“CENTENNIAL” (1978-79) – Episode One “Only the Rocks Live Forever” Commentary

Over thirty-two years ago, NBC Television aired a sprawling miniseries called ”CENTENNIAL”. Produced by John Wilder, The miniseries was an adaptation of James Michner’s 1973 novel of the same title. Because the miniseries stretched to twelve episodes, NBC aired the first seven episodes aired during the late fall of 1978. After a one-month hiatus, the remaining five episodes aired during the early winter of 1979. 

Michner’s tale followed the history of the fictional town of Centennial, Colorado and its surrounding region from the late 18th century to the 1970s. By focusing upon the history of the town, ”CENTENNIAL” managed to cover nearly every possible topic in the Western genre. Some of those topics include Native American societies and their encounters with the white trappers and traders, American emigration along the Western trails, the Indian Wars, a gold rush, a cattle drive, the cattle-sheep range wars and environmental issues. The first episode ”Only the Rocks Live Forever”centered on an Arapaho warrior named Lame Beaver, his daughter Clay Basket, a French-Canadian fur trader named Pasquinel, and his partner, a young Scottish-born trader named Alexander McKeag.

”Only the Rocks Live Forever” began with the death of Lame Beaver’s father in the mid-1750s, at the hands of the Pawnee. The episode also covered moments of the warrior’s life that include his theft of much needed horses from the Commanche for the survival of his village, his first meeting with Pasquinel and later, McKeag; and his village’s wars with their nemesis, a Pawnee chief named Rude Water and his fellow warriors. The episode focused even longer on the fur trader, Pasquinel. Viewers followed the trader on his adventures with various Native Americans such as the Arapaho and the Pawnee; and his two encounters with a keelboat crewed by murderous French Canadian rivermen. After being wounded in the back by a Pawnee arrow and barely escaping death at the hands of the French Canadian rivermen, Pasquinel made his way to St. Louis, then part of the Spanish Empire. An American doctor named Richard Butler introduced him to a German-born silversmith named Herman Bockweiss and the latter’s daughter, Lise. Pasquinel formed a partnership with Bockweiss, who provided him with trinkets to trade with the Native Americans and fell in love with Lise.

Upon his return to the West, the Pawnee introduced Pasquinel to the Scottish-born Alexander McKeag, who became his partner. After experiencing a series of adventures, the two arrived at Lame Beaver’s village. There, Pasquinel strengthened his ties with Lame Beaver, while McKeag fell in love with the warrior’s daughter, Clay Basket. The pair eventually returned to St. Louis with a profitable supply of furs. There, Pasquinel married Lise. During the two partners’ visit to St. Louis, Lame Beaver and his fellow Arapaho became engaged in another conflict with the Pawnee in an effort to rescue a child that had been snatched by the other tribe. The conflict resulted in the rescue of the child, Rude Water’s death at the hands of Lame Beaver, and the latter’s death at the hands of Pawnee warriors. When Pasquinel and McKeag returned to the Pawnee village, they discovered that Rude Water had been shot by a bullet molded from gold by Lame Beaver. They also learned about Lame Beaver’s death. And upon their return to the Arapaho village, they learned from Clay Basket that her late father had ordered her to become Pasquinel’s wife. Because of the French Canadian’s desire to learn about the location of Lame Beaver’s gold, he agreed to make Clay Basket his second wife, despite McKeag’s protests.

Directed by Virgil W. Vogel and written by producer John Wilder, ”Only the Rocks Live Forever” was a surprisingly well paced episode, considering its running time of two-and-a-half hours. Viewers received a detailed look into the society of the Arapaho nation (despite the fact that many of the extras portraying the Arapaho were of Latino descent). And through the adventures of Pasquinel and McKeag, viewers also received a detailed and nearly accurate look into the perils of the life of a fur trader in the trans-Mississippi West. Wilder managed to make one historical goof. When asked in late 18th century St. Louis, circa on how far he had traveled upriver, Pasquinel said, “Cache La Poudre”. However, that particular river was not known by this name until after the 1820s, when a severe storm forced French trappers to “cache their gun powder” by the river bank. And although the episode never stated outright, it did hint that St. Louis and the rest of the Mississippi Valley was part of the Spanish Empire during that period, through the characters of Senor Alvarez and his wife, portrayed by Henry Darrow and Annette Charles.

