Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 English language romance and adventure film starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause, produced and directed by William A. Graham. The screenplay by Leslie Stevens was based on the novel The Garden of God by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris. The film's closing theme song "A World of Our Own" is performed by Surface featuring Bernard Jackson. The music was written by Barry Mann, and the lyrics were written by Cynthia Weil. The film was marketed as "Return to the Romance, Return to the Adventure..."[1]
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Their life together is blissful, but not without physical and emotional changes, as they grow to maturity and fall in love. The film has major thematic similarities to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve.
Plot summary
In the Victorian period, Mrs. Sarah Hargrave, a beautiful widow, and two young children are cast off from the ship they are travelling on. After days afloat, a sailor who has been sent with them tries to kill the children. But Sarah angrily kills him, using an oar, and dumps his body overboard, as she feels suitable to preserve the children. The mother and children later arrive at and are stranded on a beautiful tropical island in the South Pacific. Sarah tries to raise them to be civilized, but soon gives up, as the orphaned boy Richard was born and raised by young lovers on this same island, and he influences the widow's daughter Lilli. They grow up, and Sarah educates them from the Bible, as well as from her own knowledge, including the facts of life. She cautiously demands the children never to go to the forbidden side of the island.
When Richard and Lilli are about eight, Sarah dies from pneumonia, leaving them to finish raising themselves. Sarah is buried on a scenic promontory overlooking the tidal reef area. Together, they survive solely on their resourcefulness, and the bounty of their remote paradise. Years later, both Richard Lestrange and Lilli Hargrave grow into tall, strong and beautiful young adults. They live in a house on the beach and spend their days together fishing, swimming, and exploring the island. Both their bodies mature and develop, and they are physically attracted to each other. Richard loses the child's game Easter egg hunt and dives to find Lilli an adult's pearl as her reward. His penchant for racing a lagoon shark sparks a domestic quarrel; Lilli thinks he is foolhardy, but the liveliness makes Richard feel virile.
Lilli awakens in the morning with her first menstrual period, just as Sarah described the threshold of womanhood. Richard awakens in the morning with an erection, and suffers a nasty mood swing, which he cannot explain. However, they then get into an argument regarding privacy and their late mother's rules. One night, Richard goes off to the forbidden side of the island, and discovers its origins there. A group of natives from another island use the shrine of an impressive, Kon-Tiki-like idol to sacrifice conquered enemies every full moon. Richard camouflages himself with mud and hides in the muck; meanwhile, Lilli worries about his disappearance. Richard escapes unscathed, though not unseen by a lone native, who may think he is a god. Ultimately, after making up for their fight, Richard and Lilli discover natural love and passion, which deepens their emotional bond. They fall in love, and exchange formal wedding vows and rings in the middle of the jungle. From then on, they consummate their newfound feelings for each other for the next several months.
Soon after, a ship arrives at the island, carrying unruly sailors, a stuffy captain, and his beautiful but wicked daughter, Sylvia Hilliard. The party is welcomed by the young couple, and they ask to be taken back to civilization, after many years in isolation. Sylvia tries to steal Richard from Lilli and seduce him, but as tempted as he is by her strange ways, he realizes that Lilli is his heart and soul, upsetting Sylvia. Richard angrily leaves Sylvia behind in the middle of the fish pond, in plain view of the landing party. Meanwhile, a sailor ogles Lilli in her bath, drags her back to the house, and tries to rape her and steal her pearl, before Richard comes to her rescue. Richard flees his shots, is chased by the sailor, and then lures him to his death in the jaws of the shark in the tidal reef area. Upon returning, he apologizes to Lilli for hurting her, and she reveals that she is pregnant. They decide to stay and raise their child on the island, as they feel their blissful life would not compare to civilization. The ship departs and the two young lovers stay on the island, and have their baby girl named Sarah after Lilli's mother.
Cast
Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause starring in
Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991).
Background and production
The film was shot on location in Australia and Taveuni, Fiji and is a sequel to the 1980 remake The Blue Lagoon, starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. Return to the Blue Lagoon bears a strong similarity to the original film, which was produced and directed by Randal Kleiser, but picks up from where the original film left off. It is almost nothing like The Garden of God, Henry De Vere Stacpoole's sequel to his novel The Blue Lagoon. However, in the second sequel novel, The Gates of Morning, a pair of sailors attack the people of a nearby island because they know its waters are rich with pearls, and it is possible the filmmakers used this. Richard is the child of Richard and Emmeline Lestrange of the original film, who both are revealed to be dead at the beginning and are buried at sea. The new shipwreck occurred mere days after they were found where the crew is struck with cholera.
Although many of the film's elements were derived from the 1980 Blue Lagoon film, and there was some nudity, the film was much more sanitized in content than its predecessor, and was able to garner a PG-13 rating in the United States. Despite the adult content of this film, including partial nudity (controversially, from a fourteen-year-old Milla Jovovich) and sexual themes, when Return to the Blue Lagoon was released to home video, it was promoted in North America as a family film suitable for all ages. The DVD version of this film is reframed to cut out Milla Jovovich's breasts in the scene where she's looking at herself in the mirror. The older VHS version showed her nipples at the very bottom of the screen.[2][3]
Nominations
1991 Golden Raspberry Awards
- Nominee: Worst Director - William A. Graham
- Nominee: Worst New Star - Milla Jovovich
- Nominee: Worst New Star - Brian Krause
- Nominee: Worst Picture - William A. Graham
- Nominee: Worst Screenplay - Leslie Stevens
Young Artist Awards[4]
- Nominee: Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture - Milla Jovovich
DVD details
- Release date: November 5, 2002
- Digitally mastered audio and video
- Region 1
- Full screen presentation
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Available audio tracks: English, Portuguese
- Available subtitles:
- English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese
- Return to the Blue Lagoon, Mr. Deeds
- Running time: 101 minutes
References
See also
External links
