THE BLUE LAGOON
US, 1980,
Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo Mc Kern.
Directed by Randall Kleiser.
The Blue Lagoon Was a colourful English romantic drama of the late 40s. Jean Simmons had just appeared as Olivier's Ophelia and was at the beginning of a very successful career. She brings charm and strength to the central role of the shipwrecked girl. Donald Houston did not have such a successful career but was a strong character actor over many decades. Noel Purcell, Cyril Cusack and James Hayter bring strength to their brief roles.
The novel by Henry de Vere Stackpool was a famous one, slightly daring, in the early 20th. century. Drawing on a back ground of Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson, the film contrives to have a little boy and girl shipwrecked on a desert island. They learn from the old castaway with them, how to survive. He dies. The film focuses eventually on the problems of adolescence and puberty, love and the birth and care for a child. The treatment is geared very much for an adolescent audience - Fijian locations, Geoffrey Unsworth's beautiful photography.
The remake by Randall Kleiser in 1979 makes the film rather American in style, retains the emphasis on romance and beauty, is a bit more explicit in its treatment of the problems of growing up.
Brooke Shields was at the beginning of a successful career in films and on television. Christopher Atkins had a less spectacular career. Randall Kleiser had just directed Grease.
1. The appeal of this film: adventure, a youth film, survival?
2. Indications of the title, the languid nature of an island paradise, the contrast with the action and survival drama?
3. The importance of the colour, the locations? The world of the children, the world of the adolescents, the world of adults?
4. The setting of the scene on the ship, the detail of the life on the ship, the funeral and the experience of the wise boy, the girl and her goals, the orphan boy and the responsibility of the sailors, the boy who disliked his father? A resourceful boy?
5. The impact of the explosion, the shipwreck, the boats, being lost in the fog, the boyish and girlish behaviour and Paddy trying to cope with this?
6. The drifting and the first sight of the island? Home for so many years? Learning to cope? Paddy and his trying to help the children, the hope with the ship, the irony of the rain, the pathos of his drinking and death? The effect on the children?
7. The tradition of people abandoned on islands, Robinson Crusoe background? The details of the skeleton, the notches, the passing of the years?
8. The idyllic aspects of age, their yearnings, their knowledge, the book of etiquette? Their attitudes and what they had learnt by themselves, the role of their memories?
9. The build-up towards adolescence and puberty? Emmy's discovering menstruation and her fears? Richard and his growing up, sexuality, masturbation? The relationship and the discovery of love, moods? The birth of the child, how realistic, credible? Sickness, coping with bringing up the child? The lyrical sequences of swimming, lovemaking, tenderness?
10. The background of the cannibals and Emmy's seeing them, the violence and her fear? Her identifying the idol with God? Her need for praying? Fears? Richard and Emmy fighting and Richard rescuing her, tending her when she was sick?
11. The decisions of whether to stay on the island or not, Emmy's not lighting the fire when the ship came? The possibility of their staying there forever?
12. How did they grow in knowledge, experience? Feelings? The importance of the accident and their drifting, the shark sequence, the baby and the berries? Their decision to kill themselves? Did they have any option?
13. The coincidence of the father coming with the ship? The happy ending?
14. How substantial a film? How romantic? The impact for adult audiences? The impact for adolescent audiences - for sharing experiences, feelings, for fantasy?
