Le Lagon bleu

I saw this movie years ago (on a snowy b/w portable before cable).

The remake is true to this original with the exception of the ending. The fate of the trio was left in the air, unlike the promise of a "happy ending" of the remake. Nudity was not as blatant in this version. It was natural and more innocent than the remake.

I loved it. A true classic original that I would love to see again! I was disappointed when I wrote to England to find out that this movie is indefinitely withdrawal from future viewing.

The very first version of "The Blue Lagoon" was a silent film back in 1923. This is a lovely sound version...one significantly better than the sleazy 1980 version which emphasized sex...something rather disturbing considering how young these folks are supposed to be. Here, we have a more wholesome and better version..one actually worth your time.

The story begins with a ship sinking. Two small children and an old man manage to get aboard a dingy and they paddle away until they eventually find a habitable island. Sadly, the old man soon dies and the pair are left to care for themselves. The film then jumps ahead ten years and most of the film consists of their adventures and their ultimate fates.

This is a modestly enjoable film with one big problem...the ending is incredibly downbeat and not especially enjoyable. Still, it is well made, the characters are NOT highly sexualizes like the later film and it is mostly enjoyable.

By the way, it's really not that important, but IMDB's summary says this occurs during the Victorian era. Well, it actually occurs just AFTER Victoria's death...provbably about 1905 or thereabouts. Victoria and the Victorian era ended in 1901.

This may not be regarded as a review on any film, but just a comment on a film I saw when I was a youngster. I remember coming home of an evening all full of wonder at what I had seen. I tried to retell my parents part of the story but they listened without understanding well what was so strange about two kids stranded on an island who fall in love and grow together and have a son. As you must have guessed by now I'm referring to The Blue Lagoon (1949) which has kept me bewitched and bewildered through the years (almost 50) and now wonder full of anxiety and disgust who or what has prevented the film from being available in cassette or DVD or whatever. I've spent a lifetime chasing the opportunity to get hold of it one day and nobody knows anything about it. What a waste indeed! Sorry if my English is not at all technical or scientific, but my mother tongue is Spanish. I'm doing my best to make myself understood. Thank you, My name is Juan and I'm writing from Uruguay in S.America.

I saw this film as a kid about 30 years ago, and I haven't forgotten it to this day. I couldn't say whether it's a good picture. But in those days I instantly fell in love with Jean Simmons. The memories concentrate on the very erotic feel of the movie, but I still remember the plot. Simmons was very young then, and there is another film that gave me the same feeling: David Lean's GREAT EXPECTATIONS. And again it was the young Jean Simmons. It's a pity that BLUE LAGOON is not available on video; I'd like to correct my memories...

After seeing the movie twice in two days in 1949, I asked the opinion of a junior high school classmate who had also seen the movie. He said it was "boring". I shouted "are you kidding?!! This was a movie with the beauty of Jean Simmons, Fiji Island sunsets, the London Symphony Orchestra matching the sound of every pounding wave, a man versus octopus fight to the death, two criminals on the lam who savaged the island paradise and kidnapped the lovely Miss Simmons...and you call it BORING?!!"

I, too, am a little bit miffed that this movie has not been re-released to theaters, video or cable tv. We can only hope that someday the sea mist will lift to show the original Blue Lagoon sparkling in the sun, and to be remembered that way, always.