Review: On "The Beach"

"The Beach" is director Danny Boyle's first major movie since the darkly comic and powerful "Trainspotting" a few years back. It's not a happy comparison. "The Beach" is a gorgeous mess, a fantasy/adventure in part about escaping technology. [Warning: I don't give the ending away, but I do discuss the plot] Read more for my review and to post your own.

There were some reasons to expect something special from the much-hyped "The Beach," given Leonardo DiCaprio's success in "Titanic" and Danny Boyle's dazzling "Trainspotting." Lower your expectations.

"The Beach" is a contemporary fantasy, part about living a disconnected, low-tech life. It mixes elements of "Blue Lagoon" with "Lord of the Flies" and "Heart of Darkness." The premise is that Richard (played by DiCaprio) is a somewhat lost American teenage tourist in search of adventure. He gets wind of a deserted island off the Gulf of Thailand, and sets out to find it along with two French kids.

He finds a dazzling paradise, but you probably already sense that the only time Hollywood invokes paradise is to create a paradise lost. Needless to say, this fantasy place -- no electricity, phones, beepers, pagers, computers, Net (there are CD's) can't last long, and trouble lurks behind every gorgeous waterfall.

The word many people are using to describe this movie is "eye-candy," which is a bit unfair. It's a gorgeous film shot in a beautiful place, but primarily, the movie is a vehicle for DiCaprio to be as scantily-clad as possible, and to try and make the point that he's a dark and complex actor. The movie's sub-themes are ambitious -- our common yearning for escape, the things we'll do to preserve our so-called paradise, the desires most of us have for adventure and excitement -- but DiCaprio's oh-gosh wholesomeness and winsome smile isn't up to pulling off so heavy a role.

The movie shamelessly invokes "Lord of The Flies," the dark novel about what kids do to one another when left alone on an island and even more blatantly, pulls from Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" and Joseph Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness." How odd that in such a place, all of the teen refugess assembled happen to be gorgeous.

But DiCaprio is no Marlon Brando, who played Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now" (inspired by Conrad's gloomy tale), and Boyle's great skill at invoking the world of lost kids in "Trainspotting" is in direct conflict with beautiful, half-naked boys and girls frolicking in an island paradise. His efforts at foreshadowing trouble and using this star to invoke darker themes fall flat. Still, the movie is cinematically amazing in parts, and when DiCaprio is playing a brave but tentative kid in search of meaning, he's not bad.

This is a movie worth seeing if you keep your expectations very much in check. Boyle is also clearly -- and very subtly -- trying to raise some issues about escape from a hi-tech, continuously communicative and invasive world.

Comments

Don't forget the book!

[adamwood]

The Beach is based on Alex Garland's excellent book of the same name.

Whetever you think of the movie, read the book as it's many times better -- the movie is a badly stripped down version of the plot without the inner workings of Richard's head. Plus the hero is English in the book ;-)

Better Link

[Ross C. Brackett]

Here's the "Beach" document from the WVE site, at http://www.wildrockies.org/wve/beach.htm

Jon Katz and Brainball

[Black Perl]

If Jon Katz ever plays brainball, my bets are on him.

Re:Don't waste your time

[EvlG]

That book was an awful, confused mess they make High Schoolers read. High handed and overly abstract, that book was just trash.

Read something worthwhile, like Dilbert or User Friendly, for a more relevant commentary on the need to escape technology.

I just came home from seeing it...

[jfunk]

Alex Garland's book is quite possibly one of the coolest things I've ever read. The details of what's going on in Richard's head caused me to have trouble putting the book down. In fact, I missed an exam because of it. That's true. I highly recommend the book to anybody.

When I found out that Boyle was making a movie from it, I thought "great!" I loved Shallow Grave (not many people have seen it, which is sad) and Trainspotting. Ewan MacGregor was to play Richard. When I found out that DiCaprio replaced him, I was shocked. This moron?! Then I remembered The Basketball Diaries and was somewhat comforted... Somewhat.

Then I actually saw the thing. Cinematically, it's not hard to tell that Boyle was at the helm. The camera work is great, and has Boyle's unique visual style.

The events and characters captured by the cameras are another thing altogether. I know, I know, most people will hate a movie because it's "not like the book" if they had read it. I'm not that type. I didn't mind that Richard played Rampage on his Gameboy instead of Tetris. I was disappointed that that all of the changes were really badly chosen. I wanted to see Jed. How could they remove him? DiCaprio really played on the "I'm American" thing in a very bad way as well. How could you not hate him? He was a complete asshole. In the book, Richard did some stupid things, yes, but at least we could actually like him. When Leo got in front of the still camera and started acting like a complete idiot, I wanted to shoot him.

When he started fucking everything on two legs I couldn't help but feel that the book Richard's character, the one which made it famous, was indeed destroyed. The world at large will forever think of Richard as this little blond-haired jerk.

The choices were very bad, indeed. I really wanted to see the book's ending on the big screen, but got something completely different. I won't say anything about it deyond that it's extremely typical of Hollywood to change books in that manner.

As for Katz's statement about getting away from technology, I don't really think so. They welcomed technology on the beach. They played Gameboys, built houses, used technology to their advantage. They were trying to get away from traditional tourist crap. I'm the same way. I hate being a tourist, yet enjoy travelling. I'll be damned if I'm not going to bring along some electronic entertainment. Maybe you should watch it again (better yet, read the book). The scene where they go back for supplies shows this very clearly.

Know A Little More Before You See This Movie

[agentHypo]

http://www.coopamerica.org/boycotts/bantargetchart .htm
says:
Womens Voices for the Earth alleges that the making
of the Twentieth Century Fox movie The Beach involved environmental destruction in Thailand.

Re:The Beach should be BOYCOTTED!

[maniac11]

My girlfriend was in Thailand during the production of this film and witnessed the destruction of the beach in "The Beach" firsthand.

It saddens and disheartens me, not only that this type of article gets press on slashdot, but that the press was favorable. It's turning the motto 'Stuff that matters' into a mockery.

Please join me and the above AC in boycotting this ridiculous movie.

Re:How is this news?

[348]

Oh, I don't know. /. seems pretty much the same to me. The corporate changes haven't made much of impact as far as I see, lots of flames posted though, I don't see the connection. /. has allways had banner days and not so good days, and banner articles and articles like this which don't quite fit in. Good days and bad, just like us, good posts and not so good.

This thread I can almost see the possibility of socio-impact comments on what happens to culture in isolation etc. Could be interesting, However I think there are much better vehicles that Leo's latest movie.