Movies - The Beach

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	Movies - The Beach

The Beach (1996) is a novel by Alex Garland about backpackers in Thailand.

The story

In a cheap guest-house, Richard, a young traveller from England, meets a mentally disturbed Scotsman going by the pseudonym of Daffy Duck who leaves him a hand-drawn map of some hidden beach inaccessible to tourists, and then commits suicide. Together with a young French couple, Étienne and Françoise, Richard, who considers himself a lifestyle traveller rather than an ordinary tourist, goes and looks for what he believes must be paradise on earth.

On their way to the beach, Richard gives a copy of the map to Sammy and Zeph, two Americans he meets in Koh Samui. When the group finally reaches the beach - after bribing a local boat contractor, taking a long swim and eventually jumping down a waterfall - they are faced with a tightly-knit self-sufficient community which has almost completely shut itself off from civilization and which has developed a sophisticated hierarchy (or pecking order) under the quasi-dictatorial rule of a middle-aged American woman called Sal and her lover. Newcomers are basically not welcome but are not sent back either because it would jeopardize the secrecy of the project. Richard, Étienne and Françoise manage to incorporate themselves into the island community and are quickly accepted, forming a new fishing detail.

After a few months the two Americans and three Germans arrive at the neighbouring island and Richard moves to the perimeter detail to watch them together with the group's guardian Jed, the only one who knows that Richard spread word about the beach.

Because of a free spot in the fishing detail, one of the community members named Keaty moves in and a few days later catches a dead squid that poisons most of the residents. The day after the food poisoning incident only two of the fishing details are still in operation. One of these, consisting of three Swedes who fish outside the safe lagoon area, is attacked by a shark. One of the fishermen (Sten) dies on the same day and the second (Christo) a few days later. The third (Karl), who was not hurt by the shark, suffers a psychotic breakdown and leaves the beach by the only boat a week later. The wounded Swede requires Jed's presence in the camp and this leaves Richard to work alone on the island.

Being alone on the inner-island, Richard has even more day-dreams in which Daffy - the man who gave him the map - appears, along with hallucinations of being in a DMZ in Vietnam. This comes to a peak following the arrival of the American/German group, who are killed by mercenaries defending their illegal drug stash. Richard watches the entire episode and loses his sense of reality.

Not only does Richard go mad, but the other beach dwellers, who forced themselves to return to normal life after the burial of Sten, lose their grip on reality. Petty feuds and disagreements are brewing between the residents, but the upcoming Tet Feast - the Beach's birthday - is supposed to be a turning point. During the festival, however, the mercenaries arrive and leave the dead bodies of the American/German party as a warning. Most of the beach dwellers work themselves into a murderous frenzy from which Richard and a few of his closest friends narrowly escape.

In the end they escape to the mainland. Some lose contact with one another, while Richard stays friendly with some.

Film version

The Beach was also turned into a 2000 film by the Trainspotting
team of writer John Hodge and director Danny Boyle. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Virginie Ledoyen. However, some major changes in the plot were made. Sal becomes British, Richard becomes an American, for example, and the romance between him and Françoise is played up. The ending is also changed significantly: the mercenaries' leader proposes to Sal that the only way they will permit the group to stay on the island is if Sal will kill Richard. He gives Sal a gun and she attempts to kill Richard, but the gun is empty. The others of the group are shocked by Sal's willingness to kill Richard to stay on the island, and the group's community disolves quickly and they flee the island, exactly as the mercenary leader guessed would happen.

Parts of the movie were filmed on Ko Phi Phi Lee, an island of Thailand.

Cast and roles include

Leonardo DiCaprio
- Richard
Tilda Swinton
- Sal
Virginie Ledoyen
- Françoise
Guillaume Canet
- Étienne
Robert Carlyle
- Daffy Duck
Paterson Joseph
- Keaty
Lars Arentz-Hansen - Bugs
Peter Youngblood Hills - Zeph
Jerry Swindall - Sammy
Zelda Tinska - Sonja
Victoria Smurfit
- Weathergirl
Daniel Caltagirone - Unhygienix
Peter Gevisser - Gregorio
Lidija Zovkic - Mirjana
Samuel Gough - Guitarman

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Beach ]

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