The Beach (film)

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The Beach
Directed by Danny Boyle
Produced by Andrew Macdonald
Written by Alex Garland (novel)
John Hodge (screenplay)
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio
Tilda Swinton
Robert Carlyle
Virginie Ledoyen
Victoria Smurfit
Music by Angelo Badalamenti
John Cale
Brian Eno
Cinematography Darius Khondji
Editing by Masahiro Hirakubo
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) February 2, 2000
Running time 119 min.
Country UK / USA
Language English / French
Budget $50,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Beach is a 2000 drama film by the Trainspotting team of writer John Hodge, producer Andrew Macdonald and director Danny Boyle based on The Beach, a 1996 novel by Alex Garland. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle, Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young American backpacking in Thailand, has come to Southeast Asia with the intention of experiencing something radically different from the travelling lifestyle he is used to. He hears of an island that is supposed to be an untouched paradise, but is commonly held to be mythical. On this island, there is supposed to be a secret community of travelers who have left behind their former lives and living carefree. Richard initially dismisses the island's existence, but later meets a man named Daffy Duck (Robert Carlyle) who tells Richard that he is a former inhabitant, and who gives him a hand-drawn map to the island. Shortly afterward, Daffy commits suicide.

Richard then meets a French couple in the hostel he is staying at the Khao San Road: the very beautiful Françoise (Virginie Ledoyen) and her handsome boyfriend, Étienne (Guillaume Canet), and convinces them to accompany him to the island. They travel a great distance from Bangkok to the shores of Phuket. While there, he also befriends a pair of American surfers, Sammy and Zeph, staying in the hut next-door, who tell him of the urban legend of an island paradise, along with a laidback lifestyle laced with an endless supply of marijuana. He does not admit to them that he knows where the island is, but the next day, he makes a copy of the map and slides it under their door.

To make their way to the beach itself, Richard, Françoise, and Étienne first have to hop between several adjacent islands. When the trio first arrive on the island, they come across an enormous marijuana plantation, guarded by local men armed with AK-47 assault rifles. They manage to escape detection by the marijuana farmers and find the community of travelers. They are seen by Keaty (Paterson Joseph), who takes them into the beach community. They are interrogated by the island's leader, a British woman named Sal (Tilda Swinton), regarding their knowledge of the island. Initially, the community is angry and hostile towards the three, but when Richard informs them that he was sent by Daffy, they gradually relent, and the threesome are instantly integrated into the beach's laid-back yet structured lifestyle of work and play.

One night, Richard and Françoise are walking down the beach, and she tells him that she's fallen in love with him. They swim out into the ocean to look at a swarm of bioluminescent plankton. Françoise kisses Richard passionately, and they rise for the surface where they make love in the water. They decide not to tell anyone about their romance, but soon everyone on the island finds out, including Étienne. Although he's devastated, he says that he won't stand in their way if Françoise is happier with Richard.

At first, the island and its community seem to live up to their reputation. Richard swims out into the ocean to catch fish with a harpoon, and is attacked by a young mako shark, but he stabs it to death with a knife — which he becomes very admired for. Events take a turn for the worse when Richard is chosen to accompany Sal to the mainland to acquire basic supplies. Back on the Thai mainland, Richard runs into Sammy and Zeph, and Sal overhears the two surfers talking about Richard's copy of the map, and confronts Richard about what she heard. He admits that he told the surfers about his plans to go to the island, accompanied by two girls, and that he discussed its location and how to get there. When Sal specifically asks him, he denies that he made a copy of the map. In exchange for Sal's silence and Richard's return to the island, the two engage in a sexual encounter, despite the two having respective partners.

When they return to the island, everything returns to normal, until two of the Swedes are attacked by a shark. Sten dies and Christo is severely injured; Karl is the only survivor of the attack. The only options for Christo are to go to the mainland to get medical help, or stay on the island and take his chances. Sal, however, steadfastly refuses to allow a doctor to come to the island. Christo chooses to stay, not wanting to go near the water after his encounter with the shark. Christo's condition worsens and they take the injured islander out into the middle of the jungle alone, with only a tent and limited supplies to fend for himself. All of them seem fine with this decision, with the exception of Étienne, who stays with him.

