Paradise Isle: How Hollywood Created An Imaginary Hawaiʻi

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2024

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The purpose of this MA study is to showcase how Hollywood films from the twentieth-century have come to define the universal expectations of what Hawaiʻi and Native Hawaiians should be like. The definitions used are the byproducts of a compilation of tropes and themes produced by outside sources unfamiliar with the content and working with a foundation built on colonialism, racism, and ignorance. The main topics to be examined will be the following: how the Islands of Hawaiʻi have come to be defined as a paradise; the reoccurring caricatures of Native Hawaiian men and women; how the military-industrial complex of the United States has used its relationship with the former two to create a biased narrative of Hawaiʻi; and finally, the consequences of these tropes on viewers. The study will be conducted by using a film that has become synonymously associated with Hawaiʻi, Native Hawaiians, and the military—From Here to Eternity. The study will dissect the movie and examine how even the smallest detail has contributed to a false narrative of Hawaiʻi, Native Hawaiians, and the military-industrial complex. This research study aims not to demean or discredit the work done for the film but to present an understanding of where all these tropes came from and why they do not offer an accurate portrayal of the subject matter.

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Film studies, Ethnic studies, History, Film, Hawaii, Imaging, Military-industrial complex, Native Hawaiian, Native Hawaiian Culture

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140 pages

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