Movies - The Blue Lagoon

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	Movies - The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, produced and directed by Randal Kleiser. The plot is about two young children stranded on a tropical island after a shipwreck. Emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they reach puberty and fall in love. 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.

Tagline: A sensuous story of natural love.

Plot summary

In the Victorian period, two young children and a galley cook are the sole survivors of a shipwreck. After days at sea, they are stranded on a lush tropical island, a real paradise. The cook, Paddy Button, teaches the children one valuable lesson: certain berries shouldn't be eaten because they will put you to sleep. Eventually Paddy dies and together, cousins Richard and Emmeline Lestrange have to survive, which is quite easy as there are no dangerous animals on the island. Years later, Richard and Emmeline have grown tall, strong and beautiful. The two teenagers are living in a self-constructed hut, strange emotions start influencing their relationship. Although they have no grown-ups to educate them for all that time, their behavior always stays very civilized.

Richard and Emmeline, who have fallen in love because of both their solitude and their real love for each other, begin to discover their sexuality as a way to express their affections. They make love quite often for several months, and Emmeline gets pregnant, totally unaware of the fact that a child is growing inside her. On the night their baby boy is born, Richard finds out about the origins of the drums they hear from time to time from the forbidden side of the island. They come from a savage group of natives who apparently practice human sacrifices. Richard runs back just in time to see Emmeline give birth to their baby boy they named Paddy. The two young castaways spend all their time together with Paddy, teaching him how to swim, throw a spear, and play in the mud.

One day the two young parents and Paddy are out in a boat and lose their oars. Though not far from shore, they are unable to return because of the presence of sharks. After days of being adrift at sea, Paddy eats some berries that were in the boat. Richard and Emmeline recognize the berries as being the ones that will put them to sleep. Hopelessly lost at sea, they decide to eat the berries as well, awaiting death. Somewhat later, a ship finds them floating in the boat. The ship is led by one of the children's father, Arthur Lestrange, who has been searching for them for years. He asks, "Are they dead?" and a sailor answers, "No, sir. They are just sleeping." The ambiguous ending leaves it uncertain as to whether they are sleeping and can be revived or if they are dead.

The story is eventually continued in the sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon
.

Reaction

Unlike her earlier Pretty Baby
, this film featured no actual nude scenes for the young Shields, who was only 14 when the film was made. A body double was used for all of her nude scenes, however Shields was featured in many topless scenes. Atkins has a few fully nude scenes however (which makes sense, given they are on a tropical island). It also featured them in love scenes, something the earlier film had lacked. This led some to play on the film's title, inferring the "Blue" described the content, "blue" being a common euphemism for pornographic films, although the scenes in question were tame, even by 1980 standards.
The younger children who play the young Richard and Emmeline appear nude for far longer periods of time and much more explicitly. Richard (played by Glenn Kohan) for example is completely naked with his penis showing in front where the audience watch him. Emmeline (played by Elva Josephson) is completely naked showing a little bit of her vagina. However, there was no real criticism of these scenes, since nude children are ostensibly a more tame visual than adults with sexual inclinations.

Trivia

This film is a remake of the 1949
classic The Blue Lagoon
, starring Jean Simmons
and Donald Houston
. The original version, directed by Frank Launder, lacks the nudity and sexual content.
This film was followed eleven years later by the 1991
sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon
, starring Milla Jovovich
and Brian Krause
. Also produced and directed by Randal Kleiser, the sequel answers (grimly) the question of whether Richard and Emmeline survived beyond the end of The Blue Lagoon.
This film was parodied by the 1984
comedy film Top Secret!
, starring Val Kilmer
and Lucy Gutteridge
. The film is written and directed by Jim Abrahams
, David Zucker
and Jerry Zucker
.
The DVD version of this film features two audio commentaries. The first is by Randal Kleiser, Douglas Day Stewart and Brooke Shields; the second is by Randal Kleiser and Christopher Atkins.
The DVD version of this film features a personal photo album by Brooke Shields, which was taken during the making of the film.
Character actor Gus Mercurio
is the only cast member of this film who also appeared in Return to the Blue Lagoon eleven years later. He played the first mate of the ship that found Richard and Emmeline.
Willie Aames
and Diane Lane
both auditioned for the film, but turned down the project because they refused to do nudity (Lane however went on to do full frontal nudity in the 1987
thriller Lady Beware
; Aames would eventually take the lead part in the 1982
romance film Paradise
sans clothes, which is often considered to be the Canadian version of The Blue Lagoon).
Kelly Preston
auditioned for the role of Emmeline Lestrange, but turned it down for being too sophisticated for the role of a wild child.
Matt Dillon
was the original choice for the role of Richard Lestrange, but turned it down because he refused to do nudity.
Reportedly, Brooke Shields was rather nervous about doing the menstruation scene prior to her actual experience.
Reportedly, appearing nude in this film inspired Christopher Atkins to be less worried about things like bathing suits, etc. in real life.
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 the DVD version of this film, it was stated that Brooke Shields had done many of her topless scenes with her hair glued to her breasts.
This film was shot on location on Nanuya Levu, a privately-owned island in Fiji.

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