The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation

Concidering the fact that I am from Norway and my knowledge of Hawaiian history is minimal - I do not have much to compare the facts and the action that occurs in the documentary, Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation with. I haven´t really questioned the fact that Hawaii is a part of the United States before, and therefor it was very interesting to learn about the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy.

The documentary was produced in 1993 and retells the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy under Queen Liliúokalani in 1893. The documentary is based on a Hawaiian´s perspective on the events.

The documentary has a strong introduction showing real foto from 1993. Images of the Hawaiian nature – land, sky and waves crashing against the shoreline, while soft music plays and a narrator, a native lady, speaks. The narrator comes with statements like: “We care for our land,” while strong images of the land supporting the claim appears on the screen. It´s a strong and serious voice. Images from the demonstrations appears, while the voice says “We will never be American,” “we will die Hawaiian.” The use of “we” in the statements makes it clear to the viewers that the narrator is a part of the Hawaiian people.

By including tools like stylized re-enactments, archival photos and film, and political cartoons, the documentary make it easy to understand the events that occurred. Historic quotes and presentations by Hawaiian scholars tell Hawaiian history through Hawaiian eyes. This make the impression and action stronger for me as a viewer. The story line is chronological, which made it easy to keep up with the story even though all these facts and events where new to me.

Something that really made an impression on me was the part of the documentary where the song “Blue Hawaii” by Elvis Presley was playing in the background, and images showing the native people whose land was taken. The images shows an dramatic overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. The contrast between the music and the horrible images makes the scene really strong. I think that if someone is very critical to the native’s perspective that has been shown in this documentary – they will reconsider all these thoughts at this point.

Despite it all, the film ends with a note of determination and hope. The documentary really gave me an awareness of a piece of Hawaiian history that I knew very little about.