Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American romance\adventure film & sequel to the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon, directed & produced by William A. Graham, starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
In 1897, a widow named Sarah Hargrave and her two young kids (one of whom is the son of the castaways from the original film) are cast off from the ship they are travelling on due to the ship's crew are infected with cholera. After days afloat, Kearney (a sailor who has been sent with them) attempts to kill the boy because of his excessive crying and Sarah angrily beats Kearney to death with a harpoon & dumps his body overboard.
The trio is stranded on a beautiful tropical island in the South Pacific. Sarah tries to raise the kids to be civilized, but she 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.
Richard & Lilli grow up & Sarah educates them from the Bible along with her own knowledge, including the facts of life. She also cautiously demands them never to go to the forbidden side of the island. When Richard and Lilli are about 8 years old, Sarah dies from pneumonia, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. Sarah is buried on a scenic promontory overlooking the tidal reef area. Together, the children survive solely on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise.
Years later, both Richard and Lilli grow up into strong and beautiful teenagers. They live in a house on the beach & spend their days together fishing, swimming, and exploring the island. Both their bodies begin to physically developed and they become physically attracted to each other. Richard lets Lilli win the child's game Easter egg hunt and dives to find Lilli an adult's pearl as her reward. His penchant for racing a lagoon shark sparks a domestic quarrel; Lilli thinks he is foolhardy, but the liveliness makes Richard feel virile.
The next morning, Lilli wakes up and discovers that she has started her first menstrual period while Richard awakens with an erection along with a nasty mood swing which he can’t explain. Then, the two of them get into an argument about privacy and their late mother's rules. One night, Richard goes off to the forbidden side of the island and discovers a group of natives from another island are using the shrine of an impressive, Kon-Tiki-like idol to sacrifice conquered enemies every full moon. He camouflages himself with mud and hides in the muck while Lilli worries about his disappearance. Richard escapes unscathed, though he is seen by a lone native.
After making up for their fight, Richard and Lilli discover their natural love and passion which deepens their emotional bond. They fall in love and exchange formal wedding vows & rings in the middle of the jungle. They consummate their new-found feelings for each other for the next several months.
Soon after, a ship arrives at the island, carrying unruly sailors, a proud captain and his beautiful (but spoiled) daughter, Sylvia Hilliard. They are welcomed by the couple and they ask to be taken 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 which upsets Sylvia. Richard angrily leaves Sylvia behind in the middle of the fish pond in plain view of the landing party.
Meanwhile, a sailor is shown looking at Lilli in her bath and drags her back to the house where he attempts to rape her & steal her pearl, but Richard comes to rescue her. When the sailor opens fire on Richard, Richard lures the sailor to his death into the jaws of the shark in the tidal reef area. After returning, Richard apologizes to Lilli for hurting her and she reveals that she is pregnant. She tells him that if he wants to leave, then she won't stop him, but she wants to raise their child away from civilization and also away from guns.
In the end, Richard & Lilli decides to stay and raise their child on the island because they feel that their life would not compare to civilization. The ship leaves while the couple stays on the island and Lilli later gives birth to a baby girl.
Cast[]
- Milla Jovovich as Lilli Hargrave
- Brian Krause as Paddy Lestrange / Richard Lestrange Jr
- Lisa Pelikan as Mrs. Sarah Hargrave
- Courtney Barilla as Young Lilli
- Garette Ratliff Henson as Young Richard
- Emma James as Infant Lilli
- Jackson Barton as Infant Richard
- Nana Coburn as Sylvia Hilliard
- Brian Blain as Captain Jacob Hilliard
- Peter Hehir as Quinlan
- Alexander Peterson as Giddens
- John Mann as First Captain
- Wayne Pygram as Kearney
- John Dicks as Penfield
Background[]
The movie was shot on location in Australia & Taveuni, Fijii. According to the film’s press kit, Milla Jovovich was about 15 years old when the movie was made.
The filming was complicated by extensive sequences at sea in high surf with Sarah and the two infants. Director William A. Graham (who is an avid sailor and father of an infant daughter) faced the challenge with the consummate skills of a veteran filmmaker with nearly 80 projects to his credit.
According to Graham: "While conventional wisdom has proven that working with children, animals and boats can be trying, the rewards are also beyond what one can imagine. When you're working on a film like this with so many unpredictable elements, you never really expect things to go according to plan. You simply get what you can, when you can. You can get a performance from infants, for example, but it requires an enormous amount of patience. What they ultimately give you is so fresh and so wonderful that it is worth all the effort".
Despite an rough shooting schedule and also the fact that virtually everybody associated with the production had to be treated for a wide variety of tropical maladies during the course of filming, co-producer Peter Bogart acknowledged that "the cast and crew rallied together to make this film. As physically demanding as filming has proven to be, we all feel the romantic fantasy of the film has been heightened by the realities of life in the tropics".
Even though many of the elements of the movie were derived from the first film & there was also some nudity, it was more sanitized in content than its predecessor and was able to garner a PG-13 rating in the United States.
Box Office[]
On a budget of $11 million, “Return to the Blue Lagoon” made less than $3 million in the United States and ranked at #17 at the box office, grossing $1,277,428 during its opening weekend.
Critical Reception[]
“Return to the Blue Lagoon” was given a score of 0% with an average rating of 2.2\10 based on 30 reviews & according to the critics’ consensus: “Despite its lush tropical scenery and attractive leads, Return to the Blue Lagoon is as ridiculous as its predecessor, and lacks the prurience and unintentional laughs that might make it a guilty pleasure.”
Roger Ebert gave the film a rating of two-in-a-half stars, writing: “The sincere idiocy of this film really has to be seen to be appreciated - not that I think there is any need for you to see, or appreciate, it. "Return to the Blue Lagoon" aspires to the soft-core porn achievements of the earlier film, but succeeds instead of creating a new genre, no-core porn.”
Hal Hinson of the Washington Post wrote that the sequel “makes the original "Blue Lagoon" look like Citizen Kane.”
Awards[]
The CVF Awards:
- Worst Picture: William A. Graham
- Worst Actor: Brian Krause
- Worst Actress: Milla Jovovich
- Worst Supporting Actress: Lisa Pelikan
- Worst Director: William A. Graham
- Worst Screenplay: Leslie Stevens, Based on the Garden of God by Henry De Vere Stacpoole
Trailer[]
Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991) Trailer