Soon, Sal observes that the American surfer friends of Richard are on the neighboring island with the map in hand. She is furious, and charges Richard with the task of staying in the forest and spying on them until he can obtain the map or destroy it. While he's waiting for the surfers and their friends to arrive, Françoise shows up—furious and heartbroken—saying that Sal has told everybody else about her and Richard's sexual encounter. Richard can't cope with his task and retreats into the forest. There he becomes temporarily insane, believing that he is communing with the long-dead Daffy. He evades the other islanders and sets lethal traps in an attempt to keep them at bay; at times hallucinating that he is a character in a video game.

Meanwhile, the surfers who found Richard's copy of the map attempt to reach the island, but are discovered and killed by the marijuana farmers. Richard returns to the community to convince Étienne and Françoise to leave the island, believing that all their lives are now in danger. Étienne refuses, not wanting to leave Christo, whose leg has become gangrenous. Richard ends up smothering him when the other two leave the tent. The farmers crash the beach community's annual Tet feast and community founding party; loaded with their arms, and dragging the apprehended Richard, Étienne, and Françoise. The head farmer approaches Sal, with whom he places an ultimatum: the travelers may continue to live on the island so long as it remains a secret. The farmers tell the community that in order to remain, they must kill Richard, and they give Sal a gun with which to do it. She pulls the trigger, but the gun contains no ammunition. Nevertheless, when the rest of the community see the lengths that Sal is willing to go to for the sake of keeping the community a complete secret, they hurriedly break up and disband, and leave. Devastated, Sal is left behind; grieving deeply the demise of the beach community.

Majority of the community return to the mainland via makeshift raft in the early light of dawn; disillusioned by the hedonistic life on the beach. Richard is then seen stopping by an internet cafe to check his e-mail; he receives an attached image from Françoise. It is a photograph of the entire beach community taken by Françoise, with the community jumping midair in unison, looking very bright and happy, taken right after Richard and Sal made their supply run to the mainland. Upon further inspection, Richard sees an animated handwritten inscription over the image: 'Parallel Universe. Love, Françoise'.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Differences between film and novel

Although there are many minor alterations to the characters and plot, the film remains fairly faithful to the novel. There are, however, a few major alterations:

  • Françoise's elopement with Richard does not occur in the novel, although he is tempted and believes she may be too. In the film, it serves to alienate Étienne from the rest of the group and he becomes the permanent nurse of Christo, who is dying following the shark attack. In the novel this nurse role is filled by another character, Jed, who feels alienated for different reasons. Jed does not appear at all in the film.
  • Richard's sexual encounter with Sal does not occur in the novel. The voyage to the mainland is undertaken by Richard and Jed, with whom Richard subsequently accompanies on lookout duty on the island. Jed finds out about the map left by Richard and suggests that they don't tell Sal about the potential new arrivals. In the film Sal finds out about the map during the excursion to the mainland, and initiates sex in return for keeping the secret. Later she puts Richard on lookout duty alone after spotting the newcomers attempting to cross to the island.
  • The ending differs significantly from the novel. While in both film and novel the annual celebration is ruined by the intrusion of the dope farmers, in the novel this is not before Richard, Françoise, Étienne, Keaty and Jed have made plans to secretly leave the island. The dope farmers come with the map they found after killing the newcomers, angry that the islanders appear to be advertising their community, and it becomes clear that Richard is responsible. The rest of the islanders attack him before his four fellow planners come to his defense and they all escape on the raft brought over by the newcomers. In the film, the dope farmers appear to give Sal the opportunity to kill Richard in order to keep the community; she attempts to shoot him, but the gun isn't loaded. The entire community then leaves Sal, apparently via the raft, shocked by her dedication to the community at any cost.
  • In the film, Richard is American, while Sal is British. In the novel, their nationalities are opposite of their film incarnations.

