Blue Lagoon

When their ship catches fire two young children Richard and Em (Brooke Shields) are placed in a lifeboat with the cook Paddie. The other lifeboat contained Richards father and Em’s Uncle (the same man) and they get separated from each other. The three are stranded on a deserted island.

After a while on the island Paddie dies, but not before he lets them know that certain berries are dangerous because they will put you to sleep. Without Paddie the children manage quite well to construct an elaborate hut and eat extravagant seafood dinners. The story then flashes forward to when they are young teens, enjoying their carefree lifestyle. Tanned, beautiful and alone on the island Richard and Em begin to fall in love, since they never really learned about the birds and the bees their feelings begin to confuse them.

Eventually they begin a romantic relationship that leads to a sexual relationship. For the next few months Richard constantly comments on how fat Em is getting, and that she is eating too much, they are unaware that she might be pregnant. One day Richard discovers that there is a neighboring island that is home to a native tribe that practices human sacrifices at the stature that they have always thought was God. They know that this could be very dangerous, and they decide it might be time to leave the island.



Em gives birth to a son, who they name Paddie and he is delivered on the island. One day they spot a ship and Em fails to light the signal fire, because she doesn’t want to leave the island. Richard is furious and tries to build a boat. They eventually find the lifeboat that they washed ashore on, and begin to paddle away from the island that has been their home for all those years. Not far out they lose their oars, and since they have spotted sharks they are relatively hopeless. Paddie then gets a hold of some berries in the boat and eats them. Ironically these are the same berries that the older Paddie warned them about. Em and Richard decide that they too will eat the berries.

Their Father/Uncle who has been searching the sea for them eventually finds them floating in the raft. He asks if they are dead, and another one of the sailors responds that they are just sleeping. The film ends and you are left wondering if the berries were poisonous or if they only make you go to sleep. I was very unsatisfied with the ending, apparently there is a film called Return to Blue Lagoon, so I can only assume they survived.

This film was stranger than I remember the second time around. I don’t know if I blocked out the fact that Richard and Em were cusins or if they try to down play it in the film.