This episode also benefitted from the strong cast that appeared in the episode. I was especially impressed by Michael Ansara’s charismatic performance as the Arapaho warrior, Lame Beaver. Well known character actor Robert Tessier (of Algonquian descent) gave an equally impressive performance as Lame Beaver’s main nemesis, the Pawnee chief Rude Water. Not only was I impressed by Raymond Burr’s performance as St. Louis silversmith, Herman Bockweiss, I was also impressed by his use of a German accent. Whether or not it was accurate, I must admit that his take on the accent never struck me as a cliché. Sally Kellerman’s own handling of a German accent was also well done. And I thought she gave a poignant performance as the slightly insecure Lise, who found herself falling in love with Pasquinel. Barbara Carrera gave a solid performance as Clay Basket, but I did not find her that particularly dazzling in this episode. Hands down, ”Only the Rocks Live Forever” belonged to Robert Conrad and Richard Chamberlain. Both actors did an excellent job in adapting foreign accents. And both gave exceptional performances in their portrayal of two very different and complex personalities. Superficially, Conrad’s portrayal of Pasquinel seemed superficial and very forthright. However, I was impressed how he conveyed Pasquinel’s more complex traits and emotions through the use of his eyes and facial expression. And once again, Chamberlain proved to be the ultimate chameleon in his transformation into the shy and emotional Scotsman, forced to learn about the West and who seemed bewildered by his morally questionable partner.

”Only the Rocks Live Forever” is not my favorite episode in ”CENTENNIAL”. I can think of at least three or four that I would personally rank above it. But I must admit that thanks to Vogel’s direction and Wilder’s script, this episode proved to be a perfect start for what I consider to be one of the best minseries that ever aired on television.

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This movie brings back memories for me as it was my favorite movie back when it aired at Norwegian cinemas. This is before I found Mad Mission (Aces go Places), Jackie Chan and ninjamovies. I was like 12 years old at the time and in desperat need of a hero… of course when I watched to movie today I got well aware that this clumsy nimcompoop of a hero most likely would have gotten killed by the time the starting credits of the movie finished… yep, he is that clumsy and stupid (some might even use the R-word).

Nice to see one of my all time favorite Bond girls again tho Barbara Carrera (Fatima Blush in Never say never again). I doubt I’ll ever see it again, but it was nice to catch up on one of the more memorable movies from the past. I remember the gypsy car that turned into a racing car well … tho the boat chase with the stupid lazer gun I seemed to have forgotten. Anyway, nice to have seen it again. I might not like it as well today… it’s still a classic tho and I think it’s weird it’s only got like 1,5k votes on imdb.com.

..I rate this movie 3/10 stars..

Never Say Never Again Collector’s Edition
Starring: Sean Connery, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max Von Sydow, Barbara Carrera, Kim Basinger, Bernie Casey, Alec McGowen and Edward Fox as “M”
Screenplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr.
Based on an Original Story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming
Directed by Irvin Kershner
MPAA Rating: PG
Blu-ray Disc + DVD Release Date: 3 August 2010
Cinescopes Personality Types: Passionate Maverick, Chosen Adventurer
List price: $24.99

The Film
You can spend hours researching the convoluted history of this movie, but suffice it to say it is a remake of Thunderball not produced by the same production company that has been responsible for the majority of the Bond movies.  Never Say Never Again is most notable for luring Sean Connery back into the role of James Bond after a twelve year absence, and his final screen outing as 007 debuted four months after Octopussy, the thirteenth “official” Bond movie.  Never Say Never Again invited comparisons, then, to the original novel, the Thunderball film and Octopussy, as well as Connery’s previous six outings.  You know what?  It holds up fairly well on all counts.