[edit] Controversy

Ko Phi Phi Leh
Ko Phi Phi Leh

Controversy arose during the making of the film due to 20th Century Fox's bulldozing and landscaping of the natural beach setting of Ko Phi Phi Leh to make it more "paradise-like". The production altered some sand dunes and cleared some coconut trees and grass to widen the beach. Fox set aside a fund to reconstruct and return the beach to its natural state, however lawsuits were filed by environmentalists who believed the damage to the ecosystem was permanent and restoration attempts had failed.[1]

The lawsuits dragged on for years. In 2006, Thailand's Supreme Court upheld an appeal court ruling that the filming had harmed the environment and ordered that damage assessments be made. Defendants in the case included 20th Century Fox and some Thai government officials.[2]

After the film premiered in Thailand in 2000, some Thai politicians were upset at the way Thailand was depicted in the film, and called for it to be banned. The depiction of the drugs culture gave Thailand a bad image and a Buddha image in a bar was cited as "blasphemous."[3]

According to the Lonely Planet's Thailand guidebook, the 2004 tsunami dramatically improved the look of Maya Bay (the actual name of the beach where the movie was filmed). This was because the high waves had cleaned up the beach and removed all the landscaping the Fox production team had added.[citation needed]

[edit] Reception

The film didn't receive the positive reviews that Trainspotting did. The film has a rating of 6.1/10 on IMDB[1] and a poor 19% on Rotten Tomatoes [2]

[edit] Soundtrack

The Beach: Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Beach: Motion Picture Soundtrack cover
Soundtrack by various artists
Released 21 February 2000
Genre Electronica
Rock
Britpop
Length 76:53
Label Sire
Producer Pete Tong
Professional reviews
Danny Boyle film soundtrack chronology
A Life Less Ordinary
(1997)		 The Beach
(2000)		 28 Days Later
(2002)

The soundtrack for the film features "8 Ball" by Underworld, as well as tracks by Orbital, Moby, Blur, New Order, Faithless, Leftfield, and others. The song, "Touched" by VAST was included in the movie, but omitted from the soundtrack. The All Saints song "Pure Shores" topped the UK Singles Chart. The soundtrack was co-produced by Pete Tong.

The film score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, and a separate album containing selections of his score was released as well.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Snakeblood" (composed by Neil Barnes and Paul Daley; performed by Leftfield) – 5:39
  2. "Pure Shores" (composed by William Orbit and Shaznay Lewis; performed by All Saints) – 4:24
  3. "Porcelain" (composed and performed by Moby) – 3:58
  4. "Voices" (composed by Stephen Spencer, Paul Geoffrey Spencer & Scott Rosser; performed by Dario G featuring Vanessa Quinones) – 5:19
  5. "8 Ball" (composed by Rick Smith and Karl Hyde; performed by Underworld) – 8:51
  6. "Spinning Away" (composed by Brian Eno and John Cale; performed by Sugar Ray) – 4:24
  7. "Return of Django" (composed by Lee "Scratch" Perry; performed by the Asian Dub Foundation featuring Harry Beckett and Simon De Souza) – 4:17
  8. "On Your Own (Crouch End Broadway Mix)" (composed and performed by Blur) – 3:32
  9. "Yéké Yéké (Hardfloor Edit)" (composed and performed by Mory Kante; remix by Hardfloor) – 3:55
  10. "Woozy" (composed and performed by Faithless) – 7:53
  11. "Richard, It's Business As Usual" (composed and performed by Barry Adamson) – 4:17
  12. "Brutal" (composed and performed by New Order) – 4:49
  13. "Lonely Soul" (composed by Richard Ashcroft, Wil Malone & J. Davis; performed by UNKLE featuring Richard Ashcroft) – 8:53
  14. "Beached" (composed by Angelo Badalamenti; performed by Orbital and Angelo Badalamenti) – 6:45

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vidal, John. October 29, 1999. DiCaprio film-makers face storm over paradise lost, The Guardian, retrieved via ThaiStudents.com on December 3, 2006.
  2. ^ The Nation, December 1, 2006. Filming 'damaged beach' (retrieved on December 3, 2006).
  3. ^ BBC, 9 March, 2000. Thai MPs call for Beach ban (retrieved on December 3, 2000).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Films directed by Danny Boyle
Shallow Grave (1994) • Trainspotting (1996) • A Life Less Ordinary (1997) • The Beach (2000) • Alien Love Triangle (2002) • 28 Days Later (2002) • Millions (2004) • Sunshine (2007) • Slumdog Millionaire (TBA)