The Blue Lagoon
Short description
The Blue Lagoon is a romantic adventure set in the late Victorian era. Emmeline Lestrange and her cousin Richard are travelling by sailing ship when a fire destroys the vessel. The ship's cook, Paddy Button, gets the two children into a lifeboat, and the three of them drift away from the other survivors until they reach a lush tropical island. Paddy teaches the children how to find food and survive, but after he dies they are left entirely on their own. Years pass as the two grow up in isolation, with no adults to guide them through adolescence. The unfamiliar feelings that come with growing up confuse and frighten them at first, but eventually they develop a deep attachment to each other and to their life on the island, which raises the question of whether they will ever return to civilization.
Randal Kleiser directed and produced the film from a screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart. It followed Grease in Kleiser's filmography and came before Summer Lovers. Brooke Shields plays Emmeline and Christopher Atkins plays Richard, with Leo McKern as Paddy Button, William Daniels as Arthur Lestrange, Jeffrey Kleiser as Lookout and Gus Mercurio as Officer. Made for about 5 million dollars, the film took roughly 59 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget.
Audience response has been modest: on IMDb it holds 5.8 out of 10 from around 83,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 out of 10 from about 2,000 votes. Film critics were considerably harsher, giving it 3.1 out of 10 across 26 reviews, well below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The flora and fauna of the island where the main characters find themselves do not correspond at all to the supposed setting of the film. For the sake of greater exoticism, a very diverse collection of animals from different continents and climate zones was placed on the island.
- All nude scenes involving Emmeline (Brooke Shields) were filmed using body doubles. In a number of other scenes, she appears with her own hair glued to her chest.
- After the main body double for Brooke Shields suffered a back injury, she was replaced in individual scenes by stunt coordinator Cathy Trott, as well as a trainer and dolphin coach brought in for the filming.
- Due to the traditional belief that a heroic male lead should be taller than his partner, Brooke Shields was forced to stand and walk in specially dug trenches in the beach sand for a significant portion of the scenes. At 14 years old, the actress (177 cm tall) was 10 centimeters taller than 18-year-old Christopher Atkins.
- Filming took place mainly on the island of Nanuya-Levu in the Fiji archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and in Jamaica.
- The director's vision, which required two teenagers to film partially or completely nude throughout the film, deterred many actors, potential candidates for the lead roles, including Brooke Shields herself, who was initially chosen for the role of Emmeline. After her refusal, the producers offered the role to several other actresses, including Diane Lane and Lori Loughlin, but they all also declined. When only a few days remained before filming began, in desperation, the director agreed that Brooke Shields would not film completely nude, and where necessary, she would be replaced by body doubles. Once this issue was resolved, the director returned to reviewing audition tapes of more than 4,000 candidates for the male lead, which ultimately went to Christopher Atkins.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
