Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins in the nude in Randal Kleiser's The Blue Lagoon |
QUICK REVIEW:
A ship blows up somewhere in the Pacific, and a boy and a girl are left shipwrecked with an alcoholic cook on an - almost - unpopulated island. The cook dies, and the youngsters are left to take care of themselves.
The Blue Lagoon is something of a guilty pleasure, because it portrays two teenagers' sexual awakening in a very delicious way and does so with two very delicious young actors to boot: Brooke Shields (The Midnight Meat Train (2008)) and Christopher Atkins (A Night in Heaven (1983)).
The film became the subject of a Congressional hearing, because Shields was only 14 years old at the time of production, (Atkins was 18 or 19.) But as body doubles were used for her nude shots, the film was never banned, but did get an R rating. In fact, Shields' long, beautiful hair was reportedly often glued to her breasts to avoid exposure to the cameras. - A strange and almost offensive fact about a film that tries to show nature and natural attraction between two young people in a beautiful, natural way.
Another interesting trivia about Lagoon is that a hitherto unknown iguana was featured in the film, and was subsequently scientifically 'discovered' and named.
Despite an unsatisfying ending, Lagoon is an innocent and sweet film, and Shields definitely did not deserve the Razzie for Worst Actress, which she won at the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards that year.
The Blue Lagoon is an adaptation of a 1908 novel, which is said to be way more sexual than the film. This was the third adaptation and two more have followed since. But this seems to be the most well-known and best of them all.
Director Randal Kleiser's most famous credentials besides Lagoon may be the excellent TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) and Grease (1978), both starring a young John Travolta.
Click to enlarge these paradisaical posters of the popular movie:
Watch the sensual trailer here
Budget: 4.5 mil. $
Box office: 58.8 mil. $ (North America only)
= Huge success (9th biggest box office hit of 1980)
What do you think of The Blue Lagoon?
If you have seen the other versions, please tell of them
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