Johnny Lingo is a short film made in 1969 that opens in a Polynesian setting that tells a tale of self-worth and love through the eyes of a Caucasian storekeeper. As the story begins, Mahana's father is approached by a shrewed business man that wants to marry his daughter by bidding for her hand in marriage with the offering of cows. The islanders take into account that Mahana is not attractive, and less industrious to the family bottom line, teased and ridiculed, she feels mocked that a wealthy entrepreneur would even suggest buying her hand. All the townsfolk begin gossiping, bragging about how much their husbands payed for their wives, and how Johnny Lingo will most likely pay bottom dollar, er, cows for Mahana. In the end, Johnny pays 8 cows-the largest sum for a wife. In the closing scenes, the sale complete, the father comes to bid the newlyweds goodbye, when Mahana steps out of the hut. He is stunned, for Mahana is transformed, no longer the scruffy mongrel that her father treat her like, into a gorgeous and beautiful brick-house figure. And yet, the father voices his anger, telling Johnny Lingo that he ripped him off, "Mahana is a 10-cow wife! You jipped me!" The bottom line is not how we see others but how we see ourselves, and our self-worth is what is key in this story. No longer would Mahana measure her worth by how many cows other wives were bartered up to, for her worth was a simple gesture by her husband, paying 8 cows for what others perceived as unlovable, unwanted, or worthless. In the end, the storekeeper and Johnny closing a sale on a mirror for Mahana, when the storekeeper says, "I misjudged you, Johnny." Johnny saw the beauty that had always lied within Mahana, that everyone else overlooked. This film is applicable today and gives us hope for ourselves, and for others.
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