The Beach

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Movie
German title The Beach
Original title The Beach
Country of production USA , UK
original language English
Publishing year 2000
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Danny Boyle
script John Hodge , Alex Garland
production Andrew Macdonald
music Angelo Badalamenti
camera Darius Khondji
cut Masahiro Hirakubo
occupation

The Beach ( dt. The beach) is a film by Danny Boyle in 2000. The film is based on the novel The beach (original title: The Beach ) the Englishman Alex Garland about an adventurous backpacking trip in Thailand. The book was published in 1996.

action

The American student Richard Fischer is on vacation in Thailand . In an old hotel in Bangkok he meets a distraught Scotsman who calls himself Daffy Duck . He talks to him and the next day commits suicide, leaving Richard a hand-drawn map of a hidden beach that is inaccessible to normal tourists. Together with the French couple Étienne and Françoise, Richard is now looking for a way to the beach that promises paradise. On their way, Richard gives two Americans, Sammy and Zeph, whom he meets on Ko Samui , a copy of the map.

After the group of three first took a rented boat to a neighboring island in Ang Thong National Park and then swam a few kilometers to the next island, crossed the part of the island used by a drug organization and jumped down a waterfall, they finally met a commune who has taken possession of the beach and rarely buys food from civilization and sells marijuana by boat . The commune leaders are Sal, a middle-aged American, and her lover of Bugs, who rule almost dictatorially. Newcomers are not welcome on the island, but they are not sent back in order not to endanger the island paradise. The existence of the place should remain secret. In order to be accepted into the group, the three newcomers have to brand each other a certain brand on the left upper arm.

A few days later, Richard is hailed as the group's hero after killing a shark with a knife, but Bugs envy him the act. Françoise and Richard become a couple, whereupon Étienne turns away, disappointed. Sal has to travel to civilization because of a lack of rice. To do this, she is looking for a volunteer to accompany her. Although he did not answer, Sal made Richard her companion. The two write down the other's shopping wishes that they want to fulfill. Bugs comes last and squeezes Richard's genitals with the warning that he shouldn't approach his girlfriend in a sexual way. During the trip, Sal still manages to get Richard to sleep with her. There is a meeting with the tourists whom Richard left the copy of the card with. He continues to deny this to Sal.

Back on the island, Richard's friends turn up after a few days on the beach on the neighboring island, which can be seen with binoculars . Sal sentences him to stand guard on a rock in order to destroy the map in case the tourists try to land. She talks about her affair in the camp, whereupon Françoise ends the relationship. Richard withdraws from reality more and more and spies on the militant cannabis farmers . He watches as the arriving tourists are shot by the cannabis growers. He then tries to get in contact with Étienne and Françoise again, and the three decide to flee together, as the rebelling cannabis farmers may soon arrive. Before Richard meets with the two of them on a boat, he helps a Swede, who has been seriously injured for a long time after a shark bite, to death. Since no one except Étienne took care of the injured man, who had been left in a tent in front of the village, this was considered as necessary human mercy in a hopeless situation.

Shortly afterwards, the islanders are surprised by the cannabis farmers armed with firearms, who threaten the group to leave the island. Sal refuses, whereupon the leader of the cannabis growers confronts them with an ultimatum: If the group wants to stay on the island, Richard von Sal should be shot. Sal takes the revolver and pulls the trigger, but the revolver's crucial first cartridge chamber is not loaded. The group is shocked by Sal, as they apparently would have accepted the death of someone. With the exception of Sal, the members of the group then leave the island and return to their old life.

In the last scene you can see Richard receiving an email from his parents in an internet café as well as an email from Françoise in which a group photo from the beach with the inscription "Parallel universe" can be seen.

Structure and topos

The film is structured in the chronological sequence of events of the plot, with the thoughts, dreams and fantasies of the main actor Richard being woven in. Thoughts are told through Richard, where he is shown in the film in a thoughtful pose and shows scenes to which his thoughts relate. His dreams and fantasies represent his increasingly critical state of mind.

The topos of the film is the search for paradise and the expulsion from it. The starting point is Richard's search for an unforgettable experience and adventure to stand out from the normal tourists. His contact with Daffy opens up an adventure for him that he doesn't dare to do alone. That's why he motivates the French couple to experience it with him. His insecurity is shown in repeated lies to cover up his mistakes and in the fact that he leaves a copy of the map as a clue to his whereabouts. Upon arrival on the island, the first impression of the paradisiacal beach and the community that lives there is consistently positive, but the illusion as such is exposed as events progress. Since Richard first met Françoise in Bangkok, he has been in love with her, and the unfulfilled longing for her clouded his mood until he was able to win her love at Etienne's expense. Before Sal and Richard go on a shopping spree, the idea of ​​desireless, paradisiacal happiness is exposed through personal orders from residents for consumer goods. The community is not up to threats and problematic situations that arise from nature and other people. The inhumanity of the fair-weather community becomes obvious when individual members disturb the harmony: Daffy has been driven out of the community because of depression and delusions; Those injured by a shark attack are denied external medical help and are kept out of community life with the argument “either they will die or they will get well”. Richard is also expelled when it is revealed that he gave a copy of the map to the other adventure tourists.

