1980 The Blue Lagoon VO Streaming
The Blue Lagoon (1980 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American
romantic adventure drama film directed by
Randal Kleiser and filmed on Turtle Island Fiji.
[1] 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. The original music score was composed by
Basil Poledouris and the cinematography was by
Néstor Almendros. The film is a remake of a
1949 film by the same name.
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a
tropical island paradise in the
South Pacific. With neither the guidance nor the restrictions of society, emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they reach
puberty and fall in love.
Shields was 14 years old at the time of filming and later testified before a U.S. Congressional inquiry that older
body doubles
were used in some of her nude scenes. Also, throughout the film in
frontal shots her breasts were always covered by her long hair or in
other ways. It was also stated that Shields's hair was glued to her
breasts during many of her
topless scenes.
[2] The film received a
MPAA rating of R.
Plot
In the
Victorian period, two young cousins, Richard (
Christopher Atkins) and Emmeline Lestrange (
Brooke Shields), and a galley cook, Paddy Button (
Leo McKern),
survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific and reach a lush tropical
island. Paddy cares for the small children and forbids them by "law"
from going to the other side of the island, as he had found remains from
bloody human sacrifices. He also warns them against eating a scarlet
berry which is apparently deadly. (He calls it the "never-wake-up
berry".)
Paddy soon dies after a drunken
binge,
and his body is discovered by Richard and Emmeline. Now alone, the
children go to another part of the island and rebuild their home.
Years pass and they both grow into tall, strong, and beautiful
teenagers. They live in their hut, spending their days together fishing,
swimming, and diving for pearls. Richard and Emmeline (now portrayed by
Christopher Atkins and
Brooke Shields)
begin to fall in love, although this is emotionally stressful for them
because of their lack of education on human sexuality. Emmeline is
frightened after she begins her first
menstrual period; confused about it, she refuses to allow Richard to inspect her for what he imagines is a cut.
Sometime later, their relationship suffers a major blow when a ship
appears for the first time in years. Richard's desire to leave comes
into conflict with Emmeline's desire to stay, and she does not light the
signal fire. As a result, the ship passes by without noticing them.
Richard's fury leads him to kick Emmeline out of their hut. They make up
for this fight after Emmeline is nearly killed upon stepping on a
stonefish and Richard admits to his fear of losing her. Emmeline recovers and after she regains her ability to walk, they go
skinny dipping in the lagoon and then swim to shore. Still naked, Richard and Emmeline discover
sexual intercourse and
passionate love. They regularly make love from then on while occasionally spending their time together in the
nude.
Due to their regular sexual encounters, Emmeline becomes pregnant.
Richard and Emmeline themselves do not know about the truth of
childbirth and human reproduction and assume that the physical change in
Emmeline's body is her getting fat. They are stunned when they feel the
baby move inside her and assume that it is her stomach causing the
movements.
One night, Emmeline gives birth to a baby boy, whom they name Paddy.
Frustrated at not knowing how to feed the baby, Emmeline holds him and
learns how to feed him as the baby instinctively starts sucking on her
breast. The young parents spend their time playing with Paddy as he
grows, teaching him how to swim, fish, and build things.
As the family plays, a ship led by Richard's father Arthur (
William Daniels)
approaches the island and sees the family playing on the shore. As they
are covered in mud, their appearance is difficult to determine. When
they notice that they are being watched, they exchange looks and tacitly
decide not to reveal themselves; they start to walk away. Arthur
assumes that these are natives, not the young couple they have been
searching for all these years, and the ship passes.
One day, the young family takes the lifeboat to visit their original
homesite. Richard goes off and finds bananas for them to eat, leaving
Emmeline and Paddy at the boat. Emmeline looks around the shore of the
island and does not notice when Paddy brings a branch of the scarlet
berries into the boat. Emmeline and Paddy return to the boat and slowly
drift away, until Paddy tosses one of the
oars out. Unable to reach the oar, Emmeline yells to Richard and he swims to her, followed closely by a
shark.
Emmeline throws the other oar at the shark, striking it and giving
Richard time to get into the boat. Though close to shore, they are
unable to return or retrieve the oars without risking a shark attack.
They paddle with their hands to no avail; the boat is caught in the
current and drifts out to sea.
After drifting for days in the boat, Richard and Emmeline awake to
find Paddy eating the berries he picked. Realizing that these are
poisonous berries, they try to stop him, but he has already swallowed a
few (and they do not know how to induce vomiting). Hopeless, Richard and
Emmeline eat the berries as well, lying down to await death. A few
hours later, Arthur's ship finds them floating in the boat. Arthur asks,
"Are they dead?" and the ship's captain (
Alan Hopgood) answers, "No, sir. They're asleep".
