{"id":6841,"date":"2013-07-20T02:58:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T06:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=4151"},"modified":"2013-07-20T02:58:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T06:58:19","slug":"the-blue-lagoons-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6841","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Lagoons, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the eighties I used to watch a series called Magic Shadows<\/a><\/strong>, which aired on TVOntario, and was hosted by Elwy Yost (father of Graham Yost, writer of Speed<\/strong>). The format was highly unusual for TV, and could only have worked on a generation somewhat familiar with movie serials.<\/p>\n

A feature film was shown in roughly four 15-20 minute \u2018parts,\u2019 and if the movie had a shorter running time, Yost would add a movie serial chapter (like Flash Gordon, or Nyoka and the Tigermen<\/strong>) on Fridays \u2013 and sometimes Thursdays if the film was just over an hour, like Son of Kong<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1933).<\/p>\n

Such a concept might work in the present day as a type of late night movie series for those wanting to see a film but only having 30-40 mins. of time before needing to go beddy-bye, and get the required Zzz\u2019s for the next work day.<\/p>\n

Yost would provide the intros, the outros to further tease viewers into tuning in the next day, and start each subsequent \u2018part\u2019 by replaying maybe the last minute before the film faded out for an evening\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

I know; it sounds crazy, but it worked for years, and the series gave Yost a lead-in of sorts to his weekend show, Saturday Night at the Movies<\/strong>, where he would air a pair of films built around a theme.<\/p>\n

MS is where I caught the original Blue Lagoon <\/strong>(until someone finds and makes available the 1923 version, the 1949 one is my reference point). I watched it on a roughly 13\u201d black & white Admiral TV. We used this set from 1968 until maybe 1980-ish, after which we were given a bigger 17\u201d Toshiba B&W set from a neighbour. When that died in 1983, my dad finally splurged and bought a 14\u201d RCA colour TV for around $479, plus a matching RCA Selectavision VCR.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A dandy couple comprised of two cousins whose forbidden love did not in fact yield a 3-eyed blinky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 1984, I finally could see <\/span><\/em>in <\/span>colour<\/span><\/em>, but prior to that, everything I ever saw on TV was in black & white, so I never enjoyed Geoffrey Unsworth\u2019s stunning Technicolor cinematography\u2026 but even in monochrome, the \u201949 version left an impression, because more than anything, it was unusually haunting film. The danger, the tension, the mood, and those two scenes I never could forget: the kids\u2019 \u2018guardian\u2019 tumbling from a mountain cliff after a dreadful hallucination, and the birth of the kids\u2019 child Paddy.<\/p>\n

In 1980, Randal Kleiser parlayed the street credit from Grease<\/strong> (1978) by making a new version of Henry De Vere Stacpoole\u2019s 1908 novel that was faithful, and saturated with \u2018natural\u2019 nudity. The resulting film was a huge box office success for Columbia, launched the heartthrob careers of stars Brooke Shields and newcomer Christopher Atkins, and established what was (but was never really sustained) a new level of American cinema where nudity was natural, and acceptable to studios in a major film aimed at the R-rated crowd.<\/p>\n

Whereas the \u201880 film has been perpetually available on video, the \u201849 version starring Jean Simmons and Donald Houston has vanished, leaving digital copies floating round the net, like YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prior to production, Kleiser got hold of a print and screened the \u201949 version for cinematographer Nestor Almendros, and the making-of featurette on both the 1999 Sony DVD and Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray contains a clean clip of the film, but if you want to see the affecting little British film, there\u2019s only shitty transfers floating around.<\/p>\n

Rights issues, litigation, and whatever else seem to be reasons floating around internet message boards, but I did discover something odd amid two shitty sources: there are two endings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Unless someone bothered to abbreviate the finale, the fate of the leading characters is quite different in each version. Now, I finally did get to see the film in colour, but it\u2019s shit colour, and only the aforementioned featurette offers a hint of Unsworth\u2019s masterful gift for composition and colour. His name might mean little to many, but he shot 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/strong> (1968), Cabaret<\/strong> (1972), and Superman<\/strong> (1978).<\/p>\n

