The Beach (film)

Richard, a young American seeking adventure in Bangkok, stays in a drab travelers' hotel in Khao San Road where he meets a young French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and he immediately becomes attracted to Françoise. He also meets Daffy, who tells him of a pristine, uninhabited and restricted island in the Gulf of Thailand with a beautiful hidden beach and lagoon. Daffy explains that he and other travelers settled there in secret several years earlier, but difficulties arose and he chose to leave. Daffy commits suicide, leaving Richard a map to the island. Richard convinces Françoise and Étienne to accompany him to the island, and the three travel to Ko Samui. After getting locked out of his bungalow during a thunderstorm, Richard meets two American surfers who have heard rumors of the island, including huge amounts of cannabis supposedly growing there. Before departing, Richard leaves them a copy of the map.

En route to the island, Richard becomes infatuated with Françoise. After swimming to the island from a neighboring one, they find a large cannabis plantation guarded by armed Thai farmers. Avoiding detection, they make their way across the island and meet English cricket fan Keatey, who brings them to a fully functioning community of travelers living on the island, totally in secret. Sal, the community's English leader, explains that the farmers allow them to stay so long as they keep to themselves and do not allow any more travelers to come to the island. Richard lies that they have not shown the map to anyone else, which satisfies Sal. The trio become integrated into the largely self-sufficient and leisurely community.

One night, Françoise privately invites Richard to the beach where she tells him that she is falling in love with him and they make love. Despite hoping to keep it secret, the community finds out. While angry, Étienne says he will not stand in their way if Françoise is happier with Richard.

Tensions rise between Richard and Sal's South African boyfriend Bugs. When Richard gains popularity by killing a shark with his knife, Bugs mocks him over the shark's small size. Richard mocks him back for his jealousy.

When Sal selects Richard to accompany her on a supply run to Ko Pha Ngan, Bugs warns him to keep his hands off her. While there they encounter the American surfers Richard met in Ko Samui, who are preparing to search for the island and mention Richard's map. Richard lies to Sal that he did not give them a copy, and she coaxes him into having sex with her in exchange for her secrecy despite the two having their respective partners. On their return to the island, Richard lies to Françoise about having sex with Sal and continues his relationship with her.

Things return to normal until a shark attack kills one of the community's fishermen, Sten, and leaves another, Christo, severely injured. Sal refuses to compromise the community by bringing medical help, and Christo is too traumatized to travel to the mainland by sea. His worsening condition affects the group's morale, so they isolate him in a tent despite Étienne's objections.

When the surfers from Ko Pha Ngan turn up on the neighboring island, Sal furiously orders Richard to observe them until they cross over, then send them away and destroy their map. She also tells everyone that she and Richard had sex, which leaves Françoise angry and heartbroken causing her to return to Étienne. Isolated from the group, Richard begins to lose his sanity, stalking the cannabis farmers, stealing some of their personal items while they sleep, and imagining that he is conversing with the deceased Daffy.

The surfers reach the island but are discovered and killed by the farmers. Shocked at witnessing their deaths, Richard tries to gather Françoise and Étienne to leave the island. Étienne refuses to leave Christo, whose leg has become gangrenous, so Richard euthanizes Christo by suffocation.

Richard is captured by the farmers and brought before the community, along with Françoise and Étienne. The farmers are furious with the community for breaking their deal to not allow any more newcomers. The lead farmer gives Sal a gun loaded with a single bullet and orders her to make a choice: kill Richard and the group will be allowed to stay, or else they must all leave immediately. Sal pulls the trigger, but the chamber is empty. Shocked by her willingness to commit murder, the other members of the community abandon Sal, leave the island, and go their separate ways.

Later, back in the United States, Richard receives an email at an Internet cafe from Françoise with a nostalgic group photograph of the beach community in happier times.

Virginie Ledoyen portrays Françoise in this film.

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Richard, a freelance traveler.
• Tilda Swinton as Sal, the leader of the beach community.
• Virginie Ledoyen as Françoise, the girlfriend of Étienne, and Richard's love interest.
• Guillaume Canet as Étienne, the boyfriend of Françoise.
• Robert Carlyle as Daffy, the eccentric former member of the beach community.
• Paterson Joseph as Keaty, a member of the beach community who loves cricket.
• Lars Arentz-Hansen as Bugs, Sal's South-African boyfriend and the beach community's carpenter.
• Daniel Caltagirone as Unhygienix, the beach community's chef who has an obsession with soap due to having to always prepare the fish for consumption.
• Staffan Kihlbom, Jukka Hiltunen, and Magnus Lindgren as Christo, Karl, and Sten, the beach community's Swedish fishermen.
• Victoria Smurfit as Weathergirl, a member of the beach community whose tightening pelvis has been a sign for rain.
• Zelda Tinska and Lidija Zovkić as Sonja and Mirjana, two beach community members who come from Sarajevo.
• Samuel Gough as Guitarman, the beach community's residential guitarist who is not a good singer.
• Peter Youngblood Hills and Jerry Swindall as Zeph and Sammy, two Americans whom Richard meets in Ko Samui.
• Saskia Mulder and Simone Huber as Hilda and Eva, two women who accompany Zeph and Sammy to the island.
• Peter Gevisser as Gregorio, an Italian member of the beach community.
• Abhijati 'Meuk' Jusakul as the leader of the cannabis farmers.