The premise is simple: international crime syndicate SPECTRE (run by Blofeld, played here by Max Von Sydow) absconds with a nuclear bomb and blackmails the west for its safe return.  Countering this is James Bond, assigned to locate the bomb and neutralize the threat.  Adolfo Celli’s Largo (SPECTRE’s man in the field) may have become iconic for wearing an eyepatch, but Klaus Maria Brandauer’s Largo is genuinely psychotic and a far more interesting nemesis for Bond.  Made in the furor of Bondmania in the 1960s, the production of Thunderball was clearly exhausting and it shows; the entire film is mired in lethargy and Connery pretty much walks through the film.  He’s never in doubt that he’ll save the day, and while we aren’t, either, it comes off as though stopping a nuclear blackmail is more of a scheduling nuisance than anything else.  Returning in Never Say Never Again, Connery’s Bond is still assured of victory but now it feels appropriate; it’s not arrogance, but experience that guides the veteran spy.

Where the film succeeds is in giving us an interesting James Bond who relies on experience and not superheroic strength or encyclopedic knowledge of obscure subjects.  He’s a human being; we even see him wearing gray sweats in one scene, and denim overalls in another (no worries; Connery still rocks the tuxedo).  Barbara Carrera vamps it up as antagonist Fatima Blush and it’s easy to understand why she’s still popular with Bond fans 27 years later.  She infuses each of her scenes with a visceral wildness, the likes of which wouldn’t be seen in an Eon-produced Bond movie until 1995′s GoldenEye.  Even without the conventions of the “official” Bond movies, there can be no mistake that that’s what Never Say Never Again is.

The Blu-ray Disc + DVD Combo Pack
Previously, Never Say Never Again had only been released on DVD with its trailer and a booklet.  This release adds a commentary track featuring Steven Jay Rubin and director Irvin Kershner and a handful of featurettes.  ”The Big Gamble” explores the hectic circumstances under which the film came to be produced; “Sean Is Back” lavishes Sir Sean Connery with praise for bringing his professionalism to the production; “The Girls of Never Say Never Again” is self-explanatory.  Kershner (who sounds like Ray Romano) is enthusiastic about praising Connery in the featurettes and the commentary track.  The basic knocks on Never Say Never Again are that Michel Legrand’s score is subpar and incongruous with the film, and that its climax is rushed.  Kershner concurs on both counts; he wanted James Horner to score the film and makes clear just how much pressure he was under to just finish the film.  The content is the same on both Blu-ray Disc and DVD, so you’ve got your choice of format in one package.

The Recommendation
Officially, Never Say Never Again doesn’t fit into the Bond series.  Setting aside all that, it’s still a movie starring Sean Connery as James Bond.  The film falls just shy of its potential; a little more time and money (and a James Horner score) might have put it over the top but as it is it’s still pretty entertaining.  And the nice thing is that it’s a one-off production so you don’t need to concern yourself with any continuity.  Unfortunately, the Blu-ray transfer is less than stellar; you’re not going to get the astounding visual experience you may have hoped to find.

Note: I also reviewed the previous DVD release here.

First up: the “unofficial” 007 movie Never Say Never Again, which hit U.S. theaters in the fall of 1983. It was unofficial only in that Eon Productions didn’t produce it. But it had Sean Connery as James Bond, 12 years after his final “official” Bond film, and had a budget comparable to the 13th “official” Bond film Octopussy, which came out in the summer of 1983.

The Never Say Never Again press kit was modest. The folder had a color photograph of Connery/Bond but it had a single publicity still inside, again of Connery/Bond.

