Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American
romanceRomance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
and
adventure filmAdventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
starring
Milla JovovichMilla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
and
Brian KrauseBrian Jeffrey Krause is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Leo Wyatt on the WB Network TV series Charmed from 1998 to 2006.-Background:...
, produced and directed by
William A. GrahamWilliam A. Graham is an American television and film director.Graham directed episodes of many TV series including The Fugitive, Twelve O'Clock High, The Big Valley, Batman and Ironside...
. The screenplay by
Leslie StevensLeslie Clark Stevens III was the creator of the cult TV series The Outer Limits and director of the cult horror film Incubus , starring William Shatner. He wrote an early work of New Age philosophy, Est: The Steersman Handbook .-Early life and career:Leslie Stevens was born in Washington, D.C...
was based on the novel
The Garden of GodThe Garden of God is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1923. It is the first sequel to his best-selling novel The Blue Lagoon , and continued with The Gates of Morning .-Plot summary:...
by
Henry De Vere StacpooleHenry De Vere Stacpoole was an Irish author, born in Kingstown . His best known work is the 1908 romance novel The Blue Lagoon, which has been adapted into feature films on three occasions...
. The original music score was composed by
Basil PoledourisVassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris was a Greek-American music composer who concentrated on the scores for films and television shows...
. The film's closing theme song "A World of Our Own" is performed by
Surface featuring Bernard JacksonSurface was an American R&B and pop music group, active from 1983 to 1994, and best known for its #1 pop and R&B hit "The First Time".-Early years:...
. The music was written by
Barry MannBarry Mann is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.-Career:...
, and the lyrics were written by
Cynthia WeilCynthia Weil is a prominent American songwriter. She is famous for having written many songs together with her husband Barry Mann....
. The film was marketed as "
Return to the Romance, Return to the Adventure..." referring it to 1980's
The Blue LagoonThe Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins...
which this film is a sequel to.
Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American
romanceRomance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
and
adventure filmAdventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
starring
Milla JovovichMilla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
and
Brian KrauseBrian Jeffrey Krause is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Leo Wyatt on the WB Network TV series Charmed from 1998 to 2006.-Background:...
, produced and directed by
William A. GrahamWilliam A. Graham is an American television and film director.Graham directed episodes of many TV series including The Fugitive, Twelve O'Clock High, The Big Valley, Batman and Ironside...
. The screenplay by
Leslie StevensLeslie Clark Stevens III was the creator of the cult TV series The Outer Limits and director of the cult horror film Incubus , starring William Shatner. He wrote an early work of New Age philosophy, Est: The Steersman Handbook .-Early life and career:Leslie Stevens was born in Washington, D.C...
was based on the novel
The Garden of GodThe Garden of God is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1923. It is the first sequel to his best-selling novel The Blue Lagoon , and continued with The Gates of Morning .-Plot summary:...
by
Henry De Vere StacpooleHenry De Vere Stacpoole was an Irish author, born in Kingstown . His best known work is the 1908 romance novel The Blue Lagoon, which has been adapted into feature films on three occasions...
. The original music score was composed by
Basil PoledourisVassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris was a Greek-American music composer who concentrated on the scores for films and television shows...
. The film's closing theme song "A World of Our Own" is performed by
Surface featuring Bernard JacksonSurface was an American R&B and pop music group, active from 1983 to 1994, and best known for its #1 pop and R&B hit "The First Time".-Early years:...
. The music was written by
Barry MannBarry Mann is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.-Career:...
, and the lyrics were written by
Cynthia WeilCynthia Weil is a prominent American songwriter. She is famous for having written many songs together with her husband Barry Mann....
. The film was marketed as "
Return to the Romance, Return to the Adventure..." referring it to 1980's
The Blue LagoonThe Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins...
which this film is a sequel to.
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a
tropical island paradiseA desert island or uninhabited island is an island that has yet to be populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often used in movies or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes for the idea of "paradise". Some uninhabited islands are protected as nature reserves and...
in the South Pacific. Their life together is blissful, but not without physical and emotional changes, as they grow to
maturitySexual maturity is the age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood, though the two are distinct...
and fall in love.
