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The Beach (film)
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Everything about The Beach Film totally explainedThe 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.
Plot
A young American man, Richard ( Leonardo DiCaprio), travels to Thailand, in search of the perfect vacation. During a stay on Khaosan Road in Bangkok, he meets a mysterious man named Daffy ( Robert Carlyle), who tells him about a secret beach paradise. Richard then heads for southern Thailand in search of the island. Along the way, he's befriended by a young French couple, Françoise ( Virginie Ledoyen) and Étienne ( Guillaume Canet), and he shares the secret of the island with them.
The three then strike out across the water with inflatable bags and whatever they can carry. They reach the island, where they find a huge marijuana plantation. Heading further inland, they eventually find the hidden beach, where a small, suspicious clan of Western travellers has settled, and is led by a strong-willed woman, Sal ( Tilda Swinton).
The three newcomers then struggle to find their place in the Utopian community.
Cast
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 doesn't occur in the novel, although he's 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 doesn't appear at all in the film.
Richard's sexual encounter with Sal doesn't 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 isn't 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.
Controversy
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.
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.
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."
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 due to the fact that the high waves had cleaned up the beach and removed all the landscaping the Fox production team had added.
Reception
Soundtrack
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.
Track listing
"Snakeblood" (composed by Neil Barnes and Paul Daley; performed by Leftfield) – 5:39
"Pure Shores" (composed by William Orbit and Shaznay Lewis; performed by All Saints) – 4:24
"Porcelain" (composed and performed by Moby) – 3:58
"Voices" (composed by Stephen Spencer, Paul Geoffrey Spencer & Scott Rosser; performed by Dario G featuring Vanessa Quinones) – 5:19
"8 Ball" (composed by Rick Smith and Karl Hyde; performed by Underworld) – 8:51
"Spinning Away" (composed by Brian Eno and John Cale; performed by Sugar Ray) – 4:24
"Return of Django" (composed by Lee "Scratch" Perry; performed by the Asian Dub Foundation featuring Harry Beckett and Simon De Souza) – 4:17
"On Your Own (Crouch End Broadway Mix)" (composed and performed by Blur) – 3:32
"Yéké Yéké (Hardfloor Edit)" (composed and performed by Mory Kante; remix by Hardfloor) – 3:55
"Woozy" (composed and performed by Faithless) – 7:53
"Richard, It's Business As Usual" (composed and performed by Barry Adamson) – 4:17
"Brutal" (composed and performed by New Order) – 4:49
"Lonely Soul" (composed by Richard Ashcroft, Wil Malone & J. Davis; performed by UNKLE featuring Richard Ashcroft) – 8:53
"Beached" (composed by Angelo Badalamenti; performed by Orbital and Angelo Badalamenti) – 6:45Further Information
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