User Reviews

There's the potential for at least an entertaining thriller in this Hawaiian set action drama, but unfortunately, mostly unlikable characters line the tepid screenplay. Richard Boone may be alright as a second lead or villain, but as a hero, he's totally unappealing. He's a boatman whose illegitimate daughter reaches out to him in a drug-induced state and leads him on a pointless chase to find her killer. This leads him to brassy Joan Blondell (as the sister of a pal who bequeaths him half interest in his fishing boat) and old flame Vera Miles, as well as some stereotypical natives and a gay villain so unlikable that gay audience members were most likely hissing him at the few theaters that this probably played at.

There are some enlightening moments, particularly Blondell's admission that she's spent 30 years crying over a bottle which explains her initial hard demeanor. You know that underneath this blowzy dame lies a huge heart, and when she breaks down and smiles, it is the rising of the sun. Miles, also playing a recovering alcoholic, seems like she's slumming, a socialite whose past with Boone doesn't warrant re-exploring. He's actually quite verbally abusive to her, so it makes no sense that she would see anything in him unless she's in the market for further self-destruction. As for the gay villain, he's so flamboyantly evil, leading Boone on a final chase with prissy taunts that make Jack Cassidy and his pink poodle in "The Eiger Sanction" seem like Jack LaLane in comparison.

Kona Coast is an all but forgotten relic of the late 1960's -- as are the members of the cast, Richard Boone, Vera Miles, Chips Rafferty, Joan Blondell, and Steve Ihnat. Several other reviewers have dismissed it as abysmal trash: low budget, poorly scripted, edited, and directed. The sound track is a period piece, and might have been lifted from an episode of "Mannix." Surely, to the naive viewer, the story is moronic and predictable, the music ridiculous (e.g., bongos erupting in every action sequence), the sequencing choppy and disjointed. Until the advent of DVD, it was virtually impossible to find an intact copy of the film, and to date, only 7 people have written reviews of it for IMDb.

But all of this misses the point. Kona Coast is high art, masquerading as trash.

In the opening sequence, we are treated to a sweeping panorama of the Pacific ocean as viewed from the boat of Captain Sam Moran (Richard Boone) -- the ship's wheel unattended until his bare foot lolls across it, steering in the most laissez-faire manner, as he reclines with a vintage bottle of Primo beer in his hand, laughing into the wind.

This scene is genius. So much is conveyed about the man: carefree, a wild and untamed soul, a free thinker and lover of life.

Each scene unfolds with a brutal frankness, abruptly, without logic or explanation -- so much like life itself. The rawness of this unpolished gem may appear to the naive viewer evidence of schlock; to the discerning student of film, this gut-wrenching directness, making the viewer uncomfortable, even disoriented, is the masterful work of a Fellini, or perhaps more accurately, an Ingmar Berman. The intensity of feeling is conveyed on a level too visceral to be transmitted on any rational basis.

Likewise, the use of minimal orchestration, a "1960's detective show" sound track punctuated by riveting bongo breaks during action sequences, keeps the viewer's mind distracted, so the viewer's raw psychic underbelly is left fully exposed to the powerful psychic impact of this confusing and at times disturbing masterwork.

Consider the complicated love triangle between Moran, Melissa Hyde (Miles), and the young girl infatuated with Moran, who eventually evolves into a surrogate for his slain daughter, but not until an uncomfortable Electra complex is played out between her and Moran. The tension -- sexual energy -- is palpable. In the scenes between Miles and Boone, watch closely for hinted-at but never shown sexual intensity.

The subtext to the film's surreality is of course Boone's long descent into alcoholism, which had all but claimed him by the time Kona Coast was made. Boone was a regular fixture in Kona in the 1960's; his swollen eyes, paunchy, scarred face, and whiskey baritone were for real. This gives the character of Moran a poignant realism. The viewer can not escape his hopeless, boozy ennui.