Almendros\u2019 own stature as a gifted cinematographer (besides Days of Heaven<\/strong>) is readily apparently in the 1980 version of Blue Lagoon<\/strong>, but Sony\u2019s HD transfer is gorgeous, and you have to marvel at all those magic hour shots he executed with such confidence.<\/p>\n

A colleague new to the Twilight Time catalogue posed a question many have asked over the past year: \u2018Why didn\u2019t Sony release the film on Blu themselves?\u2019 and the best I could do was point them to an interview I did with label co-founder Nick Redman<\/a> [M<\/a>].<\/p>\n

The digest version is this: the major labels are very choosy as to what they want to put on physical media, and licensing their back catalogue of older titles is easier than worrying about what to do with returns from a 90,000 print run.<\/p>\n

It is<\/em> sad that major labels have curtailed any interest in Blu releases of popular titles, but that means indie labels have a great opportunity to negotiate their own special edition. Synapse Films, Blue Underground, and Shout Factory\u2019s done just that, and in the U.K. there\u2019s Arrow and Second Sight Films who\u2019ve put out their own SE\u2019s that outclass some of the American editions in terms of extras.<\/p>\n

TT\u2019s decision to stick with a 3000 print may seem odd, but with the handful of titles that sold out within days, there are many others that haven\u2019t, which means there may be around 3000 people willing to pay a little more for a BR edition of one of their favourite films, and if there are indeed more buyers out there, then at least the current pace of sales shows you have time \u2013 a few weeks, a few months \u2013 to snap up a title.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A less dandy couple, but much goofier, no?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The 1980 Blue Lagoon<\/strong> is a 33 year old film starring a not brilliantly talented former model and a complete acting novice, and it\u2019s a period piece set in the Victorian era. It\u2019s also got a sweeping orchestral score in place of pop songs, and a pacing that may not be modern to snotty executives. It\u2019s also a little goofy, but it doesn\u2019t take long to see the quality of Kleiser\u2019s direction and the overall production.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m baffled as to why he slide into meh films a decade later. It\u2019s as though the personal and provocative projects that moved him during the 70s and 80s dried up, and studios perhaps considered him pass\u00e9 (which may explain his direction of those Honey I Shrunk the Kids<\/strong> sequels. I mean, he made two top-grossing films \u2013 Grease<\/strong> and Blue Lagoon<\/strong> \u2013 but as happens in Hollywood, after regime changes, no one is left to care).<\/p>\n

Kleiser may well have run out of ideas by the nineties, but it\u2019s a head-scratcher: Where did he go? What happened to the guy who made Grease<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

TT\u2019s BR of Blue Lagoon<\/strong> gave me a perfect excuse to revisit and compare the two versions, so in Part 1, you\u2019ve got an assessment of the 1949<\/a> [M<\/a>] and 1980<\/a> [M<\/a>] films, and in Part 2 I\u2019ll get into the sequels, because I\u2019m a masochist, and I want to see how low the qvalitaats<\/em> meter was dropped a decade and two later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And if you\u2019re the guy or the picky family holding back an HD transfer of the \u201949 version because of genuine, protracted, or squatter\u2019s rights issues: STOP IT.<\/p>\n

Let someone like Criterion assemble a definitive edition. David Lean called it \u2018the dirty book\u2019 of its time, and he kept a copy under his bed because it felt good to him and others of his generation. Wait – that came out rather undignified.<\/p>\n

And yet there’s one true fact that all who’ve seen the film can verify: Jean Simmons is hot in Technicolor.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1 in this series contains a pair of comparative reviews of the 1949 and 1980 fiilm adaptations of Henry De Vere Stacpoole’s Victorian novel about two cousins stranded on a lovely tropical island where they eat coconuts, fish, and eventually sleep together. Tthe 1949 film version of The Blue Lagoon starred Jean Simmons and Donald Houston and remains unavailable on home video, blast it; whereas the 1980 version with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins was released on Blu-ray by Twilight Time. Read the Editor’s Blog for authentic nit-picking blather, and then check out the reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[2113,2123,2119],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1Ml","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}