Cast
Production
The movie was a passion project of Randal Kleiser, who had long admired the original novel. He hired
Douglas Day Stewart, who had written
Boy in the Plastic Bubble, to write the script, and met up with
Richard Franklin,
the Australian director, who was looking for work in Hollywood. This
gave him the idea to use an Australian crew, which Franklin helped
supervise.
[3]
The film was shot in
Jamaica and
Nanuya Levu, a privately owned island in
Fiji.
[4]
The flora and fauna featured in the film includes an array of animals
from multiple continents. As it turned out, the iguanas filmed on Fiji
were a
species hitherto unknown to biologists; this was noted by the
herpetologist John Gibbons when he watched the film, and after traveling to the island where the iguanas were filmed, he described the
Fiji crested iguana (
Brachylophus vitiensis) in 1981.
[5] The blue lagoon scenes were shot in Comino Island,
Malta and Champagne Bay,
Vanuatu.
[citation needed]
In the DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions 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.
[2][6]
Underwater moving picture photography was performed by
Ron & Valerie Taylor.
[7]
Reception
Critical reception
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This section requires expansion. (April 2015) |
The Blue Lagoon was panned by critics. It currently holds a score of 11% on Rotten Tomatoes out of 18 reviews.
[8] Roger Ebert gave the film 1 1/2 stars out of 4, claiming that the film "made him itch".
[9] He and
Gene Siskel selected the film as one of their "dogs of the year" in a 1980 episode of
Sneak Previews.
[10] Despite this, the film has developed a cult following over the years.
[citation needed]
Box office
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.
[11]
Awards and nominations
- Nominee: Academy Award for Best Cinematography – Néstor Almendros
- Nominee: Saturn Award – Best Fantasy Film
- Nominee: Golden Globe Award, New Star of the Year – Christopher Atkins
- Won: 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
Versions and adaptations
The Blue Lagoon was based on
Henry De Vere Stacpoole's
novel by the same name, which first appeared in 1908. The first film adaptation of the book was the British
silent 1923 film of that name. There was another British adaptation in the
1949 version.
The 1980 version was true to the spirit of the book. It included much
more nudity and sex scenes than the 1949 version, though far less nudity
and sexual activity than did the book.
The story was eventually continued in the 1991 sequel
Return to the Blue Lagoon. This film loosely picks up where
The Blue Lagoon
left off, except that Richard and Emmeline are found dead in the boat.
Their son is rescued. As Paddy's name is unknown to his rescuers, he is
renamed Richard after his father.
The movie was briefly parodied in a flashback scene of
Top Secret!. The
Quantum Leap episode "Leaping of the Shrew" guest-starred Brooke Shields, and was about a young man and woman marooned on a deserted island.
On December 9, 2011, the cable TV network
Lifetime greenlit a "contemporary remake" of the title with the
television film Blue Lagoon: The Awakening.
[12] It premiered on the channel on June 16, 2012.
The male lead from the 1980 film,
Christopher Atkins
appears in the 2012 film as one of the teachers on the ship-borne field
trip where Emma and Dean are lost at sea and end up on an island. This
film is available on DVD.
Returning to the Main Film Location in Fiji
On May 19, 2015, Christopher Atkins and Randal Kleiser returned to
Turtle Island Fiji to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the opening of the resort which coincides with the movie released in 1980.
DVD and Blu-ray
The
Special Edition DVD, with both widescreen and full-screen versions, was
released on October 5, 1999. Its special features include the
theatrical trailer, the original
featurette,
a personal photo album by Brooke Shields, audio commentary by Randal
Kleiser and Christopher Atkins, and another commentary by Randal
Kleiser, Douglas Day Stewart, and Brooke Shields.
[13] The film was re-released in 2005 as part of a two pack with its sequel,
Return to the Blue Lagoon.
[14]
A limited edition
Blu-ray Disc of the film was released on December 11, 2012, by
Twilight Time.
Special features on the Blu-ray include an isolated score track,
original trailer, three original teasers, behind the scenes featurette,
An Adventure in Filmmaking: The Making of The Blue Lagoon,
as well as audio commentary by Randal Kleiser, Douglas Day Stewart, and
Brooke Shields and a second commentary by Randal Kleiser and
Christopher Atkins.
États-Unis
France : 
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