THE BLUE LAGOON. (1980) DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY RANDAL KLEISER. BASED ON THE 1908 BOOK BY HENRY DE VERE STACPOOLE. STARRING BROOKE SHIELDS, CHRISTOPHER ATKINS, LEO MCKERN AND WILLIAM DANIELS.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Wow, this is an interesting one. The visual aspect of the film is utterly stunning, given that the setting is a beautiful desert island somewhere in the South Pacific and the plants, fish, birds and wildlife are as varied and as gorgeously-coloured as you'd expect them to be. The ocean and the sky are looking pretty marvellous too, it must be said.
On the other hand, this is a film about a couple of young teenagers having unprotected sex without the benefit of any pre-information or education on the subject whatsoever. I can't exactly say that I approve of their actions but, conversely, the kids are only doing what they feel comes naturally and, after all, they are what their circumstances have made them.
Let's go back to the beginning, shall we, and see what we make of things. Don't bother dressing up. We're pretty informal here on the island...
So, the story is as follows. Two young cousins in the Victorian era, Richard and Emmeline, are on a ship with Richard's father when there's a terrible shipwreck. It leaves the two children marooned on the aforementioned desert island with only the ship's cook, Paddy (played by Leo McKern, aka RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY), to look after them.
Paddy dies from a boozy bender shortly after their arrival onto the island, but not before he's imparted enough wisdom to the nippers to help 'em to survive on their own. They grow to be teenagers pretty quickly, in fact, and because of their healthy outdoorsy lifestyle and all-fruit diet, they're super-healthy, super-tanned and glowing all over with sun-kissed vitality, energy and stunning good looks.
Sex rears its ugly head when puberty strikes the kids upside-the-head with its own special in-your-face brand of you-can't-ignore-this-shit. Richard is now tall and strong and he's already instinctively discovered the pleasures of masturbation all by himself.
Emmeline, played by a fourteen-year-old physically mature Brooke Shields, has started menstruating, although she doesn't have a clue what it means. She seems to know though, again instinctively, that it's something she shouldn't share with her male cousin.
All the nudie swimming (they find millions of perfect pearls in the oysters they collect) and nudie beach-walking results in the inevitable. The teens end up having sex.
They've lived alone together on a desert island for longer than they've lived as part of a civilised society. Neither of them has had any sex education or even had the benefit of overhearing the conversation of their elders, which is as good a way as any to pick up essential grains of knowledge. Yet they seem to know what to do just the same. Isn't that incredible?
Obviously, that's an instinctive thing. I mean, no-one told the cavemen and cavewomen what to do and where to put it and yet here we are, haha. Millions of years later and the Earth is fully populated. No-one tells the animals how to do it either and yet they always instinctly know. Bulls, sheep, pigs, cats, dogs, the lot of 'em always know exactly which bit goes where. It's an instinct thing. Has to be.
Anyway, the playground doesn't stay open too long for poor Richard. Not too long after their first sexual encounter, he's getting the brush-off in a big way from Emmeline. She's more interested in puking her guts up, craving unusual foods and putting on weight in the stomach area than she is in having sex with her cousin. What gives, Ems? You might well ask...
The film is lovely to look at but you might feel uncomfortable with the sex and nudity in it. These are only teenagers we're talking about, after all. I understand that Brooke Shields had her beautiful long hair glued to her breasts for much of the film for the sake of preserving her modesty and that's actually quite noticeable in some of the scenes. Her hair stays perfectly in place and covers her boobies no matter how much she moves her head or her body. It's kind of funny.
By the way, it's incredible that the cannibalistic, human-sacrificing natives on the 'bad' side of the island don't ever notice that there are two nice plump juicy teenagers living quite near to them that would be absolutely perfect, not to mention delicious, for their cooking-pot.
I don't know whether that's a plothole or whether it really is possible for two tribes, as it were, to live quite separately from each other on the same desert island without ever once encroaching on each others' territory. The cannibals don't even seem aware of the kids' presence on the island. It's stretching belief a little bit but whatever. It is what it is...!
I haven't been able to find online evidence that this film caused controversy on its release due to the extreme youth of the actors experiencing this on-screen sexual awakening. I can't imagine that it didn't raise a few eyebrows at the time, however.
My own eyebrows were actually going up a bit at certain parts, and those who know me know that that hardly ever happens. I'm a person who generally likes to keep her eyebrows at an even keel. I certainly don't allow them to go up and down willy-nilly without checking with me first. Not without a damned good reason, anyway.
I do know for sure that the film was pretty much a box-office smash-hit back in 1980, with millions of peeps queuing up to see the nudie teens cavorting about the island in the nip playing at being water-babies or porn stars, depending on your point of view. Well, whatever floats your boat, I suppose, if you'll excuse the lame nautical pun...
The film is out on special release now from EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT, complete with a nice little collection of special features. As I said, it's lovely to look at and it has all the lush, verdant natural beauty on show that you might expect from a film about people living on a gorgeous desert island in the South Pacific.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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