Hurricane is a 1979 American romantic adventure film featuring Mia Farrow and Jason Robards, produced by Dino De Laurentiis with Lorenzo Semple Jr. (who also wrote the screenplay), and directed by Jan Troell. It is a loose remake of John Ford's 1937 film The Hurricane, itself based on the 1936 novel by James Norman Hall and Charles Nordhoff.
Plot
In the 1920s Charlotte, an American painter, arrives from Boston on the island of Alava to visit her father, U.S. Navy Captain Charles Bruckner, whom she hasn't seen in quite some time. Bruckner is the U.S. Congress-sanctioned governor of the island. He rules with a stern, patrician, and thoroughly patronizing attitude towards the natives. Charlotte is somewhat taken aback by her father's rigid adherence to the law. She tries to intervene on behalf of Bruckner's charge/houseboy Matangi, who plans to get Bruckner to toss out a harsh penalty issued to a native man who stole a boat "for love." Bruckner refuses, and severely reprimands Matangi, much to Charlotte's dismay.
Matangi is soon anointed the high chief of his island, Alava. Matangi isn't as willing to wholeheartedly accept the edicts of the U.S. forces, particularly if they go against the well-being of his own people. His stubbornness quietly enrages Bruckner.
Charlotte wants to stay for a month on the island, chaperoned by Dr. Danielsson and Father Malone, missionaries who reside on Alava. Despite Captain Bruckner's jealousy over his daughter's attraction to Matangi, he agrees to the stay and sails off for a month. Matangi and Charlotte quickly become lovers. When this is discovered by her father, he has Matangi arrested on a trumped-up charge. He escapes, with Charlotte's help.
Just as tensions are beginning to boil, disaster strikes in the form of a giant hurricane.
Cast
Jason Robards – Captain Charles Bruckner
Mia Farrow – Charlotte Bruckner
Max von Sydow – Dr. Danielsson
Trevor Howard – Father Malone
Timothy Bottoms – Jack Sanford
James Keach – Sgt. Strang
Dayton Ka'ne – Matangi
Ariirau Tekurarere – Moana
Bernadette Sarcione – Siva
Production
Development
The film is based on a 1937 film The Hurricane, directed by John Ford. Dino De Laurentiis, who had just remade King Kong, was interested in doing more remakes and was shown the film by his associate, John Alarimo. "I saw it, I liked it", said the producer. "People like romance, adventure, escapism. This story gives them all of that. And we have to make it expensive because, cheap, it don't look so good."
He bought the rights and assigned Lorenzo Semple Jr, who had written King Kong, to do the script. It was part of a slate of seven films the producer would make worth $80 million (the others being Stormy Women, King of the Gypsies, The First Great Train Robbery, The Brink's Job, Flash Gordon and Ragtime). The Hurricane had a budget of $15 million and it was to be distributed by Paramount. The bulk of finance of Hurricane came from Dutch company Famous Films.
De Laurentiis wanted to shoot the film on location. "Today's audiences are not fooled by movies shot on the studio's back lot", he said. "They demand realism!" After considering the Bahamas and Hawaii, he decided to film it on Bora Bora.
Roman Polanski
In May 1977 De Laurentiis signed Roman Polanski to direct. Polanski had been arrested for sex with a 13-year-old girl in March. He was meant to go on trial on June 29 and filming was to begin in Tahiti in October. Polanski flew to Tahiti in May to commence pre-production.
Bora Bora was very isolated at the time. Sets and a giant tank for the hurricane scenes would need to be built, and electricity needed to be brought in. There were only two hotels. Hotel Bora Bora was booked up for three years, and the Club Med was only willing to hire its facilities for 100 days at a fee of $1 million (not including food).
De Laurentiis decided to build a new hotel from scratch, the Hotel Mara, at a cost of $3.5 million (other sources say $4.5 million). He intended to use it on this film and another project he was planning, David Lean's film of the Mutiny on the Bounty story (this became The Bounty (1984)), then sell it for a profit. He also decided to bring in his own $350,000 freighter to bring supplies from Los Angeles and New Zealand and installed a new system of electricity.