When this originally came out my impression it was some bad script that Leonardo DiCaprio took on before the Titanic or he signed off on thinking it was a good part to take because he was the worlds hottest actor. My original impression is the movie was bad.
It has aged well. In hindsight it’s a (not my word but I’m sure how many view it) Millennial dystopian horror tale about what can happen when a society lacks basic necessities except sun, water and partying.
This one of Tilda Swindon’s first major roles, and has since catapulted her into the realm of one of the most daring actresses ever.
And as a bigger honor, it has become one of those maybe not so great movies I can’t turn off when on TV.
In hindsight, to me The Beach was a very forward looking movie for those that unlike me hate and pick on Millenials, at the very most loathsome. To me it’s a cautionary tale of what the consequences are when we choose to worship pleasure at the expense of what it takes for us to maintain it.
A few questions for fans of the film:
What do you think happened to Sal?
Where do you see the Leonardo Caprio character 20 years later?
Have you or known anyone to have lived in such an environment? How did it work out for them?
I’m not getting what you mean by worshipping pleasure at the expense of maintenance. If anything, the community more or less got that part right. It was rooted heavily in sustainability. It’s issues had more to do with the cult of personality, and the violent isolationism.
I don’t remember Sal’s background, but imagine her Alphaness will bring her both success and loneliness.
Leo was shown to generally have a knack for letting go of the past, so he will no doubt go on to interesting new adventures, mostly no worse for the wear. His brief period of losing his shit was due to being stuck.
I’ve visited intentional communities. The impression I get is that those that are based on healthy ideas leave people better off. Those that are based on dysfunctional ideas or people can be dangerous.
I’ll always remember Moby’s Porcelainplaying as they arrived at the Beach. Watching that scene again with a winter storm raging outside still brings a smile to my face. I always thought that a perfect scene in an imperfect movie. I read that the Thai government had to shut that beach down for a few months because it was losing its pristine quality due to tourism. That was exactly what Leo’s character Richard predicted in the movie, what a shame.
I actually remember seeing this movie in the theater when it first came out, and I remember it vividly because it did make a big impact, even though I didn’t really understand it. I was 13 years old and not exactly a discerning moviegoer, but the “exotica” setting and the “intrigue” plot stick with me.
In retrospect, I place it alongside a number of other movies from around roughly that same time in my life that I would best describe as “young man gets in over his head with a bunch of really heavy shit.” The Talented Mr. Ripley,Boiler Room, and Larry Clark’s Bully would all fall into that category, with Ripley perhaps being the closest to The Beach in terms of overall setting and plot elements, although I don’t remember Leo’s character as being conniving or malevolent like Damon’s.
I remember the trailer had a butt shot (of Leo’s female co-star, not Leo) and that was the only reason any of my fellow male friends (we were 19 or 20 at the time) cared to see it. I saw it with my girlfriend because she wanted to see it and I don’t remember much about it except the guy from Trainspotting who went to play Rumple on Once Upon a Time. Also I don’t think the actress (not Tilda, the young one closer to Leo’s age) did much else.
If you’re talking about Virginie Ledoyen, she was definitely a kind of “it girl” of French cinema in the late 90s. I remember her on the cover of several magazines, along with other up-and-coming actresses of her age, around 1998. It looks like she’s still active but I haven’t heard much from her for the past 12 years of so.