> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://the-midnight-screening.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The Blue Lagoon (1980)
- URL: https://the-midnight-screening.ghost.io/the-blue-lagoon-1980/
- Published: 2026-08-19T11:06:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T11:06:02.000Z
- Author: David Weathersby

There are horror movies, and there are movies that will horrify you. 1980’s The Blue Lagoon falls into the latter category. A 14-year-old Brooke Shields and 18-year-old Christopher Atkins are two cousins shipwrecked alone on an island sometime in the late 1800s. The movie wants you to believe they crashed when they were seven and nine and become young teens while there. If you can’t see where this is going, then don’t ever watch the movie. 2026 would lose its collective marbles over a movie like this today. Especially considering Ms. Shields’ age here. Even though an adult did her nude scenes, she still was topless for a lot of the movie with creative covering. However, in 1980, it was a major hit, making close to $60 million at the box office. That would be about $243 million in current American dollars. Ms. Shields had been naked for most of Pretty Baby in 1978, when she was 11, so getting an adult to do nudity for her probably seemed like sound parenting in 1980\. Her mother’s impact on those decisions has become quite clear in the years since. The movie almost tries to position itself as Romeo and Juliet, without the class. Believe it or not, this is actually the third version of the original 1908 book. There’s a silent version from the 1920s and a 1949 production. And there was a remake in 1991 with Milla Jovovich, who was topless and 15 in that movie. There would be people with pitchforks and torches in the virtual streets of social media if The Blue Lagoon was made today. As a piece of film history, it’s fascinating to see what the studios and audiences were willing to engage with in 1980\. It probably also says a lot about how women were treated in Hollywood. The stories you have heard over the last few years would seem tame to what was happening behind the scenes then, and what America was willing to just go along with. Ultimately, is The Blue Lagoon good? That’s a question you can answer for yourself if you can get past the revulsion you’ll have at it. As with any hit, it spawned some copycats over the next couple of years including Phoebe Cates in Paradise. One thing is for certain, you won’t have to worry about a 2028 version, so the 1980 one is probably the one you’ll need to search out.