The Beach
Short description
The Beach follows Richard, a young American backpacker who arrives in Thailand looking for something beyond the usual tourist trail. In a cheap Bangkok guesthouse he meets a French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and crosses paths with Daffy, a seasoned traveller who talks about a hidden island with an untouched beach where a small community lives apart from the world. When a hand-drawn map to that place comes into Richard's hands, he persuades the couple to join him, and the three set off on a journey toward a paradise that turns out to be harder to reach, and stranger, than they expected.
The film was released in 2000 and runs 119 minutes. Danny Boyle directed it from a screenplay by John Hodge, with Andrew Macdonald producing; it is the fourth of seventeen features Boyle has directed, following A Life Less Ordinary and preceding Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Richard, with Virginie Ledoyen as Françoise, Guillaume Canet as Étienne, Tilda Swinton as Sal, Staffan Kihlbom as Christo and Paterson Joseph as Keaty; the credited cast numbers 47 and the crew 80. Made for a budget of 40 million USD, it took 144 million USD worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.5/10 from 4,822 votes, a warmer response than the film critics' rating of 5.1/10 from 122 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Alex Garland's novel "The Beach" (1996).
- The film was shot on the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand, although Alex Garland, the author of the book on which the film is based, had Koh Tao Island in the Gulf of Siam in mind.
- Leonardo DiCaprio received $20 million for this role, a result of his success in James Cameron’s melodrama “Titanic” (1997). Initially, DiCaprio had planned to begin filming the crime thriller “American Psycho” (Mary Harron, 2000), but he demanded too much money for the lead role, negotiations stalled, and the actor agreed to the role in this film.
- In reality, the beach is not surrounded by mountains on all sides, completely sheltering it from the sea. A passage leads to the sea between two huge boulders, and this passage was 'closed off' during post-production.
- At the request of director Danny Boyle, the lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio lost 9 kilograms (approximately 20 pounds) in weight.
- Leonardo DiCaprio nearly drowned during the filming of the movie. He and other actors were washed off the boat by a sudden wave.
- Filming took place from January 18 to April 24, 1999.
- The island was chosen for filming not because of its natural beauty, but for other reasons – its convenience for conversion to meet the needs of the film crew was taken into account. For example, the script required sufficient space on the beach for a football game, so a considerable area had to be cleared of trees and other vegetation with a bulldozer. In addition, palm trees were planted there that do not grow in the area at all; thus, imported life forms appeared on the island, which could forever change its nature. Locals were very outraged, but an even stronger blow was dealt to them after the film crew left. The storm season arrived, but now the sand dunes were deprived of the natural protection provided by the vegetation, so it was all washed away into the sea, resulting in damage to the coastal reefs. Environmentalists were furious and accused the filmmakers of collusion with the local government regarding environmental legislation. It is alleged that the film company transferred $100,000 to the accounts of the relevant Thai authorities, while the usual fee for filming on the island would have been less than 1% of this amount. Environmentalists sued the film company, its local representatives, and government officials, and seven years later the court found the film company guilty of environmental damage and ruled that the damage must be rectified. (And this time it was not just about planting trees, but also about restoring the destroyed underwater world.)
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
