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The Blue Lagoon (1980 film)
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The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 English language romance and adventure film starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, produced and directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris and the cinematography was by Nestor Almendros.
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Without either the guidance or restrictions of society, emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they reach puberty and fall in love.
he Victorian period, two young children, Richard and Emmeline Lestrange are passengers on a sailing ship in the South Pacific with Richard's father.
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Encyclopedia
The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 English language romance and adventure film starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, produced and directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris and the cinematography was by Nestor Almendros.
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Without either the guidance or restrictions of society, emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they reach puberty and fall in love.
Plot summary
In the Victorian period, two young children, Richard and Emmeline Lestrange are passengers on a sailing ship in the South Pacific with Richard's father. (Emmeline's parents are dead, and she calls Richard's father "uncle".) A fire breaks out, destroying the ship. Galley cook Paddy Button gets the children into a lifeboat with him, but they are separated from the other survivors and drift out to sea. After days afloat, they come upon a lush tropical island. Paddy assumes responsibility for caring for the small children, teaching them how to behave, how to forage for food, build shelter, etc. He sees evidence of human sacrifice on the other side of the island, and tells them "the bogeyman" is there, making them agree to a "law" that they will never go there. Another "law" is that they must never eat a certain scarlet berry that Emmeline finds; he calls them "never-wake-up berries".
One night Paddy dies in a drunken binge. At Emmeline's request, the two set out in the lifeboat to find another place to live, and they build a new home together on a different beach. Years pass and they both grow into strong and beautiful teenagers. They live in a self-constructed hut and spend their days together fishing and swimming. Their bodies mature and develop, and they become physically attracted to each other, but do not know how to express it. Emmeline is shocked when she experiences her first menstruation and is embarrassed to explain it to Richard. Later, when his awkward desire to hold her is rebuffed, he goes off and masturbates.
They start to have conflicts between them, such as when Richard sees a ship in the distance and races to light their pre-built signal fire, but Emmeline, who also sees it and is near the signal, doesn't light it because she doesn't want to leave. However, when Emmeline accidentally steps on a poisonous stonefish and nearly dies, Richard tells her of his fear of losing her. Reconciled, they become increasingly physically affectionate, and have sexual intercourse. This becomes a regular part of their life together until Emmeline complains that it hurts; unknown to either of them, she is pregnant. Knowing nothing about childbirth (they had only been taught the "cabbage patch" story), they are mystified by the changes to her body, until she gives birth to a boy, and discovers breastfeeding by accident.
The young couple spend all their time with the child, whom they call Paddy, after the last adult they ever knew. They teach him how to swim with them, and he grows into a happy, healthy toddler. One day, while the parents are playing with the boy in the mud along the shore, a ship approaches. They both see it, but this time Richard doesn't move to flag the ship down. On board the ship is Richard's father Arthur who is obsessively searching for them. Watching them through a telescope, all he can see are two naked people, covered in mud and with a baby, and cannot bring himself to believe that it is the missing, civilised children he is looking for. The ship thus passes on.
On a visit by lifeboat to the beach where they lived with Paddy Button, neither parent notices when little Paddy picks a bunch of never-wake-up berries and brings them with him when Emmeline and he reboard the boat. She dozes off, waking to discover that they have drifted off the beach and Paddy has pushed one of the oars overboard. Richard swims out to them, but a shark arrives, and the the other oar is lost in holding it off to allow Richard to get in the boat. Unable to recover either oar without risking shark attack, they drift out to sea.
After some time, Richard and Emmeline wake to find Paddy innocently eating the never-wake-up berries. As Paddy slowly slips into unconsciousness, Richard splits the remaining berries into two handfuls. They silently eat the berries, and lie down embracing to await death. Arthur's ship comes across them floating in the boat. Arthur asks, "Are they dead?" and the ship's captain answers, "No, sir. They're asleep."
Sequel
The story is eventually continued in the 1991 sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon. In this film, which picks up where The Blue Lagoon left off, Richard and Emmeline die in the lifeboat minutes after being found, but their son is rescued. He ultimately ends up back on the island in a story similar to that of the first film. This is based very loosely on Henry De Vere Stacpoole's actual sequel The Garden of God.
Cast
Production
became known to herpetologists through The Blue Lagoon]]
The film was shot on location in Jamaica and Nanuya Levu, a privately-owned island in Fiji, whilst the blue lagoon scenes were shot in Champagne Bay, Vanuatu. The flora and fauna featured in the film were included an array of animals from multiple continents. Wranglers even daubed paint on docile iguanas to give them an exotic appearance. As it turned out, the iguanas filmed on Fiji were a species hitherto unknown to science; this was noted by the herpetologist John Gibbons when he watched the movie, and he described the Fiji Crested Iguana (Brachylophus vitiensis) in 1981.
In the DVD version of this film, it was stated that many of Brooke Shields' nude scenes were in fact done by older body doubles. In addition, the film's stunt coordinator Kathy Troutt was one of the body doubles as well as the dolphin trainer. It was also stated that Brooke Shields had done many of her topless scenes with her hair glued to her breasts.
Reaction
The film was the ninth biggest box office hit of 1980 in North America according to Box Office Mojo, grossing US$58,853,106 in the United States and Canada.
The film was criticized as prurient by several Christian and conservative groups, primarily because of the themes of teenage sexuality presented in the movie. It was also decried as child pornography based on the nude presentation of prepubescent Richard and Emmeline, and the sexual content of the scenes in which 14-year-old Shields appeared. (Atkins was 18 years old.) Unlike her earlier Pretty Baby, in this film a body double was used for all of Shields' nude scenes, although she was featured in several topless scenes. Atkins appeared in several scenes fully nude, including frontal nudity. Most examples of full nudity were fairly brief, from a distance, or took place in somewhat murky underwater scenes.
DVD details
Special Edition Release
- Release date: October 5, 1999
- Full Screen and Widescreen
- Region: 1
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Audio tracks: English, Spanish
- 2 Audio commentaries:
- Randal Kleiser, Douglas Day Stewart, and Brooke Shields
- Randal Kleiser and Christopher Atkins
- Subtitles: English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
- Special Features:
- Personal photo album by Brooke Shields
- Original featurette
- Theatrical trailer
- Cast and crew info
- Running time: 105 minutes
Awards and nominations
- Nominee: Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Nestor Almendros
- Nominee: Saturn Award - Best Fantasy Film
- Nominee: Golden Globe Award, New Star of the Year - Christopher Atkins
- Winner: 1980 Golden Raspberry Awards, Worst Actress - Brooke Shields
- Nominee: Best Major Motion Picture - Family Entertainment
- Nominee: Best Young Motion Picture Actor - Christopher Atkins
- Nominee: Best Young Motion Picture Actress - Brooke Shields
See also
External links
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