The Blue Lagoon (1980) Columbia/Drama-Adventure RT: 104 minutes Rated R (nudity, sexual content, brief violent images) Director: Randal Kleiser Screenplay: Douglas Day Stewart Music: Basil Poledouris Cinematography: Nestor Almendros Release date: June 20, 1980 (US) Cast: Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels, Elva Josephson, Glenn Kohan, Alan Hopgood, Gus Mercurio, Jeffrey Kleiser (as “Jeffrey Means”). Box Office: $58.8M (US)
Rating: ***
In the summer of ’80, all of us 12YOs wanted to see The Blue Lagoon. What kid outside of conservative Christian communities didn’t? It had sex, nudity and two attractive leads. A lot of my male friends had a thing for Brooke Shields. The girls thought Christopher Atkins was cute. Naturally, the R-rated romantic drama was on every parent’s “NO WAY!” list. The funny thing is it’s actually fairly tame, especially by today’s standards.
A remake of the 1949 movie starring Jean Simmons and Donald Houston, The Blue Lagoon tells the story of Richard and Emmeline, two Victorian-era kids who get stranded on an lush tropical island in the South Pacific after the ship they’re on catches fire. They’re not alone at first. They’re looked after by a cranky old sea dog named Paddy (McKern, A Man for All Seasons) who warns them never to venture to the other side of the island after finding human remains on a stone altar. After he dies, they’re left on their own to fend for themselves.
The children grow up to be good-looking teenagers played by Shields (Pretty Baby) and Atkins (his acting debut). They begin to experience things they can’t explain. Emmeline starts to bleed between her legs; Richard plays with himself. They don’t understand what’s happening to them. They argue all the time. He can’t figure out why she’s so moody all the time and why he gets so easily frustrated with her. It’s called puberty, kids. It’s all part of maturation. Since there’s no one else around to explain it to them, they have to figure it out for themselves. Richard realizes he loves Emmeline after she almost dies from stepping on a poisonous stonefish. When she recovers, they go skinny dipping in the lagoon and discover sexual intercourse. They must have got it right because Emmeline has a baby.
The Blue Lagoon is a silly, soft-headed, softcore summer sex movie aimed at the teenage make-out crowd. It’s only slightly more believable than an episode of Gilligan’s Island. Are we really expected to believe that the kids are capable of building a hut that resembles something from a Club Med resort? Here’s another question. How is it possible they never once encountered the island’s original inhabitants? Are the natives so unobservant that they don’t notice the two light-skinned youngsters living on their land? Personally, I find it incredible they survive as long as they do without an adult to guide them.
These are but a few of the questions that ran through my mind when I rewatched The Blue Lagoon the other night. This thing is positively riddled with plot holes. The good news for director Randal Kleiser (Grease) is that nobody watches a movie of this sort for its realism. If that’s what you want, let me point you in the direction of the Tom Hanks desert island drama Castaway. People watch a movie like The Blue Lagoon to see sex and nudity in gorgeous tropical locations. There’s not too much of it here and what little it has is fairly chaste. Most of the nudity is of Atkins. A body double was used for the underage Shields.
What I like best about The Blue Lagoon is the beautiful scenery and underwater cinematography. It’s almost like a National Geographic documentary at times with all the shots of marine life. If nothing else, it’s pretty to look at. This extends to the two leads who I’m almost certain weren’t cast for their thespian skills. Shields and Atkins aren’t much in the acting department, but they’re both easy to look at. They look good frolicking on the beach and posing for the poster. He’s usually bare-chested; her hair is conveniently arranged to hide her nipples. Some of the dialogue is pretty bad. Just after she gives birth to their son (yes, they figure out the mechanics of child birth!) he says, “Why did you have a baby?” to which she replies “I don’t know.” On the other hand, it makes perfect sense for them to say this as they have no formal sex education.
In any event, things like writing and acting don’t matter in the slightest when you’re talking about a movie like The Blue Lagoon. All that matters is sex, nudity, beautiful people and scenery. You’ll find all of it here. Never mind that logic doesn’t factor in. Those in the audience definitely don’t care about such minor details. Most of them are too busy making out with their dates to notice anyway. As empty-headed as it is, I found myself enjoying it purely out of a sense of nostalgia. They don’t make them like this anymore. Ah, the halcyon days of the early 80s, how I miss them! Long live the movies from that time!
