Since The Blue Lagoon recently started streaming on Netflix, the question of controversy appeared once again, only this time on a social media platform. Some questionable scenes from the movie have been brought up on Tiktok, where arguments about the film’s quality were brought up even 40 years later.
It seems that the movie’s controversy has been unsolved and passing from generation to generation. Another reason why The Blue Lagoon has been trending on Tiktok is the comeback of vintage beauty, namely Brooke Shields; an actress who gained popularity in the 80’s for her unique looks. Many people are yet again wondering: how was this movie allowed?
What is The Blue Lagoon about?
The Blue Lagoon (1980) is an American coming-of-age romantic survival drama 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 film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. The plot twist occurs when without either the guidance or the restrictions of society, emotional and physical changes arise as the protagonists reach puberty, go skinny dipping in the ocean, fall in love, and end up having a child.
The controversy
The two main characters in the film, Emmaline and Richard, appear to be related; cousins, to be exact. After being left alone on an island at an age where a person barely knows the basics of life, they are forced to grow up and learn to survive on their own. Not knowing the rights and wrongs of the World, they share romantic feelings towards each other. After they express their love, Emmeline gives birth, barely knowing what happened. They both don’t understand where the child came from, nor whose child it is. Making a film about related children who grow up only in a physical sense, not mental, caused a lot of controversies to rise in the media, even back then. The idea of romance where the couple is completely on their own and where they only have each other might have been a great alternative for a movie, yet it was jeopardized by the producers. The movie experience great backlash, not only for the obvious incestry and pedophilic ideas, but for casting a then 14 year old Brooke Shields to indulge in the acts of sexual intercourse. Shields commented on this back in 2023 during her podcast, where she explained that a movie like the Blue Lagoon would never be made today, to which Atkins replied: „Oh gosh, no. Animals were hurt in the movie. We were spearing fish and all kinds of crazy things. Children are naked running down a beach; couldn’t do that now.“ During the podcast, there were also mentions of forced relationships outside the scenes, where producers encouraged the actors to be sexual with one another, which was seen as a huge problem given the 18 year old Christopher Atkins and 14 year old Brooke Shields didn’t want to pursue anything behind the scenes. When the movie was being made, both Atkins and Shields seemed to find the innapropriate scenes funny, until they grew older and realized how messed up it was.
Brooke Shields as an exploited child
Even though she had a body double, Brooke Shields got the explicit role of a sexually curious Emmaline Robinson, which was not too different from her other roles in films, ads, and modeling gigs. A child blessed with beauty seen only once in a generation soon turned out to be a curse when her mother started to make profit off of her innocent and angelic demeanor. Starting her career in modeling, the ads she posed in at the ripe age of 10 were often in adult magazines, which were intended for grown men to enjoy. As she later on started to expand her career in the acting industry, she constanty got cast in roles where she was only praised for her looks and was seen as a symbol of sexuality for men in Hollywood. Playing the part of Emmeline meant Shields would have her naked body shown, engage in sexual behaviour throughout the whole movie and act under innapropriate and poor conditions. Shields says in the documentary about The Blue Lagoon and other films she made as a teen actor: “They wanted to sell my actual sexual awakening. The irony was, I wasn’t in touch with any of my own sexuality.” Shields commented on the call she ignored when the director of The Blue Lagoon called her to make a reality show about her success.
The Blue Lagoon trilogy
Upon being involved in many controversies, The Blue Lagoon (1980) managed to gain a lot of popularity throughout the years. Eleven years later a sequel was made, Return to the Blue Lagoon which followed the life of Emmaline and Richard’s child in the same lagoon they once lived in. This time their son was accompanied by Lily – the daugher of a rich woman whose boat was infected and ended up being stranded on the same island in the first movie. The sequel wasn’t as problematic as the 1980 version, due to the actors being of age while acting under stricter filming laws than the previous movie. In 2012, a third part was made: Blue Lagoon: The Awakening which was aimed at a teen audience and wasn’t R rated. The movie had similar themes, connecting it to the first two movies but was different in the plot because it was targeted towards younger adults. This version was the least problematic out of the whole trilogy, despite being criticized for its dullness. Out of the three movies made over the decades, the first one, the original, has been by far the most popularized, always being remembered as a piece of television that sparked a number of controversies, leading to something as serious as lawsuits. We can not know for sure, but maybe that was its whole point; not being remembered for its plot and aesthetic but for its element of shock. The Blue Lagoon stills remains to this day, a reminder of Hollywood’s mistreatment of young actors.
Written by Tia Marija Milak
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