The Beach **** (2000, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel York, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, Robert Carlyle, Tilda Swinton) – Classic Movie Review 10,530

Leonardo DiCaprio sheds 20 pounds to get fit for the part of Richard in Danny Boyle’s fascinating, great-looking 2000 film of The Beach, with a persuasive and effective screenplay by John Hodge based on the bestseller by the book’s author Alex Garland.

DiCaprio gives an ideal performance as pop-culture-obsessed traveller Richard, who while at a hotel in Bangkok, finds a map left by deranged, drug-ravaged Daffy (Robert Carlyle), his strange, whacked-out neighbour, which he has said leads to a secret legendary island paradise.

Richard persuades the couple of French friends to go with him. Taking with him the two French travellers, girlfriend and boyfriend Françoise and Étienne, (Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet), Richard sets out off for the island on what proves to be a life-endangering journey past sharks both fishy and human, jumping off a 120ft waterfall to escape armed guards to arrive at a hippy commune shangri-la, inhabited by people living as a small idealistic community. There everything is perfection – but paradise has a price. Paradise is postponed, possibly lost, as internal conflicts soon arise. Françoise, the girlfriend of Étienne, becomes Richard’s love interest.

This is a marvellous part for a bronzed, fit-looking Leo, who is tremendously effective in it, kicking up an emotional storm like an old trouper, even if he still looks about 14. The movie, based on Alex Garland’s 1996 hit novel, is a super mix of action thrills, romance, escapist travelogue (Thailand looks literally to die for) and food for the brain. If the story recalls Lord of the Flies, Lost Horizon and Robinson Crusoe, the film is still an ambitious and unique event. A notable Tilda Swinton has particular fun with her character, Sylvester (Sal), the eccentric leader of the beach community.

There was a tide of disapproval over the casting in some quarters. It is a British project and a British star was expected. Ewan McGregor was Danny Boyle’s first choice to play the part of Richard but the Fox studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio after the freakishly immense success of Titanic (1997). It was speculated that Boyle was offered a much bigger budget if DiCaprio was cast and his character was changed to American. McGregor felt betrayed and did not speak with Boyle for many years, but they made up in 2015.

McGregor said: ‘It was about our friendship. I felt like Danny’s actor and it made me a bit rudderless.’ Boyle said: ‘I handled it very, very badly and I have apologised to Ewan for it.’ They reunited for T2 Trainspotting in 2017.

DiCaprio was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor but lost to John Travolta in Battlefield Earth.

It was premiered in the US on 2 February 2000 and released in the UK on 11 February 2000.

DiCaprio had originally planned to star in American Psycho (2000) but was offered $20 million for The Beach. Because of this, the film had a high budget of $50,000,000, and grossed an unspectacular $39,785,027 in the US, but the Cumulative Worldwide Gross of $144,056,873 made it a hit. The film had mixed reviews and was a only moderate success, opening behind Scream 3 in the United States and Canada and Toy Story 2 in the UK.

Lars Arentz-Hansen and Robert Carlyle’s characters Bugs and Daffy are named after Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and Tilda Swinton’s character Sylvester (Sal) is named after the Looney Tunes character Sylvester. Jukka Hiltunen, who plays Swedish guy Karl, is from Finland and has a Finnish accent.

All Saints’ song ‘Pure Shores’ topped the UK charts.

The soundtrack, co-produced by Pete Tong, features the international hits ‘Pure Shores’ by All Saints and ‘Porcelain’ by Moby, as well as tracks by New Order, Blur, Underworld, Orbital, Faithless and Sugar Ray. Leftfield’s ‘Snakeblood’ was found to have sampled Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s ‘Almost’.

Angelo Badalamenti composed the film’s score and a separate album with selections of his score was also released.

It is filmed on Ko Phi Phi Leh island, Thailand; Phuket, Thailand; Thanon Khao San, Talad Yot, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok, Thailand; Khao Yai National Park, central Thailand (the waterfall scene); and Krabi, Thailand. Two of the beaches (Ko Phi Phi Leh and Phuket in Thailand) where this was filmed were hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004.

Controversy arose over 20th Century Fox’s bulldozing and landscaping of the natural beach setting of Ko Phi Phi Leh to make it more ‘paradise-like’. They altered sand dunes and cleared coconut trees and grass to widen the beach. Fox set aside a fund to reconstruct and return the beach to its natural state but lawsuits were filed by environmentalists.

On 5 November 2020, DiCaprio, now 45, enjoyed another beach day and a dip in gray-patterned swim trunks at the beach in Malibu, California.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,530

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