PBS special reduces Liliuokalani to simplistic victim of overthrow

In a spasm of hyperbole, the Web site for PBS's "American Experience" film "Hawaii's Last Queen" states flatly:

"Hawaii's Last Queen" (DVD/VHS, WGBH Boston, $19.95)

"On January 16, 1893, four boatloads of United States Marines armed with Gatling guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition came ashore in Honolulu, capital of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii. As the Royal Hawaiian band played a concert at the Hawaiian Hotel, 162 troops marched through the streets of Honolulu, heading for the palace. The Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, looked down from her balcony as the troops took up their positions. The following day, she surrendered at gunpoint, yielding her throne to the government of the United States."

As accurate history this is pretty thin -- when will people realize that a sailor with a rifle is not the same thing as a Marine? -- but the central image has undeniable power. The poor innocent queen, a Gatling gun jammed in her ear and bayonets at her throat, weepingly signing over her kingdom to a passel of hooting American yahoos. There will never be enough apologies for such behavior.

It also doesn't give the queen credit for being a grown-up human being. It infantilizes this complex, talented, formidable woman into little more than a victim.

History is all about the complexities of life, while propaganda is about the simplifications. The tale of how the Hawaiian kingdom shattered is fascinating and instructive and disturbing and complicated, or it is a criminal smash-and-grab, depending on what you choose to believe. It is the choosing between these alternate and opposing realities that could have been fodder for an interesting documentary.

This isn't it. While it is straightforward and largely sticks to the facts, "Hawaii's Last Queen" is simplistic and reverent dogma. Now that the 1997 film been re-released on DVD, you can judge for yourself.

It can't be faulted on a technical level. New York-based filmmaker Vivian Ducat gives "Hawaii's Last Queen" the full glossy PBS treatment, complete with hushed narration by East Coast actress Anna Deavere Smith and a rueful, haunted and sorrowful tone throughout. The word might be elegiac. Many talking heads say wise things, including some local historians we now miss, such as James Bartels and Glen Grant.

As biography, the film is a reasonable outline of an extraordinary life's arc, from Liliuokalani's royal beginnings to her overachiever school days to marrying a haole, to inheriting a kingdom from her profligate brother, to the feuding bands of supporters, to the sugar barons' shock when, as America eventually annexed the islands, a real democracy was institutionalized and their landowner autocracy crumbled.

But other good points are raised, chief among them the notion that during King Kalakaua's many trips abroad, Liliuokalani was in charge and ran the kingdom rather well. So the plaint that she was a governance newbie when she became queen rings hollow.

The film also notes that Liliuokalani, perhaps recognizing that Hawaiians would have rights under the United States that they'd never have under the republic, eventually came to a kind of personal truce with annexation, and she regained her regal position within the hearts of her fellow citizens.

As a DVD, the transfer and sound are first-rate, but there is precious little bonus material, mostly a teachers' guide that is the same as on the PBS Web site. The cover image chosen of Liliuokalani is unfortunate -- she looks embalmed and feeble. No matter what you think of Liliuokalani, feeble she wasn't.