MovieChat Forums > The Blue Lagoon (1980) Discussion > Low critical score

Low critical score

posted 4 years ago by alv790 (87)
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At the time I write this, the movie has 5.8 in iMDB, 31 in Metascore, 8% tomatometer and 54% audience score in Rotten Tomatoes...

The movie is unrealistic but beautiful, with excellent cinematography. It's a coming of age story about two children stranded together on a paradisiacal desert island. Their growing up far from civilization and their sexual awakening are the main themes. The nudity is tasteful, innocent and artistic. It's based on a British novel published in the Edwardian era, at the beginning of the 20th century.

It's not a perfect movie, and it won't be to everyone's taste, but the low critical score is a bit ridiculous. The dialogue is not sophisticated, but that is only appropriate given the circumstances of the characters. Are people bothered by the lack of action or by the nudity and sexual themes? Perhaps this is a movie better appreciated with European sensitivities?

The "critics consensus" from Rotten Tomatoes says "A piece of lovely dreck, The Blue Lagoon is a naughty fantasy that's also too chaste to be truly entertaining". So that's what people see here, soft-core porn, only too soft to be effective?

[–] gde061 (2) 4 years ago

The people writing that "consensus" are self-absorbed repeaters of conventional wisdom.

We are living in an age of neo-puritanism. Part of the ever present virtue signaling framework adopted by Hollywood. We are also living in a narrow-minded age of revisionist judgementalism. Just like folks cannot comprehend the compassion and intentions of remarks by leaders that are today considered racist, these same self-proclaimed intellectuals cannot adopt the perspective of someone living in 1980, on the heals of the free-love, burn-your-brassier, let your "flower children" run around in the warm sunshine naked. Many of the things seen in this film were sights you might see in the real world. Toddlers ran around in people's yards naked all the time. There was no obsession with sun-screen. There was no "baby Gap" to swaddle your kids in conspicuous consumerism.