Blue Hawaii Postcards
"Blue Hawaii" is one of my favorite bad movies. It has a carefree, screwball comedy exterior covering some very disturbing undercurrents of domestic abuse, racism, and alcoholism. One of the many ways that modern film audiences reveal and discuss underlying disparities between the gloss and the grit is through the ritual of the drinking game. My friends and I have developed a drinking game to go along with this movie, so please feel free to rent it and play along.
1. Drink once every time there is an episode of domestic violence or violence (including verbal abuse) towards women.
2. Drink once every time someone (of any gender or species) wants to have sex with Elvis.
3. Drink once every time "natives" or other races are portrayed in grossly stereotypical ways.
4. Drink once every time someone is clearly under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or discusses someone else's intoxication.
5. Drink once every time the instruments on screen are not the instruments on the soundtrack.
6. Drink once every time someone drives on grass.
7. Drink once for every instance of stock footage or bad blue screen effects.
8. Drink when the line "Are you still slapphappy?" occurs.
9. Drink every time Jack says "tummywarmers."
I'm interested in sending these images as postcards, with traditional postcard greetings, because they show a different side of the tourist sheen that most people see when they travel. In thinking of "Blue Hawaii" the movie as a place, a fictionalized Hawaii, I question how movies exoticize places and people, render them the "other," and in turn question how we approach real travel destinations and the "natives" that inhabit them.
1. Drink once every time there is an episode of domestic violence or violence (including verbal abuse) towards women.
2. Drink once every time someone (of any gender or species) wants to have sex with Elvis.
3. Drink once every time "natives" or other races are portrayed in grossly stereotypical ways.
4. Drink once every time someone is clearly under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or discusses someone else's intoxication.
5. Drink once every time the instruments on screen are not the instruments on the soundtrack.
6. Drink once every time someone drives on grass.
7. Drink once for every instance of stock footage or bad blue screen effects.
8. Drink when the line "Are you still slapphappy?" occurs.
9. Drink every time Jack says "tummywarmers."
I'm interested in sending these images as postcards, with traditional postcard greetings, because they show a different side of the tourist sheen that most people see when they travel. In thinking of "Blue Hawaii" the movie as a place, a fictionalized Hawaii, I question how movies exoticize places and people, render them the "other," and in turn question how we approach real travel destinations and the "natives" that inhabit them.
