The Blue Lagoon, a classic(ish) 1908 novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, has inspired five films despite being pretty creepy. Not creepy in a spooky way, but creepy in a messed-up, this-is-super-problematic way. The 1980 film version, which stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, is likely the most problematic of all the incarnations of the story: It depicts several sex scenes between 14-year-old Shields and 19-year-old Atkins. While the scenes were simulated using a body double for Shields, the film is still uncomfortable to watch.
The plot is relatively straightforward and features standard stuff for a human survival story. It opens with three people shipwrecked on a remote South Pacific island. The only adult in the story doesn’t make it, and the adolescents are left marooned together. With their maturing bodies and raging hormones, there are plenty of awkward encounters between the two. But The Blue Lagoon is far grimmer and more disturbing than you likely remember, especially for a movie that makes “young love” one of its centerpieces.
Brooke Shields Was Only 14 During Filming
Photo: Columbia Pictures
When the movie started filming, Shields was just 14 years old – but she was no stranger to starring in films charged with adult themes. In 1978, when she was 12, she played a sex worker in Pretty Baby, which incited an uproar. For that movie, she wore a body stocking during some scenes, save for one moment in the film when her character poses for a photographer.
“I knew it would be tasteful,” Shields’s mother, Teri, told People at the time.
The Director And Costume Designers Took Steps To Protect Shields
Photo: Columbia Pictures
The people behind The Blue Lagoon knew they had to take some additional steps to protect Shields during filming because of her age. They were also not keen on inviting the same scrutiny and controversy that had rained down on Pretty Baby, which ended up being largely forgettable and critically derided. For scenes with partial nudity in Lagoon, Shields wore pasties glued to each breast. She also had her long wig strategically glued to conceal her body.
“I was not very developed [during Pretty Baby], and I didn’t care much about taking off my clothes. Now I do,” she told People after Lagoon finished filming. For the full no-clothing scenes, Shields had a body double.
Shields Had To Testify Before Congress Regarding The Movie
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Shields made headlines for her scandalous roles in The Blue Lagoon and Pretty Baby, and even the United States Congress took note. She was called to testify at a congressional hearing in June 1981 in regards to her participation in an anti-smoking ad campaign. The Department of Health and Human Services canned the ads because they considered Shields a bad role model for young people.
During the hearing, she assured Congress a body double of legal age had been used for all her scenes featuring nudity in The Blue Lagoon.
The Two Central Characters Are Cousins
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Richard and Emmeline are the couple at the heart of The Blue Lagoon, and they’re cousins. The movie takes place sometime during the Victorian period, an era in which it wasn’t uncommon for cousins to marry and procreate. But through a modern lens – or even a 1980 lens – it’s off-putting to watch first cousins shack up together.
Early in the movie, pre-shipwreck, Emmeline clearly calls Richard’s father “Uncle.” She and Richard also share the same last name, Lestrange.
The Characters Endure Some Major Trauma
Photo: Columbia Pictures
The kids suffer their fair share of trauma during the film. First, there’s the shipwreck, which leaves Richard, Emmeline, and Paddy (the ship’s cook) as the sole survivors. They end up stranded on an isolated island. It’s a tropical paradise, but it offers little means of survival for the trio, and they have to fight for their lives.
Years later, Paddy drops dead after a drinking binge, which surely only adds to the kids’ trauma.
There Are Rumors People Practice Human Sacrifice On The Island
Photo: Columbia Pictures
To further compound the trauma going on in The Blue Lagoon, there are all sorts of perceived threats the central characters have to confront. Sure, it’s beautiful and idyllic, and they spend their days hunting and fishing and diving for pearls. But what if there’s a dangerous storm? What if one of them gets sick? What if a wild animal attacks?
Paddy also tells them the native people living on the other side of the island practice human sacrifice. He claims to have seen the bloody remnants of these sacrifices, and he passes a “law” stating that no one is allowed to go to that part of the island.
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The Couple Don’t Know Anything About Adult Relationships Or Their Bodies
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Being alone with no adults, and being in the Victorian era to boot, Richard and Emmeline know nothing about hormones, adulthood, or how human bodies work. At one point, Emmeline gets her period and has no idea what’s happening. She and Richard think she’s been hurt.
The kids are basically traumatized again by how their bodies seem to be betraying them.
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They Have A Baby Together
Photo: Columbia Pictures
There are several love scenes in The Blue Lagoon. Most can’t really be called graphic, at least by today’s standards, and the central characters do form a loving relationship. But with all that awkward, cousinly coupling happening, eventually, Richard gets Emmeline pregnant.
Since they were marooned so young, they’re initially confused as to why Emmeline’s stomach is moving. When their son is born, they name him Paddy after their late caretaker.
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They Turn Down A Chance To Be Rescued
Photo: Columbia Pictures
As the two build a life together on the island, Richard and Emmeline become accustomed to their existence. In fact, they seem to prefer it. So when Arthur Lestrange (Richard’s father/Emmeline’s uncle) approaches the island in his ship, the couple – on the beach with their child, covered in mud – turn away and choose not to call out.
From his vantage point, all Arthur can see is what he thinks is a group of native people. He turns the ship around.
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They Attempt Suicide In The End
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Another one of Old Paddy’s admonishments was to never, ever eat the red berries that grow wild on the island. Richard and Emmeline only heed that warning for so long. The young family ends up stranded in a small boat, surrounded by sharks and drifting farther and farther out to sea. Little Paddy brought some of the strange red berries with him onto the boat. He eats them and seemingly succumbs their toxicity.
Grief-stricken, Richard and Emmeline eat the berries, too, because they see no hope of getting out of this predicament – nor do they really care to now that their son is gone. When a ship finds their tiny boat at the film’s conclusion, both appear dead, but the ship’s captain declares that Richard and Emmeline are “sleeping.” Still, the resolution (or lack thereof) ends the film on an ambiguous note.
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The Director Tried To Get The Film’s Stars To Fall In Love In Real Life
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Randal Kleiser, who directed The Blue Lagoon, wanted to make the movie as authentic as possible. He admitted to People magazine that he tried to get Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields to fall in love in real life. He wanted the love story in the movie to seem more realistic. Prior to Shields’s arrival on the South Pacific set, Kleiser put a picture of her in Atkins’s bunk.
“I wanted him to look at her every night before he went to sleep,” Kleiser said. “Naturally, by the time she arrived, he was in love with her.”
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But They Hated Each Other
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Despite being initially smitten with her, Atkins quickly found he and Shields were not compatible. In fact, they didn’t care for each other much at all. “Brooke got tired of me,” Atkins said. “She thought I took acting too seriously. I was always trying to get into a mood while she would be skipping off to joke with the crew.”
Shields’s mother, Teri, also witnessed the tension. “They were fighting like cats and dogs,” she said.