Part of the press kit included a 12-page biograph of Connery that began thusly:

Sean Connery checked his diving equipment for the last time, adjusted his mask and slipped under the cool inviting water of the Bahamas. Fifty feet below him, on the sea bed, waited an army of highly skilled underwater film technicians. Blazing lights lit up the murky depths and were reflected back in tiny sparkles off the iridescent shoals of fish that swam with regularity past the cameras. The fish swam in safety. The day before, they would have been more uneasy, as the filmmakers had been wrorking with an all-too-real 12-fot shark — a real killer.

Sounds like somebody wanted to emulate Ian Fleming’s writing.

From another article in the press kit, running a modest 26 pages and itended to give the press critic a feel for the film, began like this:

James Bond, British Secret Servie Agent 007, is dangerous.

So when SPECTRE (Special Executor for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) holds the world to ramsom with a devastating act of nuclear terrorism, only Bond is able to cut straigh through to the rotten core of the operation.

Of course, the real name for SPECTRE is the Special EXECUTIVE for Counterintelligence, Revenge and Extortion, but hey, it’s an engrossing tale and who are we to quibble?

Other contents included biographes of Klaus Maria Brandauer, Kim Basinger, Max Von Sydnow, Barbara Carrera, Bernie Casey, Alex McCowen and director Irvin Kershner, who was fresh off directing The Empire Strikes Back.

Kershner prepared for the film by re-reading much of Ian Fleming’s work. There he found the key to the tone and texture of Ian Fleming’s work….In the James Bond books, Fleming was very interested in the characters and wrote wonderful dialogue. Those discoveries influenced Kershner’s work on the script.

Also, in the Kersner bio, we were told this:

“Never Say Never Again” will be a Bond picture with its own unique style based not in reality nor in a cartoon world, but in a world where characters operate from a psychological base that is real,” he explains.

Reading it after 26 years, it didn’t seem the quote marks were all in the right place so we present them as they appear in the press kit.

 

The Island of Dr. Moreau 1977

Director: Don Taylor

Writer: Al Ramrus

Starring Michael York, Burt Lancaster, Barbara Carrera, Nigel Davenport, Richard Basehart and Nick Cravat

    Out of all of the varied adaptations of The Island of Dr Moreau, this version is my personal favorite.  It really stays true to the vision of the original story and has all around great performances.  The effects of the creatures are very good too.  The film also has a great protagonist in the form of Michael York, who I have always liked since seeing him in Logan’s Run and the Three Musketeers.  They also picked the perfect actor in Burt Lancaster as Moreau.  He is dignified at times and at others Haughty and self important.  It is the perfect balance for the god like complex Moreau has.  The film flows organically and segues from scene to scene very effortlessly.  I first saw this movie at the drive inn when I was 6 years old and its till plays out just as enjoyable as it did back then.  It is a shame that the version with Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer falls as flat as this one soars.  It just goes to show that when things come together, that it really makes for a fine cinematic viewing experience.

    The plot basics are this, Andrew Braddock (York) is adrift on a lifeboat after having his ship sink and him along with another survivor drift through the ocean, until he comes across an uncharted island.  He makes it to land, when suddenly He and his companion are chased by unseen forces.  Braddock runs until he is discovered by a man (Davenport), who rescues him and takes him back to an enclosed fortress that is run by the enigmatic Dr. Moreau (Lancaster)..  As he is nursed back to health Braddock discovers that Moreau was a esteemed scientist who’s theories on man and the instinct of animals were scoffed at.  So now he lives on this island continuing with his experiments on men and animals.  IT soon becomes clear to Braddock that Moreau has gone mad and is now forcibly evolving animals into humans.  He rules these creations with an iron fist and he decides to try and turn Braddock into a animal to see if he can eradicate the rational mind of man.  IT does not go well and soon Moreau kills his cohort and the creatures see this and rise up and start an all out war with Moreau that will not end well for either sides.  Moreau’s edict is do as I say and not as I do and the creatures do not cotton to that.

