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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 4573
Released: June 5, 2001 |
| Our Price: $3.64 |
| Used Price: $2.74 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Two ex-Navy buddies are living a life of leisure on a South Pacific island until they are interrupted by a prim Bostonian in search of her father.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 28-MAR-2006
Media Type: DVD
Description of Donovan's Reef:
John Wayne's last film with mentor and long-time collaborator John Ford (The Searchers) is a 1963 comedy about a group of war veterans settled on a South Pacific island. When the daughter of one of them (Jack Warden) comes for a visit, the freewheeling status quo between the boys is disrupted. This is Ford in his chummy, amiable, roughhousing mode--think of Victor McLaglen's drunken fight scene in Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon--and it is entirely pleasurable. Wayne is comfortable in his man's-man role, and Lee Marvin (who played Wayne's nemesis in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) is effectively roguish. --Tom Keogh
Donovan's Reef Reviews:
The Last Great John Ford-John Wayne Collaboration 
2008-10-03 - This film has a lot of endearing and great elements. The film is set in the South Pacific with a rowdy cast of characters - John Wayne, Jack Warden and Lee Marvin. War buddies from World War II and living on the island ever since the end of the war, the Doc (Jack Warden) has a daughter who visits the island. Chaos ensues as the doc's friends cover his back while he's away visiting the outer islands. The daughter, heiress to a huge shipping company, might be offended by her father's marriage to a local native princess and their offspring. They don't appreciate such a relationship in tight-laced Boston. The other actors like Mike Mazurki and Cesar Romero add to the fun lustre of the film.
My shout for Donovans Reef
2008-09-23 - Something in me identified with this oddity, maybe 5 years in the Navy, or living on a tropical island. Big John was never my favourite, ah but Lee Marvin - I liked him in 'Paint Your Wagon' & Cat Ballou only, but the whole mixture of the cast and the setting - magic, like them Pearly Shells ! The ' Aussie ' sailors are a farce - struth strike me down with a feather, more like a mob of Irishmen !! The story has poignance, comedy, fun, and some romance. I watch it when I'm down, and it always is a upper !! especially when I sing a long to those monkeys from Sam Boanga...
Donovan's Reef 
2008-09-15 - The final collaboration of John Ford & John Wayne was perhaps their weakest effort. Donovan's Reef is beautifully filmed in color & Ford gives loving detail much as he did with The Quiet Man. I sense that this movie was made on a "working" vacation, they make the movie on location in Hawaii & get paid to do it. How much better can it get? Donovan's Reef is shown in a widescreen format though the aspect ratio isn't extreme. The cast is good & it's not Ford's usual stock company of actors. It has Lee Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Cesar Romero, Dick Foran & Dorothy Lamour. Patrick Wayne has a small role as an Australian sailor.
Donovan's Reef is the saloon that's owned by "Guns" Donovan (John Wayne) who had first come to the island during WWII when the destroyer he was on was sunk. Two of his friends, Gilhooley (Lee Marvin) & Dr. William Dedham (Jack Warden), were survivors also. After the war they returned to the island to live. Donovan & Dedham had been living there for years while Gilhooley shows up for the annual birthday bash between himself & Donovan; they share the same day. The premise of the story that introduces Amelia Dedham (Elizabeth Allen) to the island is that she's there to meet her father, main shareholder in the family shipping business, & to get him to sign over the shares to her. Dr. Dedham had remarried, he had become a widower but hadn't seen his first wife in years, & had three children by his now deceased Polynesian wife who was the last surviving member of the island's royalty. The friends of Dr. Dedham decide to move the children to Donovan's home because they're not sure how Amelia will react to them. Of course, Donovan & Amelia don't like each other at first then they fall in love. This romance is a little hard to believe because of the age difference, Donovan is old enough to be her father. All turns out well in the end. This movie doesn't break any new ground though it does have some funny moments. You can look at it as a more comedic version of The Quiet Man. Donovan's Reef is an average movie that's elevated because of Ford & Wayne.
The Last Great John Ford-John Wayne Collaboration
2008-08-21 - This film has a lot of endearing and great elements. The film is set in the South Pacific with a rowdy cast of characters - John Wayne, Jack Warden and Lee Marvin. War buddies from World War II and living on the island ever since the end of the war, the Doc (Jack Warden) has a daughter who visits the island. Chaos ensues as the doc's friends cover his back while he's away visiting the outer islands. The daughter, heiress to a huge shipping company, might be offended by her father's marriage to a local native princess and their offspring. They don't appreciate such a relationship in tight-laced Boston. The other actors like Mike Mazurki and Cesar Romero add to the fun lustre of the film.
NOT A GREAT MOVIE, JUST ONE OF THE BEST EVER!!!
2008-03-18 - Save the critical eye, ear and mind for the 20th viewing of this story.
It is a multiple love story, POSSIBLY with the greatest love story involving a dead South Pacific princess and her still-devoted husband.
There is the polygamous masculine love story of "The Duke's" title character and his two old WWII shipmates.
There is the raucous relationship of an incredible Lee Marvin-created character and a somewhat bawdy Dorothy Lamour, who yearns for Donovan, but is perfectly happy settling for Marvin and his new toy train.
There is the love story of the new arrival from Boston, the real hero's daughter by a Boston shipping aristocrat. She arrives on a commercial venture intended to boost her own selfish economic position, quickly learns to love the father and her father's three children with the princess.
But first she must wander through the smokescreen generated by shipmates determined to protect their old friend, wander through the spectacular beauty of a tropical island and see through the "cover identities" of half the cast.
This is one of the best temporary ensemble creations ever. Thinly disguised as a comedy, clearly a true John Ford morality story, a hell-raising Wayne/Marvin and Aussie Navy saloon brawl, with a dutiful nod toward the self-sacrificing roles of good men answering the call to where they are needed, deeply respectful of primitive traditions and religions, and dripping sweet, wild honey from every scene.
Not a bit of sacahrin to be found. Just pure wild honey.
Again, leave critiques for the 20th viewing. By about the 15th viewing, you will begin to understand all the sub-plots and the truly fine acting of genuine professionals.
That is, in between the belly laughs and tears and cheers.
