Taglines: A sensuous story of natural love.
The Blue Lagoon movie storyline. On a journey to San Francisco, Richard, his father and cousin Emmeline find themselves on a ship about to explode. Rushed to a lifeboat with Paddy Button, the two children escape while their father (and uncle) are on another lifeboat. In the chaos following, the lifeboats are separated. Paddy, Richard and Emmeline find themselves with no food and no water stuck in the middle of nowhere.
After some time, the three come across an uncharted paradise, where Paddy quickly teaches the children fishing, hunting and building. After maybe a month or two, Paddy gets very drunk off a barrel of rum found on the island when they first arrive, and drowns in the middle of the night. Emmeline and Richard, now alone and very scared, move location and rebuild their island home.
Many years later, the two young teenagers have developed a very real home, but hormones and feelings between the two strain their friendship, until Richard, who is still very determined to reach San Francisco, is let down by Emmeline when a ship passes by the island and she does not light the signal fire. Throwing her out of the home they had built together, Emmeline attempts to survive on her own but is hurt. After Richard finds her dying, he realizes how he really feels for her and manages to save her. Nature runs its course and their friendship turns into love as the couple learn about the facts of life, when Emmeline has a baby and does not understand why.
The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American adventure romantic survival drama film directed by Randal Kleiser from a screenplay written by Douglas Day Stewart based on the 1908 novel of the same name by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. The music score was composed by Basil Poledouris and the cinematography was by Néstor Almendros.
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. With neither the guidance nor the restrictions of society, emotional and physical changes arise as they reach puberty and fall in love. The film contained substantial sexual content.
The Blue Lagoon was theatrically released on June 20, 1980 by Columbia Pictures. The film was panned by the critics, who disparaged its screenplay and execution and Shields’s performance; however, Almendros’s cinematography received praise. In spite of the criticism, the film was a commercial success, grossing over $58 million on a $4.5 million budget and becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 1980 in North America.
The film was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, Almendros received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and Atkins was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor. Shields won the inaugural Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her work in the film.
The Blue Lagoon (1980)
Directed by: Randal Kleiser
Starring: Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels, Elva Josephson, Glenn Kohan, Alan Hopgood, Gus Mercurio, Jeffrey Kleiser, Bradley Pryce, Chad Timmerman
Screenplay by: Douglas Day Stewart
Cinematography by: Néstor Almendros
Film Editing by: Robert Gordon
Costume Design by: Jean-Pierre Dorléac
Art Direction by: Jon Dowding
Music by: Basil Poledouris
MPP Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: June 20, 1980
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