    This is a great little film.  The direction by Taylor is very suspenseful and gripping.  The chase through the jungle in the beginning is choreographed very well, without letting you see what is pursuing Braddock.  He also does a great job of filming the siege to the camp at the end, there is much chaos but he films it in a way that it is very easy to follow.  The script stays very true to Wells’ original vision and really plays up the maniacal god complex that Moreau had.  It also plays up the romance between Braddock and Maria very well and realistically.  The cast is excellent.  Lancaster as the megalomaniacal Moreau brings a great gravity to his performance and it is great seeing his frustration when his experiments on Braddock do not bear fruit.  York is a great stoic hero as well.  Carrera is very sexy and mysterious as Maria and at times the viewer does not know what to make of her.  Baseheart as the Sayer of the Law is phenomenal as well and his is the best performance in the film, the emotions he is able to convey underneath the make up is astounding.  The SFX and effects are very good and remind me a lot of the original Planet of the apes make up effects.  That probably has a lot to do with John Chambers being in charge who was the make up designer on Planet of the Apes.  This is a excellent film and by far the best adaptation of this classic story.

This one gets 4 out of 5 

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The ‘Mad Dog’ Criminal…The ‘Lone Wolf‘ Lawman…The Ultimate Showdown.

Aqui está a explicação porque Chuck Norris é um ícone da 7ª arte. Já que Bruce Lee não ficou com o lugar de Kung Fu na serie original e faleceu derivado a ter perdido o papel, o amigo de longa data Chuck aproveitou a oportunidade para mostrar a David Carradine 1 ou 2 truques que o mestre oriental lhe ensinou. É que autenticamente o pó da hacienda mexicana onde Carradine se esconde de Chuck é engolido pelo mesmo, após levar poucas e boas na tromba. E não ficamos só por aqui, Chuck é enterrado vivo dentro do seu truck e após um banho de cerveja ei-lo a ligar o motor e a desenterrar-se (a ele e ao truck). Acreditem, Chuck Norris é um Deus da sétima arte. Macho até mais não. No frige deste senhor não há espaço para fruta nem vegetais, só beer. Aprendemos que karaté escreve-se carate, senão vejam a matricula de Carradine. Quando lhe chega a mostarda ao nariz, arrebenta vigas maiores que aquelas onde Tong Po treina. Ainda temos a Barbara Carrera a tentar dar a volta e pôr Chuck nos eixos, mas fica dominada pelo machismo e pelo cheiro a beer que este emana. Um clássico imperdivel. Após isto, Chuck só descansou ao fazer a serie inspirada em Lone Wolf Mcquade, de seu nome Walker, Texas Ranger.

Vale a pena deixar de ver a bola e a caneca da cerveja a aquecer para ver isto

I’ve decided, in my wisdom, to watch all of the Bond’s that I’m pretty unfamiliar with and after this and The Man With The Golden Gun I’m beginning to think I should abandon the plan- clearly there’s a reason that I’m unfamiliar with them.

Presently I’m just short of an hour and a half in and I’ve paused it to write a few notes on here as an excuse not to watch any more.  When Connery jacked it in because he was too old it was already an overdue decision- he had sleepwalked through the last couple he made- and this was made twelve years after that.  There are concessions to that time-gap with Sean having a grey wig and a new stiff upper-lipped bureaucrat boss who has semi-retired him into teaching new recruits but it isn’t very convincingly done.  Anyway, M (Edward Fox- just how many of these Foxes are there?) sends Bond to convalesce in a Health Farm where he stumbles upon SPECTRE’s latest domination plot!  And so I’m thinking “this is fucking Thunderball isn’t it?” and sitting and gradually growing in fury that they’ve got Connery in to remake a film he made nearly twenty years earlier, but I resolve to stay calm and give it a chance.

