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Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
In F.W. Murnau's lush tale (documentary-style drama)
of native South Seas love and Bora Bora island life, a story of ill-fated
romance (a star-crossed love a la Romeo and Juliet style)
and the breaking of a sacred tabu (the designation of a young girl
as the new Chosen Maid, a 'sacred virgin' that could not be touched
or desired sexually):
- the beginnings of a love affair between two Polynesian
natives: the Girl (as Reri) (Anne Chevalier), and the Boy (Matahi)
during a scene of 'Paradise"-like swimming
- the harsh designation of Reri as the successor to
the deceased former Chosen one, by a grim-faced tribal elder known
as the Old Warrior (Hitu): "No law of the gods is more to be
feared than that which guards the sacred virgin - man must not touch
her or cast upon her the eye of desire for in her honor rests the
honor of us all...Sacred is Reri from this time forth, she is tabu.
To break this tabu means death"
- the celebratory native dancing of flower-garlanded,
bare-breasted native dancers after Reri's selection, although during
the ceremony, Reri sat with her head down
- in the next chapter, titled "PARADISE LOST," the
Boy's kidnapping of the Girl and their life on another island ("of
the pearl trade where the white man rules and the old gods are forgotten...driven
on by fear -- fear of the avenging tabu"), and the never-ending,
relentless pursuit by Hitu of the "guilty lovers"
- the separation scene - the snatching of the Girl by
the Old Warrior, when Reri wrote a goodbye letter to the Boy ("I
must go Hitu is here and waits for me You will die if I do not obey
I will go so that you may live The Tabu is upon us. I have been so
happy with you Far more than I deserved the love you have given me
I will keep to the last beat of my heart")
- in the tragic ending, as the Boy frantically swam
after their sailboat, she was placed in a cabin and the hatchway
was pulled over to enclose her, while the rope was cut that the Boy
grabbed onto; he had to give up swimming - and presumably died of
exhaustion in the open ocean
- the trend of other popular, exploitational and lucrative
'bare native' films followed in Tabu's wake in the early to
mid 1930s - after sights of polynesian girls swimming or dancing
partly naked in the film
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