, in part, based on Herman Melville's Typee, but I really didn't see many similarities except for a few of the customs of the islanders. All in all, it is a beautifully photographed movie and deserves some recognition for it's attempt to be different in its storytelling.
Review of Last of the Pagans