Plot
In the
Victorian periodThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, Mrs. Sarah Hargrave, a beautiful widow, and two young children (one of whom is the son of the castaways from the original film) are
cast offA castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade their captors or the world in general. Alternatively, a person or item can be cast away, meaning rejected or discarded...
from the ship they are travelling on. After days afloat, a sailor who has been sent with them tries to kill the children. Sarah angrily kills him, using an oar, and dumps his body overboard. The trio arrives at and is stranded on a beautiful tropical island in the
South PacificOceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. Sarah tries to raise them to be civilized, but soon gives up, as the orphaned boy Richard was born and raised by young lovers on this same island, and he influences the widow's daughter Lilli. They grow up, and Sarah educates them from the
BibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, as well as from her own knowledge, including the facts of life. She cautiously demands the children never to go to the forbidden side of the island.
When Richard and Lilli are about eight, Sarah dies from
pneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, leaving them to fend for themselves. Sarah is buried on a scenic promontory overlooking the tidal reef area. Together, the children survive solely on their resourcefulness, and the bounty of their remote paradise. Years later, both Richard and Lilli grow into strong and beautiful young adults. They live in a house on the beach and spend their days together fishing, swimming, and exploring the island. Both their bodies mature and develop, and they are physically attracted to each other. Richard loses the child's game
Easter egg huntEgg hunt is a game during which decorated eggs, real hard-boiled ones or artificial, filled with or made of chocolate candies, of various sizes, are hidden in various places for children to find. The game may be both indoors and outdoors...
and dives to find Lilli an adult's pearl as her reward. His penchant for racing a lagoon
sharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
sparks a domestic quarrel; Lilli thinks he is foolhardy, but the liveliness makes Richard feel virile.
Lilli awakens in the morning with her first
menstrual periodThe menstrual cycle is the scientific term for the physiological changes that can occur in fertile women for the purpose of sexual reproduction. This article focuses on the human menstrual cycle....
, just as Sarah described the threshold of womanhood. Richard awakens in the morning with an
erectionPenile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal...
, and suffers a nasty mood swing, which he cannot explain. They then get into an argument regarding
privacyPrivacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
and their late mother's rules. One night, Richard goes off to the forbidden side of the island, and discovers that a group of natives from another island use the shrine of an impressive,
Kon-TikiViracocha is the great creator god in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. Full name and some spelling alternatives are Apu Qun Tiqsi Wiraqutra and Con-Tici Viracocha...
-like idol to sacrifice conquered enemies every full moon. Richard
camouflageCamouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
s himself with mud and hides in the muck; meanwhile, Lilli worries about his disappearance. Richard escapes unscathed, though he is seen by a lone native. Ultimately, after making up for their fight, Richard and Lilli discover natural love and
passionAn intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...
, which deepens their emotional bond. They fall in love, and exchange formal wedding vows and rings in the middle of the jungle. They
consummateConsummation is the initial sexual act made within a marriage.Consummation can also refer to:* Consummation , 1970 recordingSee also:* Consummation of days, event predicted in Daniel Chapter 12, verses 1-4...
their new found feelings for each other for the next several months.
Soon after, a ship arrives at the island, carrying unruly sailors, a proud captain, and his beautiful but spoiled daughter, Sylvia Hilliard. The party is welcomed by the young couple, and they ask to be taken back to civilization, after many years in isolation. Sylvia tries to steal Richard from Lilli and seduce him, but as tempted as he is by her strange ways, he realizes that Lilli is his heart and soul, upsetting Sylvia. Richard angrily leaves Sylvia behind in the middle of the fish pond, in plain view of the landing party. Meanwhile, a sailor ogles Lilli in her bath, drags her back to the house, and tries to
rapeRape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
her and steal her pearl, before Richard comes to her rescue. Richard flees his shots, is chased by the sailor, and then lures him to his death in the jaws of the shark in the tidal reef area. Upon returning, he apologizes to Lilli for hurting her, and she reveals that she is pregnant. They decide to stay and raise their child on the island, as they feel their blissful life would not compare to civilization. The ship departs and the two young lovers stay on the island, and have their baby girl. They name her Sarah after Lilli's mother.
Cast
- Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
as Lilli Hargrave
- Brian Krause
Brian Jeffrey Krause is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Leo Wyatt on the WB Network TV series Charmed from 1998 to 2006.-Background:...
as Richard Lestrange
- Lisa Pelikan
Lisa Pelikan is an American stage, film and television actress.She was born in Berkley, California, the daughter of American parents Helen L., a psychologist, and Robert G. Pelikan, an international economist who served as the minister-counselor from the United States at the Organization for...
as Mrs. Sarah Hargrave
- Courtney Barilla as Young Lilli
- Garette Ratliff Henson
Garette Patrick Henson is an American actor, best known for his role as Guy Germaine in The Mighty Ducks trilogy.- Biography :...
