The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Blue Hawaii
Music · Comedy · Romance · 1961
Just discharged GI Chad Gates returns to Hawaii, where he becomes a tour guide, defying his mother's wishes for him to join the family business.
Movie details
Blue Hawaii
“Ecstatic romance... Exotic dances... Exciting music IN THE WORLD'S LUSHEST PARADISE OF SONG!”
1961 Music · Comedy · Romance 1h 42m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.1 / 10
7.9K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
30 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
58 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.0 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Just discharged GI Chad Gates returns to Hawaii, where he becomes a tour guide, defying his mother's wishes for him to join the family business.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Blue Hawaii?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Where it lives
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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Norman Taurog
Written by
Hal Kanter · Allan Weiss
Elvis Presley
Chad Gates
Joan Blackman
Maile Duval
Angela Lansbury
Sarah Lee Gates
Nancy Walters
Abigail Prentice
Roland Winters
Fred Gates
John Archer
Jack Kelman
Howard McNear
Mr. Chapman
Court is in session
Put Blue Hawaii on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.