The Blue Lagoon (1980 film)

The Blue Lagoon
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Randal Kleiser
Produced by	Randal Kleiser
Screenplay by	Douglas Day Stewart
Story by	Henry De Vere Stacpoole
Based on	The Blue Lagoon
Starring	Brooke Shields Christopher Atkins Leo McKern William Daniels
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Cinematography	Néstor Almendros
Editing by	Robert Gordon
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 20, 1980 (1980-06-20)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4.5 million
Box office	$58,853,106 (North American)

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. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris and the cinematography was by Néstor Almendros.

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.

Plot

In the Victorian period, two young cousins, Richard and Emmeline Lestrange, 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 found evidence of bloody human sacrifices. He tells them the bogeyman lives there. He also warns them against eating a certain scarlet berry that Emmeline finds.

Paddy soon dies after a drunken binge. Now alone, the children go to another part of the island and rebuild their home. They survive solely on their resourcefulness, and the bounty of their remote paradise.

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, and are unable to express their physical attraction for one another. Emmeline is frightened after she begins her first menstrual period, and is nervous when Richard wants to inspect her for a cut. Richard himself has many questions about what is happening to them, but has no means of getting answers. He wishes to hold and kiss her, but when she rejects him he goes off and masturbates.

Emmeline, ever curious, goes to the other side of the island and discovers an impressive, Moai-like idol there. Instinctively recognizing that this is a holy place, she prays. Later she tells Richard that she thinks Paddy was wrong and the "bogeyman", who bleeds like Jesus, is actually God. However, Richard berates her for disobeying the "law".

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 her 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 eventually recovers. After she regains her ability to walk, they go skinny dipping in the lagoon and then swim to shore. Still naked, Richard and Emmeline share some fruit in the vegetation overlooking the idol, and discover sexual intercourse, and then passionate love. Casting all their unease aside, they regularly make love from then on while occasionally spending their time together in the nude. Due to their regular sexual encounters though, Emmeline soon becomes pregnant. Although this is clear to the viewer, Richard and Emmeline themselves do not know about the truth of childbirth and simply assume that the physical changes in Emmeline's body are her getting fat.

One night Emmeline goes missing. While Richard looks for her in the forest, he witnesses a human sacrifice committed by the natives of another island at the idol shrine where they sacrifice some enemy natives. As he flees, Richard hears Emmeline cry out and follows the sound just in time to help her give birth to a baby boy, whom they name Paddy. Later on, frustrated at not knowing how to feed the baby, Emmeline holds him on her arms to appease his crying, 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 completely covered in mud, Arthur assumes these are natives, not the young couple they have been searching for all these years. Richard, having lost all of his desire to leave the island, agrees with Emmeline with an exchange of glances, and they let the ship pass.

One day, the young family takes the lifeboat to visit their original homesite. While waiting for Richard, Emmeline and Paddy remain in the boat. Emmeline falls asleep and does not notice when Paddy brings a branch of the scarlet berries into the boat. She awakes as Paddy tosses one of the oars out. The tide was sweeping the boat out into the lagoon and Richard, hearing her calling, swims to her, followed closely by a shark. Emmeline throws the other oar at the shark, striking it and giving Richard just enough time to get in 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, but to no avail; the boat is caught in the current and drifts out to sea.

After drifting for days, Richard and Emmeline awake in the boat to find Paddy eating the berries he picked. Realizing that these are the same type of berry Paddy warned them about, they try to stop him, but he had already swallowed some. 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 are asleep."

Cast

• Brooke Shields as Emmeline Lestrange
• Christopher Atkins as Richard Lestrange
• Leo McKern as Paddy Button
• William Daniels as Arthur Lestrange
• Elva Josephson as Young Emmeline
• Glenn Kohan as Young Richard
• Alan Hopgood as Captain
• Gus Mercurio as Officer
• Bradley Pryce as Little Paddy
• Chad Timmermans as Infant Paddy

Production

The Fiji Crested Iguana became known to herpetologists through The Blue Lagoon

The film was shot 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 includes an array of animals from multiple continents. 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 film, and after traveling to the island where the iguanas were filmed, 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.

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.

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

• 1st Golden Raspberry Award

Won: Worst Actress (Brooke Shields)

• Young Artist Awards

Nominee: Best Major Motion Picture - Family Entertainment

Nominee: Best Young Motion Picture Actor - Christopher Atkins

Nominee: Best Young Motion Picture Actress - Brooke Shields

Home media

The Special Edition DVD, with both wide screen 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. As of 2011, the feature has not been released on Blu-ray Disc.

The film was re-released in 2005 as part of a two pack with its sequel, Return to the Blue Lagoon.

Sequel

The story is 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. 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.

2012 remake

On December 9, 2011, the cable TV network Lifetime green-lighted a "contemporary remake" of the 1980 movie. Storyline Entertainment and Peace Out Prods are producing the film, in association with Sony Pictures Television. Casting for the remake began in late 2011 with filming to start February 2012 in Puerto Rico.

See also

• The Blue Lagoon, 1923 version
• The Blue Lagoon, 1949 version
• Return to the Blue Lagoon
• Paradise

External links

• The Blue Lagoon at the Internet Movie Database
• The Blue Lagoon at the TCM Movie Database
• The Blue Lagoon at AllRovi
• The Blue Lagoon at Rotten Tomatoes