as Young Richard
- Emma James as Infant Lilli
- Jackson Barton as Infant Richard
- Nana Coburn as Sylvia Hilliard
- Brian Blain
Brian Blain was an Australian film and television actor. He is best remembered for his role as Gordon Hamilton in the Seven Network soap opera Sons and Daughters from 1981 to 1987 when the series was cancelled, and his role as Captain Jacob Hilliard in the film sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon...
as Captain Jacob Hilliard
- Peter Hehir
Peter Hehir is an Australian film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Bert Duggan on the soap opera The Sullivans from 1976 to 1983, when the series was cancelled...
as Quinlan
- Alexander Peterson as Giddens
- John Mann
John Mann was an English radio actor.He played Snowey White who assisted the hero in Dick Barton for the BBC Light Programme between 1946 and 1951.-External links:*...
as First Captain
- Wayne Pygram
Wayne Pigram , better known by his stage name Wayne Pygram, is an Australian actor, known for his role as Scorpius in the science fiction series Farscape and the miniseries that followed, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars .Pygram was born in Cootamundra, New South Wales and raised in Wagga Wagga,...
as Kearney
- John Dicks as Penfield
Background and production
The film was shot on location in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and
TaveuniTaveuni is the third-largest island in Fiji, after Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, with a total land area of 435 square kilometers . The cigar-shaped island, a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated 6.5 kilometers to the east of Vanua Levu, across the...
,
FijiFiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
and is a sequel to the
1980- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
remake
The Blue LagoonThe Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins...
, starring
Brooke ShieldsBrooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
and
Christopher AtkinsChristopher Atkins is an American actor, who became famous with his costarring debut role in the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon.-Early life:...
.
Return to the Blue Lagoon bears a strong similarity to the original film, which was produced and directed by
Randal KleiserJohn Randal Kleiser is an American film director and producer, perhaps best known for directing the 1978 musical film Grease.-Life and career:...
, but picks up from where the original film left off. It is almost nothing like
The Garden of God, Henry De Vere Stacpoole's sequel to his novel
The Blue Lagoon. However, in the second sequel novel,
The Gates of MorningThe Gates of Morning is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1925. It is the third novel of the Blue Lagoon trilogy which began with The Blue Lagoon and continued with The Garden of God ....
, a pair of sailors attack the people of a nearby island because they know its waters are rich with pearls, and it is possible the filmmakers used this. Richard is the child of Richard and Emmeline Lestrange of the original film, who both are revealed to be dead at the beginning and are
buried at seaBurial at sea describes the procedure of disposing of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, but also can be done by private citizens in many countries.-By religion:...
. The new
shipwreckA shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
occurred mere days after they were found where the crew is struck with cholera.
Although many of the film's elements were derived from the 1980
Blue Lagoon film, and there was some nudity, the film was much more sanitized in content than its predecessor, and was able to garner a
PG-13The Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. The MPAA system applies only to motion pictures that are submitted for rating. Other media may be rated by other entities...
rating in the United States. Despite the adult content of this film, including partial nudity (controversially, from a 15-year-old Milla Jovovich) and sexual themes, when
Return to the Blue Lagoon was released to
home videoHome video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
, it was promoted in North America as a family film suitable for all ages. The
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
version of this film is reframed to cut out Milla Jovovich's breasts in the scene where she's looking at herself in the mirror. The older
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
version showed her nipples at the very bottom of the screen.
Nominations
1991 Golden Raspberry AwardsThe 12th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on March 29, 1992 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to recognize the worst the movie industry had to offer in 1991. The list of nominees follows, with recipients marked in bold.-Awards and nominations:...
- Nominee: Worst Director - William A. Graham
- Nominee: Worst New Star - Milla Jovovich
- Nominee: Worst New Star - Brian Krause
- Nominee: Worst Picture - William A. Graham
- Nominee: Worst Screenplay - Leslie Stevens
Young Artist AwardThe Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist...
s
- Nominee: Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture - Milla Jovovich
See also
- The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon is a 1949 British romance and adventure film produced and directed by Frank Launder, starring Jean Simmons and Donald Houston. The screenplay was adapted by John Baines, Michael Hogan and Frank Launder from the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole...
, 1949 version
- The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins...
, 1980 version
- Paradise
Paradise is a 1982 English language romance and adventure film starring Phoebe Cates and Willie Aames, written and directed by Stuart Gillard. The original music score was composed by Paul Hoffert with the theme song sung by Phoebe Cates....
External links