The commune, which had been tolerated up until then, was expelled in a hurry when the heavily armed, true rulers of the island used a trick to provoke the fall of man from Sal and thus finally destroy the illusion.

background

The filming location Maya Beach, Thailand

A large part of the film was shot on the Thai island group Phi Phi , including Maya Bay Beach. The film is very different from the original, especially when it comes to the relationship between Richard and Françoise.

Soundtrack

  1. " Snakeblood " - Leftfield - 5:39
  2. " Pure Shores " - All Saints - 4:24 (was in the "UK Singles Charts" at number 1)
  3. " Porcelain " - Moby - 3:58
  4. " Voices " - Dario G featuring "Vanessa Quinones" - 5:19
  5. " 8 Ball " - Underworld - 8:51
  6. " Spinning Away " - Sugar Ray - 4:24
  7. " Return of Django " - Asian Dub Foundation featuring Harry Beckett and "Simon De Souza" - 4:17
  8. " On Your Own (Crouch End Broadway Mix) " - Blur - 3:32
  9. " Yéké Yéké ( Hardfloor Edit) " - Mory Kanté - 3:55
  10. " Woozy " - Faithless - 7:53
  11. " Richard, It's Business As Usual " - Barry Adamson - 4:17
  12. " Brutal " - New Order - 4:49
  13. " Lonely Soul " - UNKLE featuring Richard Ashcroft - 8:53
  14. " Beached " - Orbital with Angelo Badalamenti - 6:45


The songs " Touched " by VAST and " Out of Control " by The Chemical Brothers can be heard in the film, but not on the soundtrack CD. The song "Spinning Away" by Sugar Ray is heard in a different version in the film than on the soundtrack CD.

Score soundtrack

A distinction is made between the music composed for a film (called “score”) and other songs that are used within a film but were not composed specifically for it. The score soundtrack (" The Beach - Motion Picture Score ") was composed by Angelo Badalamenti .

  1. " Bizarre City "
  2. " Beach Theme (Swim to Island) "
  3. " Vision of Fantasy "
  4. " Mournful Myth "
  5. " Starnight "
  6. " Killing Fields "
  7. " Blue Sex "
  8. " Beach Theme (Mythical Waters) "
  9. " Grassmark "
  10. " Daffy's Done "
  11. " Mystery of Christo "
  12. " Pure Victims "
  13. " Pursuit of a Shark "
  14. " Waterfall Cascade "
  15. " Dreamburst "

Aftermath

Financial success

The Beach was created with a budget of around 50 million US dollars. It grossed just over $ 143 million worldwide, nearly 40 million of that in the United States.

Contemporary criticism

Roger Ebert rated The Beach 2 out of 4 stars and called it a "kinky movie that makes three or four attempts to be a better movie but doesn't finish any of them."

Nataly Bleuel judged on Spiegel Online that "the clever story" of the film was "stupid, flat and harmless [...] being gambled away". She saw the main problem with the film in the fact that the main role was played by the "charming American milk-faced Leonardo DiCaprio". This is "too smooth to be crazy".

Sascha Westphal was less critical and wrote in Die Welt that Danny Boyle had "shot the" Apocalypse Now "of our time with The Beach ".

Awards

Trivia

It was originally planned that Ewan McGregor would play the lead role of Richard Fischer.

In the film, the island is located east of Thailand near Koh Samui. In reality, however, Koh Phi Phi can be found to the west near Krabi and Phuket. The beach of Maya Bay is now completely overrun with tourists and has 5,000 visitors a day with dozen of speedboats. Due to the visible coral bleaching and other damage, the beach was closed to tourists for the first time between June and September in 2018. This is already a common practice on other islands so that marine fauna can recover. On October 2nd, 2018 it was announced that the beach will be closed until further notice.

At the end of the film you can see Richard logging into the " Excite " web portal that still exists today .

The language that is “practiced” by the commune on the evening of the arrival of the three protagonists is Serbian.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Box office / business for The Beach. Retrieved May 9, 2013 .
  2. ↑ WorldwideBoxoffice. Retrieved May 9, 2013 .
  3. ^ Roger Ebert : The Beach. rogerebert.com, February 11, 2000, accessed on May 9, 2013 (English): "" The Beach "is a seriously confused film that makes three or four passes at being a better one and doesn't complete any of them."
  4. ↑ Nataly Bleuel: "The Beach": Teflon paradise instead of a trip to hell. Spiegel Online , February 12, 2000, accessed May 9, 2013 .
  5. ^ Sascha Westphal: Apocalypse Now in Club Med. Die Welt , February 12, 2000, accessed on May 9, 2013 .
  6. ^ "Ewan McGregor on falling out with Danny Boyle for 10 years: 'I just regret all the films that we didn't make together'" , accessed March 6, 2017.
  7. ^ "The Beach" in Thailand will be closed . In: TRAVELBOOK . January 30, 2018 ( travelbook.de [accessed May 18, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Ko Phi Phi in Thailand: "The Beach" remains closed . In: Spiegel Online . October 2, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 3, 2018]).

Web links