Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

vivscripts I loved this movie!!!!! Charlton Heston (King) as the bigoted brother or Yvette Mimieux (Sloane)was superb. The story still has relevance. There is racism on both sides of the fence. Throw in a triangle of James Darren (Paul) brother to George Chakiris (Dean) and you have a very entertaining movie. Super hot chemistry between Chakiris and Mimieux. Some didn't like the cast. I don't have a problem with it, just as long as the acting is good. I even liked the supporting players like France Nyugen as the beautiful but doomed Mai Chen and Philip Ahn as the police inspector. But I have to say the script stank to high heaven. The dialogue was line after line of what I can only think the writer thought was catch phrases. Margaurite Roberts wrote a lot of old westerns. The dialogue would have been perfect for a campy old western but for a modern day setting it was only a distraction from what should have been a very important story line. For instance... "My brother knows you were born to the purple, but he doesn't know how much you like to wear it." and how can I forget... "Look, I hit you and I'm sorry. It's been hurting ever since."????? Did she really think this was cool, or that real people talk to each other this way. I love the movie, but the script? PLEASE!!!!! Maybe this movie could be redone. Anyway script problems and all I still love the movie.

a666333 The first thing that hit me about this movie was an appreciation of the wide screens and bright colours that prevailed in movies of that era. Hawaii looks great here. On a large screen, that alone would have been worth the price of admission. As for that other stuff, cast, acting, directing, story, dialogue, etc. Well, this is a soap opera and don't expect too much more except that the plot angles focus on race, ethnic relations and class and this gives them a bit more substance than some other soap operas such "The Picnic" or "Portrait in Black". At the time, it probably skated the line between being edgy enough to intrigue the audience but not so controversial to be scandalous. Today, it comes across as pretty mild although the issues themselves have certainly not disappeared. Nothing and no one is either brilliant or terrible although Philip Ahn's small part is excellent and produces a strong moment. Heston has his huge screen presence but this is not one of his classic roles. There is not enough there for it to possibly become that. Mimieux looks great and her role is as essential as Heston's and is a soap opera archetype. Nuyen also looks great and, as usual for her in the 60s, melancholy.

bkoganbing I wonder if the late J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina ever saw this film. He would have understood the character of Charlton Heston in this movie as few others are capable of. As we all know, several years after Thurmond's death in 2003 at 101, a black woman who was his illegitimate daughter came out with a book about the South's long standing segregationist and Dixiecrat candidate for president in 1948.The film is set in Hawaii in 1959 just upon Hawaii's admission as a state and Charlton Heston comes from a family not unlike the Parkers who still have a ranch on Hawaii's big island that takes a lot acreage there and is the state Ponderosa. Heston's being touted as someone who could be one of their first two US Senators. He's a widower whose wife and son were killed years ago in the famous tidal wave at Hilo and lives at the ranch with his wife's sister Elizabeth Allan and his sister Yvette Mimieux.Having visited Hawaii for a glorious week I can speak to Hawaii's reputation for tolerance, but even paradise will have a few racial trolls. Even though he's got a Eurasian mistress, France Nuyen of long standing whom he's just put in a family way, he objects mightily to the proposed interracial marriage of native Hawaiian James Darren and Mimieux. When his objections become the underlying cause of tragedy, Heston's political career is shot to pieces. What might fly in Alabama has no place in Hawaii.During his career Heston also played Thomas Jefferson which came out the same year as Diamond Head. I'm wondering if he didn't channel some of Jefferson into playing 'King' Howland who had a well known backstairs interracial relationship with Sally Hemmings. If Patsy or Polly Jefferson had ever come to father and said they were going to marry some free black man, I imagine Jefferson would have reacted the same way as Heston does with Mimieux.Diamond Head is a nice Hawaiian soap opera which could have made some great prime time Dynasty like viewing with a pineapple twist. But it fails utterly in conveying any serious message about racial tolerance. Still you can't shoot a bad looking film on Hawaii and since the cast shot it on location, they're all ahead of the game if they got to spend time on the islands. Charlton Heston even got to do it again several years later in The Hawaiians.Besides those I've mentioned look for George Chakiris as Darren's half brother, Aline McMahon as their mom and Philip Ahn as a most efficient police inspector. What I liked about what Ahn did with the part is that it could have been played like Charlie Chan and it wasn't.You can never go wrong with a Hawaiian based film. Even the worst films are never bad looking and Diamond Head is far from the worst.

Boyo-2 This might be one of (maybe) seven movies made in Hawaii in the 60's that does not star Elvis. He could have stopped by, Lord knows anything would have helped.Speaking of which, for some very annoying reason, Charlton Heston is referred to as the 'King' by the other characters. Yvette Mimieux is his sister who is in love with a Hawaiian and that does not fly well with the dominating King, but its not like Troy Donahue was an alternative, right? They ARE in Hawaii, right? She carries on with James Darren, heavily made up and George Chakiris is around since the year before he away with playing a Puerto Rican in "West Side Story", so why not? He plays a doctor but I think the only thing in his medicine bag is his Supporting Oscar, to remind anyone who asks what the hell he's doing in this movie. In the meantime, Heston, ever the hypocrite, is having an affair with a Hawaiian woman (Nuyen) and apparently the movie is racist enough to make the statement that Hawaiians are okay to sleep with but don't mix the bloodlines. All prejudice is right on the table and even an elderly Hawaiian woman admits to her own reverse-prejudice. How nice. I am a big Mimieux fan and even watched her other effort with Heston, called "Skyjacked". She is very beautiful in my eyes and a decent actress.With that in mind, if you're in the mood for some heavily dated, overacted melodrama, you could do a lot worse. I still wish someone would explain to me why Heston had such a great career. Its not like there weren't 30 other actors who could've done better in any of the movies he was in. He was from a time when there was no shortage of competent leading men who could look good on the screen AND act. He's not really evil enough in this to make a memorable villian and since the movie rests on his huge jaw, its not as trashy as it could have been, or as classy either.