Vera Miles' Melissa also evokes a deep reaction: here at the height of her womanly allure, she is no ingenue, but a worldly woman constantly aware of the inescapable encroachment of old age and loneliness.

Also worthy of note is actor Steve Ihnat, who portrays the villainous drug lord, Kryder. Ihnat is given little to work with in Kona Coast, but he makes the most of it with an edge of demonic insanity that makes the viewer squirm. Devotees of the 1960's Star Trek series will find themselves waiting for him to scream, "LORD Garth!"

The action sequences are jarring, precipitous, irrational -- so much like the violence of life itself, absurd and exhilarating.

Most of all, this is an existential story. Sam Moran is a man confronted with the most terrible of losses: the death of his daughter, soon followed by the death of his best friend. His way of life and everything he believes in are suddenly in question. Every time he proclaims, "I'm Sam Moran. Who the hell are you?" -- (I lost count) -- he boldly reasserts his identity in the face of nothingness. Moran is the quintessential man of the 1960's: strong, independent, and absolutely free of doubt. He is a champion in man's struggle against nihilism.

Had this film been made in French or Swedish, it would have been heralded and remembered as a masterpiece. It is literally so bad that it is good. One might predict that with the advent of DVD and greater accessibility to the masses, Kona Coast will enjoy a renaissance, perhaps even achieving cult film status. Kona Coast is an unappreciated work of modern art.

***SPOILERS*** Beautiful Hawaiian photography doesn't hide the fact that the film "Kona Coast" is a dud or coconut with the coconut juice drained out of it. Richard Boone is the salty hard drinking and living Sam "The Man" Moran who takes it, life, as it comes without as much as complaining about how both good or bad it is. That's until his estranged teenage daughter Dee, Gloria Nakea, is found washed up on the rocks dead of a drug overdose. Even though Dee had no use for him, he deserted her and her mother when she was an infant, Sam made it his business to track down the drug dealer who doped her up and make him pay what what he did.

The story gets a bit lost when Sam's fishing boat is set on fire by playboy and drug pusher Kayder's, Steve Ihnat, thugs with his good friend Charlie Lightfoot, Chips Rafferty, ending up on his death bed in trying to put the flames out. Sam is given Charlie's own fishing boat the Kamai by his former alcoholic wife Kittibelle, Joan Blondell, to use as he wants until his damaged boat is repaired. We then have Sam spends almost the next half hour of running time,in the movie, to both wait for the near dead Charlie, who refuses to stay dead, to finally kick off and then give him a grand Hawaiian send-off at sea with about 20 of Charlie's friends being invited. If anything this great and boring event added enough time to the movie to qualify it to be, by being over 60 minutes in length, a made TV movie not a 45 minute episode, with commercials cut out, of Hawaii 5 O'.

Sam meanwhile gets battered around by Kaydea's goons to keep him from finding out the truth about not only who killed his daughter Dee but who's the top drug pusher on the island, Kaydea, and why he's immune from the local police. It's either because he's paying them off or their so stupid that they couldn't find a haystack in a needle instead the other way around. We do get a glimpse of Sam's shoddy past when he runs into at a local Kona bar an old flame of his Melissa Hyde, Vera Miles. Messila we learn is a recovering alcoholic who was brought back to sobriety at Kittibelle's free alcohol rehabilitation center on the island that's one of it's biggest tourist, who make up eh majority of those in it, attractions. Again were treated to what a heel Sam is by Missila digging up his past which is about as interesting as watching a blinding snowstorm in the Arctic Circle in total darkness!

***SPOILERS*** Finally and mercifully the movie comes to an end with the big shown-down between Sam "The Man" Moran & friends and the Kayder bumbling drug gang at the big rumble in the pineapple patch on and along the Kona Coast. As you would have expected Kayder and his boys were no match against Sam & Co. who ended up making pineapple preserve out of them. As well as making it possible with no worlds left for Sam & Co.to conquer, or roast pork and pineapples to eat, for the movie to finally come to an end.