Return to the Blue Lagoon
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| Return to the Blue Lagoon | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover for Return to the Blue Lagoon |
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| Directed by | William A. Graham |
| Produced by | Randal Kleiser (executive) William A. Graham |
| Written by | Leslie Stevens (screenplay) Based on the novel The Garden of God by Henry De Vere Stacpoole |
| Starring | Milla Jovovich Brian Krause Lisa Pelikan Nana Coburn Brian Blain |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography | Robert Steadman |
| Editing by | Ronald J. Fagan |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 2, 1991 (USA) |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Preceded by | The Blue Lagoon |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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 (very loosely) on the novel The Garden of God by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film was marketed with the tagline "Return to the Romance, Return to the Adventure..."
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island 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 original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris. The film's closing theme song "A World of Our Own" is performed Surface featuring Bernard Jackson. The music was written by Barry Mann, and the lyrics were written by Cynthia Weil.
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[edit] 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 tries to kill the children, but Sarah kills him, feeding him to the deep. They later arrive 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, she dies, leaving them to finish raising themselves. 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 diving for pearls. Both their bodies mature and develop, and they are physically attracted to each other. 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.
Ultimately, after making up after a fight, Richard and Lilli discover natural love and passion, which deepens their bond. They fall in love, and exchange formal wedding vows and rings in the middle of the jungle. From then on, they consummate their affections for each other quite often for several months. Then Lilli begins to feel sick, and will not make love with Richard or breakfast anymore.
Soon after, a ship arrives at the island, carrying unruly sailors, a stuffy captain, and his beautiful daughter Sylvia Hilliard. They offer to bring them 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. Meanwhile, a sailor tries to rape Lilli and steal her pearl before Richard comes to her rescue.
Richard is forced to lure the sailor to his death on the reef, or be killed by him. He apologizes to Lilli for hurting her, and she reveals that she is pregnant. But things come to no good for Sylvia; she is being taken back to the ship, under arrest. At last, the ship departs and the two young lovers prefer to stay on the island, and have their baby girl they named Sarah.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Milla Jovovich | Lilli Hargrave |
| Brian Krause | Richard Lestrange |
| Lisa Pelikan | Mrs. Sarah Hargrave |
| Courtney Barilla | Young Lilli |
| Garette Ratliff Henson | Young Richard |
| Emma James | Infant Lilli |
| Jackson Barton | Infant Richard |
| Nana Coburn | Sylvia Hilliard |
| Brian Blain | Captain Jacob Hilliard |
| Peter Hehir | Quinlan |
| Alexander Peterson | Giddens |
| John Mann | First Captain |
| Wayne Pygram | Kearney |
| John Dicks | Penfield |
| Gus Mercurio | First Mate |
| John Turnbill | Dawes |
| Todd Rippon | Gullion |
| John Keightley | Lestrange |
| Pita Degei | Chief |
| Mikaele Nasau | Lone Cannibal |
| Annabel E. Graham | Infant Sarah |
[edit] Reception
This film had grossed more than US$2,800,800 in the United States.
[edit] Nominations
- 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
- Nominee: Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture - Milla Jovovich
[edit] DVD details
- Release date: November 5, 2002
- Digitally mastered audio and video
- Remastered in high-definition
- Full screen presentation
- Available audio tracks: English, Portuguese
- Available subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese
- Theatrical trailers: Return to the Blue Lagoon, Mr. Deeds
- Running time: 101 minutes
[edit] Background and production
- This film 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. It is almost nothing like The Garden of God, Stacpoole's sequel to his Blue Lagoon novel. However, in the second sequel 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.
- This film picks up from where the original Blue Lagoon left off. 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.
- Character actor Gus Mercurio is the only cast member of this film who also appeared in the original Blue Lagoon eleven years earlier. He played the ship's officer who found Richard and Emmeline, and gave the ambiguous line, "No, sir. They are just sleeping," when asked in the original film if they were dead.
- This film was shot on location in Australia and Taveuni, Fiji.
[edit] Trivia
- Despite the adult content of this film, including partial nudity (controversially, from a fifteen-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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Milla Jovovich's starring role in this film as Lilli Hargrave led to comparisons between her and another child model-turned-actress, none other than Brooke Shields (who had starred in the original film as Emmeline Lestrange).
- This was Milla Jovovich's second and Brian Krause's first film (Jovovich went on to star in the 1997 science fiction film The Fifth Element; Krause went on to join the cast of the fantasy television series Charmed).
- This was actor Brian Blain's last film before his death of a heart attack in 1994. This was also actor Peter Hehir's last film before his seven year absence from the screen (Hehir eventually returned in the 1998 drama film The Boys, shortly before he retired from acting).
[edit] External links
