Search - Donovan's Reef on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1963 DVD Release: 06/05/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 48 mins Studio: Paramount Members Wishing: 2 Genres: Comedy, Comedy of Errors See Also: Donovan's Reef

John Ford's last film to deal with World War II, Donovan's Reef is an alternately comical and sentimental look back on the fighting Navy men from that war, and how and where -- in Ford's eyes, and Frank Nugent and James Edward Grant's script -- they should have ended up. Michael "Guns" Donovan (John Wayne), Thomas "Boats" Gilhooley (Lee Marvin), and Dr. William Dedham (Jack Warden), a trio of navy veterans who fought on the Pacific island of Haleakalowa during the war, now live on the island. Donovan and Gilhooley, biding time and enjoying themselves, engage in rough-house hijinks among themselves, and are both part of the doctor's extended family, enjoying the good will of the islanders for whom they fought during the war. While Dedham is away on a call to a neighboring island, his grown daughter, Amelia (Elizabeth Allen), from his first marriage, whom he has never seen, announces that she is arriving from Boston to determine Dedham's fitness of character to inherit the majority shares in the family shipping business. Donovan contrives to present Dedham's three Polynesian children, whom the doctor had with the island's hereditary princess, as his own, and also squires Amelia around the island in her father's absence. In the process, the cold Bostonian woman discovers a whole world -- of passion, joy, heroism, and a life among men and women whose lives have been about something other than making money -- that she's never known. She also understands all of the good that her father has accomplished away from Boston, even though it entailed abandoning her. Sparks and even a few fists fly between Donovan and Amelia (and between Donovan and several other characters), in the usual Ford rough-house manner, before their eventual reconciliation and a romantic clinch at the end, in this sweet, sentimental comedy-drama. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

John Wayne - Michael Patrick "Guns" Donovan
Lee Marvin - Thomas Aloysius "Boats" Gilhooley
Jack Warden - Dr. William Dedham
Elizabeth Allen - Amelia Sarah Dedham
Dick Foran - Australian Navy Officer
Cesar Romero - Marquis Andre de Lage

John Ford's final film with John Wayne has had an up-and-down reputation since its release in 1962. Although it made money at the box office, most critics at the time were disappointed by Donovan's Reef, thinking it more of a vacation indulgence by Ford than a serious effort, and nowhere near in the same league with She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, or The Searchers. Be that as it may, the film's reputation has risen in recent decades as viewers and scholars have come to see it as an extension of Ford's wartime films with Wayne, most notably They Were Expendable, as well as being related thematically (albeit distantly) to films such as Sergeant Rutledge and Cheyenne Autumn. Moreover, its warmth and seriousness now seem more relevant -- among other attributes, Donovan's Reef displays more honest feeling about World War II in a handful of scenes than Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor does in nearly three hours of screen time.
The previous video incarnations of the movie have been faded and washed out, and were hardly worth watching, much less owning; even the laserdisc was an old transfer dating from the early '80s. The film-to-video transfer on the DVD, however, is just a little short of excellent, capturing far more of the radiant color in William H. Clothier's cinematography, though one suspects that a full restoration from original elements would yield even better results. Equally important, the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 has been restored, framing the action perfectly. Nowhere does this help more than during the discussion scene between Jack Warden and Elizabeth Allen in chapter 12, where the careful cutting and the choice of camera angles, recaptured here in their precise theatrical configuration, enhances the psychological side of the conversation immeasurably. The clarity of the audio track also lends itself to Ford's intended immersion of his audience in the film's idyllic Polynesian setting. The movie is divided into 17 well-chosen chapters that mark out all of the key scenes perfectly, and are accessible individually through an easy to use menu. The only bonus feature is the original trailer, which is interesting for the way that it simplifies the story -- selling the movie short in some respects -- and misidentifies the meaning of the movie's title. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide