During the Victorian period, two preteen cousins are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific and enjoy a simple life together until puberty complicates matters.During the Victorian period, two preteen cousins are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific and enjoy a simple life together until puberty complicates matters.During the Victorian period, two preteen cousins are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific and enjoy a simple life together until puberty complicates matters.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 4 wins & 8 nominations total
- Lookout
- (as Jeffrey Means)
- Infant Paddy
- (as Chad Timmermans)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhile viewing this movie, John Gibbons, a herpetologist at the University of the South Pacific, realized that the iguanas that appeared in the film were a distinct species that had never before been seen or documented by experts in the field. Afterward, he visited Nanuya Levu, the Fiji island where the movie was made, and named the species the Fiji Crested Iguana.
- GoofsAfter Paddy dies, and the children pack up the dinghy, the handmade toy boat is prominently displayed on top of their belongings. Years later, when they return to the original hut, Richard is digging through the rubble and finds what is left of the toy boat that he clearly took with him.
- Quotes
Emmeline Lestrange: You're such a silly dodo, Richard! We're never getting off this island.
Richard Lestrange: Thanks to you!
Emmeline Lestrange: This is where we live, Richard. This is our home, now and forever.
Richard Lestrange: No! I could never live here with JUST you! I don't even like you! You never used to laugh at me! You never used to have secrets you wouldn't tell me!
Emmeline Lestrange: Well, you're not so perfect either, Mr. Richard Lestrange. I've seen you playing with it, and I'll tell your father, IF he ever gets here.
Richard Lestrange: YOU? I hate you!
[throws a rock at her, narrowly missing her]
Emmeline Lestrange: You almost hit me!
Richard Lestrange: Take it back! Take back what you said!
Emmeline Lestrange: I've seen it all! What happens after you've been doing it a long time?
Richard Lestrange: Shut up! That's not fair peeking! I don't peek on you!
Emmeline Lestrange: That's a lie! You're always staring at my buppies.
Richard Lestrange: Only 'cause they look so funny! You know what you look like now, Em? You look like one of those pictures Paddy had in his drawer. One of his Hoochie Coochie girls!
- Alternate versionsThe version aired on TBS cuts out the shot of Paddy's nude photographs, the blood spurting onto the native after the execution, as well as all nude scenes.
- ConnectionsEdited into Tosh.0: Competitive Sushi Eater (2013)
Basically, 'The Blue Lagoon' is about two horny teenagers finding their own path towards sexual fulfillment and adulthood, and it strives to point the way for its multitudes of teenage audiences with some dignity and even fearlessness. Today footage of completely naked infants as well as pre-teens and teens would simply never be realized or even permitted in mainstream OR art cinema, God forbid! Brooke Shields' frank alluding to Christopher Atkins' masturbatory habits could, in a movie today, only be filmed amidst a sea of giggles, whereas in 1980 they did it very deadpan and honestly.
The film is full of quite touching scenes and gently, if not exactly marvelously acted. I liked Atkins' prayer that the sick Shields be saved, and he doesn't remember how a prayer goes: "Our Father who art in Heaven ... Kingdom come ... Liberty and justice for all. Amen". They don't lead terribly eventful lives on that desert island, but their everyday rituals are beautifully filmed, and the underwater sequences are memorable.
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $4,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $58,853,106
- Gross worldwide
- $58,853,106
- Runtime1 hour 44 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1