There were some parts of the film that are different from the novel version:

• Richard is British and Sal is American in the novel.
• Richard's obsession with war and video games is explained a bit more in the novel.
• Keaty is not obsessed with his Game Boy in the film.
• Richard never sleeps with Françoise despite having feelings for her, which he thinks are reciprocated, saying that he considers Étienne a good guy and would not want to do that to him.
• Richard never has sex with Sal, nor is it Sal who accompanies him to the mainland for supplies, but rather a character called Jed (who patrols the island's perimeter) who does not appear in the film. In the book, Jed is the person who leads Richard, Etienne, and Françoise to the community, not Keaty.
• Ella (who works for Unhygienix), Jean (the leader of the gardening detail), Cassie (who works for Bugs and was later mentioned to have been executed for smuggling heroin into Malaysia), Jesse (Cassie's boyfriend who works in the gardening detail), Moshe (the head of the second fishing detail), and the two unnamed Yugoslavian girls (who work for Moshe) do not appear in the film.
• Gregorio is Spanish in the book, accompanied Richard on his fishing detail, and does not suffer a toothache that Bugs remedies with a pair of pliers.
• The part where Keaty catches a dead squid that gives some of the island's inhabitants food poisoning is not in the film.
• Karl escaping from the island in the beach community's main boat was not in the film.
• The ending is different from the book's, which had Richard, Françoise, Étienne, Keaty, and Jed attempting to escape from the now crumbling community. In the book's epilogue after their successful escape, they move into their respective lives. Richard loses touch with Étienne and Françoise yet finds it hard to be totally freed of the effects of his experiences in that "parallel universe."
• Richard never received an e-mail from Françoise with a picture after their farewell.

The paradise location, Maya bay in Ko Phi Phi Lee

Ko Phi Phi Leh

Ewan McGregor was cast as the main character before leaving due to disputes with the director. It was speculated that Boyle was offered additional funding under the condition that DiCaprio be cast and his character made American.[2] Whilst promoting T2 Trainspotting on The Graham Norton Show, the dispute was discussed in more depth, with McGregor stating "It was a mis-handling and a mis-understanding over the film and it's a big regret of mine that it went on for so very long... and it didn't matter about The Beach, it was never about that. It was about our friendship. I felt like Danny's actor and it made me a bit rudderless." Boyle stated, "I handled it very very badly and I have apologised to Ewan for it. I felt a great shame about it and how it was handled."[3]

Members of the cast and crew were involved in a boating accident during production. It was reported that the incident involved both Boyle and DiCaprio. No one was injured.[4]

The beach seen in the film is not the same as in real life. There is a gap between mountains on the actual beach in Thailand. The special effects crew digitally added some of the surrounding mountains during the post-production phase.

Boyle has been cited saying that the look of the jungle scenes in the film was inspired by the Nintendo game Banjo-Kazooie.

The waterfall scene, where DiCaprio and others jump from a high cliff to the water below, was filmed in Khao Yai National Park in central Thailand, at the Haew Suwat Waterfall.

The map in the film was illustrated by the author of the book that The Beach was based upon, Alex Garland. He received credit for this as the cartographer.

The film opened February 11, 2000 in both the United Kingdom and the United States.[5]

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The soundtrack for the film, 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, Sugar Ray, and others. Leftfield's contribution to the soundtrack, "Snakeblood", was found to have sampled Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "Almost" without permission, leading to a lawsuit; band member Neil Barnes said he forgot to remove the sample from the finished track.[9] The songs "Synasthasia" by Junkie XL, "Out of Control" by The Chemical Brothers, "Fiesta Conga" by Movin' Melodies, "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Neon Reprise" by Lunatic Calm and "Smoke Two Joints" by Chris Kay and Michael Kay were also included in the movie but omitted from the soundtrack. The teaser trailer for the film featured "Touched" by VAST.

The film score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, and a separate album containing selections of his score was released as well.

In a 2019 interview with The Independent, Danny Boyle revealed that a television series based on his film has been written by Amy Seimitz. The proposed series is set to take place before the events from the 1996 novel, although it will be updated to occur 20 years later, in 2016. [15]

• Phi Phi Islands

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