From memory this was brought out in direct competition with the ‘official’ release Octopussy.  Now the Roger Moore film was embarrassing because of the slapstick humour, the fact that Moore is too old and fat and the all-round low standards of everyone involved.  I think this is worse.  One of the great things about Bond is it’s fantasy- in Octopussy Moore got to fight a seven foot Sikh on the wings of a plane, Never Say Never Again‘s comparable moment was Connery fighting a bloke from Wolverhampton on the set of Dinnerladies.  This is a very watered-down attempt.  It isn’t low-budget and, as I said recently, I often prefer low-budget movies- the problem is that the vast majority of the budget seems to have been spent on getting Connery in and flying the crew to Barbados, the South of France and wherever else they fancied going.  Everything else is done shoddily and with disregard- the interiors are appalling for example.  The purpose of the movie appears to be to get people in, irrespective of what they’ll tell their friends when they leave.  This is not a film that could ever be a word-of-mouth success.  Even the dialogue- which is appalling- seems to have been designed with the trailer in mind- like this exchange between Bond and Q (not dear old Desmond Llewellyn, obviously):  Q- “Now you’re on this, I hope we’re going to have some gratuitous sex and violence“.  Bond- “I shertainly hope sho too“.  Speaking of Q- who Bond mysteriously keeps calling Algernon- there is a slapstick appearance by rubber-faced so-called comedian Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling bureaucrat called Small-Fawcett- for fuck’s sake!- who foresees John Cleese’s cringeworthy Q.  If this wasn’t warning enough, I don’t know what would have been.

But this could have worked.  The premise, as I said, has real potential and Connery was certainly capable of delivering in the role a wearied, ageing, vulnerable Bond- which he really doesn’t do here.  I’m thinking of something like McQueen in The Hunter which I watched recently.  It isn’t a great movie by any means, but McQueen’s “I’m getting too old for this shit” performance would have been a great example to follow.  Aside from that, you have a magnificent Blofeld in Max von Sydow- bizarrely asked to use a Dutch/Flemish accent and Kim Basinger as a lead Bond girl.  Both here, though, are wasted.  The attention instead is paid to Klaus Maria Brandauer’s appalling Maximilian Largo (a villain as sinister and threatening as a ball of wool) and Barbara Carrera’s hilariously bad SPECTRE number 12 Fatima Blush.  From water-ski-ing in a thong to throwing a hissy fit when Bond suggests he may have once had better sex with a girl in Philadelphia, she is hardly Rosa Kleb.  SPECTRE were clearly hard up for villains after years of good work by Bond.  The film also feature’s Hit Man‘s American Football-player turned slab of wood blaxploitation star Bernie Casey as Felix.  He is crap obviously.

So the film wastes the opportunities it has and instead focuses upon trying to out-Roger Moore Roger Moore.  Bond is variously shot in soft-focus during a saxophone-scored bedroom scene (they didn’t even bother covering Sean’s tattoo for that one), chased by radio-controlled sharks, plays a video game against the villain Largo and fails to catch a woman in stilettos driving a Renault 5 despite being on a gadget-laden motorbike designed by Q.

I said above that I’ve paused about three quarters of the way through.  I’ve decided that I’m not watching the rest- 1/10.  One mark for simply being a Bond film.

Sean Connery is back for his final performance as superagent James Bond in this high-velocity action thriller from the director of The Empire Strikes Back. When two atomic warheads are hijacked by the evil SPECTRE organization, Agent 007 is hurled into an explosive, pulse-pounding race to save the world from nuclear terrorists!

After years of enduring Roger Moore in the role of James Bond, it was good to have Sean Connery back in this 1983 film for a one-time-only trip down 007′s memory lane. Connery’s Bond, a bit of a dinosaur in the British secret service at (then) 52, is still in demand during times of crisis. Sadly, the film is not very good. In this rehash of Thunderball, Bond is pitted against a worthy underwater villain (Klaus Maria Brandauer); and while the requisite Bond Girls include beauties Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera, they can’t save the movie. The script has several truly dumb passages, among them a (gasp) video-game duel between 007 and his nemesis that now looks utterly anachronistic. For Connery fans, however, this widescreen print of the Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) film is a chance to say a final goodbye to a perfect marriage of actor and character. –Tom Keogh

