Johnny Lingo (1969)
Johnny Lingo, one of the sharpest traders in the south pacific islands decides to bargain for a wife, and offers a record price of eight cows for Mahana, a plain girl who shuns contact. This causes quite a sensation on the island. A year later Johnny and his wife return for the first time since the marriage, and all find that something miraculous has occurred to Mahana. Johnny explains that by paying eight cows he proved that she was worth more to him than any other woman on the island. He gave her a great gift, that of self-worth.
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The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Are you guys kidding? This is one of the worst films ever! The acting is atrocious, and there is almost nothing morally redeemable about the film at all. Racist, sexist, imperialistic--c'mon, get a life! The little 'slave' boy, grinning lackey slacker? Who just won't work reliably for the white trader? The idea that women's worth is to be measured on the basis of her looks (though admitting we can sometimes be wrong about it)???? That men set the value of all things, including women? This is truly as bad as it gets. Too bad Mormon children --especially the girls-- have to grow up with this crap.
Of course the story of Johnny Lingo is one of the classics for Mormon children; the message it conveys is true and probably much more important today than it was at the time it was made. What makes it really watchable though, are the performances. Not their quality, but on the contrary, the lack thereof. The acting is so stiff and inept that You will laugh tears. I don't think, that Johnny Lingo was intented as funny as it comes out, but it is always worth watching. Beside trying to convey the message, that beauty is relative, inner beauty is that counts and that every one needs someone to believe in him to reach his full potential, there is no reference to the Mormon church or Mormon beliefs at all.
Johnny Lingo was shown a minimum of once a year at my grade school. It was light, memorable entertainment about a shrewd island trader who finds a wife for himself in a homely girl in whom he sees great beauty.We were unaware of the Mormon connection this movie had, because it had no references to religion, Joseph Smith or the Utah desert. It was insidious, though, for after three years, both student and teacher alike was heard rating other people by "cows". The highest compliment was to be an "8 Cow Woman" or an "8 Cow Man". I would not actively seek it out to shown my own child, as it does not rate as highly as the Ray Harryhausen fairy tale films, but it is well done, and conveys a wholesome message memorably.
Beyond the tremendous and true romantic love Johnny Lingo proves for his dear Mahana, he gives a tremendous object lesson in how to properly treat others, and bring out the very best in them. If all husbands would treat their wives the way Johnny treated Mahana, there could be no evil in the world.