The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon (1980)

Timing: 1:44 (104 min)

6.145/10
1999

7.095/10
79731

5.8/10
83000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 46

Actors and characters

Release date

1980-07-05

Country

United States

Production

Columbia Pictures

Genre

Romance, Adventure, Drama

Budget

$4 500 000

Revenue

$58 853 106

Website

Director

Randal Kleiser

Actors

Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels, Jeffrey Kleiser, Gus Mercurio, Elva Josephson, Glenn Kohan, Bradley Pryce, Chad Timmerman
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Douglas Day Stewart

Producer

Randal Kleiser

Operator

Néstor Almendros

Composer

Basil Poledouris

Artist

Audition

Vic Ramos

Editing

Robert Gordon
All team (20)

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Filming took place mainly on the island of Nanuya-Levu in the Fiji archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and in Jamaica.