Never Say Never Again is available at Amazon for $7.99. To Order click here
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Other Products of Interest

• You Only Live Twice
• Thunderball
• Diamonds Are Forever
• From Russia With Love
• James Bond Ultimate Collector’s Set

Hace unos días, mientras saboreaba un delicioso café originario de las Montañas Azules jamaicanas con mi buen amigo MH, surgió -cómo no- el tema de la relación entre la literatura y el cine. Él es un auténtico culter y un gran lector, así que me habló de una interesante película australiana del año 98 (convertida en una serie televisiva que alcanzó cierta popularidad), y que fue adaptada de la novela de Geoffrey Dutton.

Yo le insinué mi interés por ver esa cinta protagonizada por la bella Barbara Carrera, y a la vez por leer el libro de Dutton… MH es bastante reticente a prestar libros y dvd’s a los amigos pero ayer, para sorpresa mía, llamó a casa y me entregó una bolsa que contenía ambas ‘joyas’. “Tienes una semana para leer la biografía y disfrutar de la película. Las quiero de nuevo en mi poder el próximo miércoles…”, me dijo con su peculiar acento valenciano. Así que anoche mismo disfruté del inesperado préstamo de MH… Digo yo que para algo deben servir los amigos, ¿no?

Barbara Carrera

Más que su interés cinematográfico (que es medianamente aceptable), lo que me subyugó de verdad fue la vida del personaje, ya que tanto el libro como la serie, están basados en la vida real de Emma Eliza Coe. La película se rodó en paradisíacos escenarios de Samoa, en la salvaje y primitiva Nueva Guinea, el San Francisco del siglo diecinueve, la Casa Blanca del presidente Ulises S. Grant, el Berlín del emperador Guillermo II y el lujoso Montecarlo del siglo XIX.

Hija de una princesa de la casa real de Samoa y de Jonas Coe, el primer cónsul americano de Apia, Emma Eliza Coe fue una bella mujer que amasó una gran fortuna y fue conocida, a menudo de forma íntima, por muchas eminentes figuras de Europa y Estados Unidos.

Desde niña Emma mostró una fuerte personalidad y modales muy «nativos» que escandalizaban a los puritanos misioneros. Internada en un severo convento, del que fue expulsada años después, la joven recibió enseñanzas no sólo de las monjas del convento en San Francisco sino también de su amiga y tutora la doctora Lane.

Emma regresó a Samoa con ideas propias y con la habilidad de saber expresarlas con convicción.

En el viaje de vuelta a su tierra, la muchacha mantuvo relaciones con el capitán del barco, un lacónico y aventurero irlandés-australiano llamado Thomas Farrell. Cambiante y oportunista, Farrell mantendrá una protectora fidelidad a Emma durante los veinte años de su atípica relación.

Emma pronto se integró en la movida colonial del Pacífico Sur, convirtiéndose en el centro de las subversiones políticas de Samoa y en la remota Nueva Guinea. Desplegando, asimismo, una gran actividad en el terreno sentimental, con dos matrimonios y un buen número de amantes en su haber.

Con la ayuda de Thomas Farrell, Emma fue pionera de la industria de la copra; levantó un vasto imperio de plantaciones, almacenes y una flota mercante.

Su riqueza y poder sirvieron a esta singular mujer para salvaguardar a su familia, amenazada por las luchas por el poder colonial entre los Estados Unidos, Alemania y Gran Bretaña.

La historia real de Emma superó a la mejor novela de ficción, en ella no faltaron aventuras, romances, pompas y ceremonias, así como violencia, ambición y sexo, sin omitir intrigas políticas y comerciales.

A veces, las biografías de personajes tan increíbles como fue Emma Eliza Coe resultan más interesantes que ciertos libros de poesía… Lo afirma MH.

Mr. Arriflex