History Literature / TheBlueLagoon

* ComingOfAgeStory: Our two main leads are forced to fend for themselves on a deserted island, while gradually becoming closer to each other.

* DeadGuyJunior: Richard and Emmeline name their infant son Paddy after their late caretaker Paddy. In the book, he's called Hannah, because the only baby they ever knew had that name.

* FirstPeriodPanic: Emmeline is terrified when she gets her first period, and not knowing what to do about it, refuses to talk to Richard about it.

* {{Loincloth}}: Richard and Emmeline wear them for clothing on the island. In ''Return to the Blue Lagoon'', so do Richard Jr and Lily.

* MarsNeedsWomen: As Dick accepts his responsibilities as king of the Kanaka people on nearby Karolin, at the end of ''The Garden of God'', he realizes that (due to a recent misguided war) there are no mature men among them, and not enough war canoes; and because the New Hebridean slaves who overpowered their evil masters and took over the island are all guys [[MarsNeedsWomen they'll be coming to Karolin to steal women]], and Dick spends most of the third book getting ready for them. (They never show up, because Stacpoole kills off the island itself in a tsunami.)
* MightyWhitey: Dick (Dick M.) Lestrange, son of the [[KissingCousins original couple]], might be this, except he's not there to improve anything. He appears in ''Garden of God'' and the followup novel ''The Gates of Morning''. He can best be described as an intelligent, likable and very easygoing SurferDude. Katafa, something between a JunglePrincess and a BrokenBird, washes up on the shore and causes trouble. She [[ButNotTooForeign isn't really a Kanaka, but a Spanish girl]] who was RaisedByNatives. To ensure the plotline, she's been cursed as an untouchable. After sundry how-likely-is-''that'' events, during which he picks up and keeps a Royal MacGuffin, Dick and Katafa [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove fall in love]]. Katafa [[DefrostingIceQueen becomes touchably soft]] while Dick becomes both active and passionately caring; she's kind of his Muse. She takes him home with her, where (partly due to his having the royal war club) he is ''immediately'' [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning hailed as King]]; the old King having died in Katafa's absence and Katafa having been thought dead, her return is a miracle. Stacpoole (usually fairly non-racist) clearly implies that in their present predicament, the natives need a white couple to save them -- or, at least, that Dick couldn't marry an indigenous woman, so ''he'' needed a Caucasian girl.

* NobleSavage: Richard and Emmeline in the original book and film, and Richard (son of the couple from the first movie) and Lilli in the sequel. They pretty much raise themselves to adulthood and know little of human civilization. They are described explicitly as "far gone in savagery", to the point that they don't talk much anymore (they don't have to). On the other hand, the original inhabitants of the island are seen practicing human sacrifice; nothing particularly noble about them.

* {{Robinsonade}}: The first two books are definitely this. When you are done reading them you will know how to cook a breadfruit, the uses of liana vine, what to expect in a hurricane, and to clean your campsite thoroughly after meals so you don't get crabs.
* ScreamingBirth: Emmeline doesn't even ''know'' she's giving birth, only that she feels sick and is in pain and her body's pushing against ''something''. She instinctively takes a hands-and-knee posture. The only acknowledgment of it being a birth is Richard asking why she had a baby.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Due to their lack of knowledge of human sexuality and intimacy, the romantic and sexual tension between Richard and Emmeline goes unresolved until the middle of the film when Emmeline falls ill and Richard nurses her back to health.

In the Victorian era, a ship goes off course and sinks, with three people -- a galley cook named Paddy Button, and cousins Richard and Emmeline Lestrange -- fleeing to a rowboat and sailing towards an island in the distance. Once they arrive, they begin to make the island their permanent home, and Paddy teaches them basic survival skills. However, Paddy wanders off and dies in a drunken haze, leaving the two to fend for themselves.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The commentary track on the DVD for the 1980 movie mentions that Randal Kleiser and his crew never could get a straight answer out of the native islanders they had doing the HumanSacrifice scene as to whether the ceremony they put on in that scene was based on any actual historical religious rituals of theirs. He and his fellow commentators on the track also admit they have no idea what the natives were chanting at that ritual; it could be an actual religious ritual chant, they could be [[StealthInsult making fun of the cast and crew]], or they could just be reciting total gibberish. The commentators go on to invite anyone who happens to know those islanders' language to get in touch with the studio.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Even though they're stuck on a deserted island for years, the leads never really look like they're any worse for wear, besides a couple of tears in their clothes and deep tans. The 2012 movie is especially bad about this.
* BelligerentSexualTension: As they become teenagers, Richard and Emmeline find themselves fighting a lot even though it's playful.
-->'''Richard:''' Why are we always fighting so much? That should be our New Year's revolution. Stop fighting so much.

* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the 1980 film, Emmeline catches Richard stimulating himself manually. She asks what he's doing, and he guiltily says "Nothing!" In another scene when they're arguing, she taunts him extensively about this.

* ConvenientComa: In the novel, Emmeline comes walking out of the forest with the baby she had a few hours earlier. She explains to Richard that she felt ill, went to sit in the forest, and then "remembered nothing more" until she woke to find the baby lying beside her. Apparently, she remembers more about the birth later.

* DiabolusExMachina: In a movie based primarily around emotional and physical self-discovery, Diabolus is personified in the form of a three-year-old boy throwing oars from boats.
* DullSurprise:
** The acting from the leads in these films was somewhat wooden. Brooke Shields was the first actress to win a Razzie and Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause were both nominated for Worst New Star.
** Shields' acting was faithful to the book, though -- Em's dreamy, almost mystic abstraction is one of her primary characteristics.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: Emmeline ogles the shirtless Richard while he's fixing a boat.
-->'''Richard:''' What are you looking at?\\
'''Emmeline:''' Your muscles.\\
'''Richard:''' What about them? You're really acting silly lately, Em. Always saying dumb things like that. Always looking at me funny! You're not coming down with something, are you? Don't give it to me.
* EightiesHair: Despite being stranded on an island since childhood, Richard somehow manages to have a consistent perm. (Ironically, this was deliberate: the film crew actually thought a perm made him look more "savage" for some reason.)

* GodivaHair: Emmeline. To the point (as pointed out by Creator/RogerEbert) of {{Narm}}. The makeup artists had to glue Shields' hair to her chest to prevent any inadvertent nip slips.
* GRatedSex: The 1980 version essentially shows Emmeline and Richard gently making out; they never make any motions that indicate they've figured out that Tab A goes into Slot B. This was one of the things critic Pauline Kael hooted at, specifically when Richard later says "Why'd you have a baby?" and Em says "I don't know": "The way they rub limbs, all they'll produce is friction."
* HappyEndingOverride:
** Both the sequel film and book have it so that the otherwise-happy ending of the original work (Richard, Emmeline and Hannah (Dick M) are found sleeping in the boat) is overridden by the reveal that the berries really were poisonous and the adults died. This is especially egregious in ''Return to the Blue Lagoon'', in which the characters' positions on the boat have changed (they're now lying face-down instead of huddled together) and the scene is reshot to have different dialogue.
** This was Stacpoole's doing. At the end of the first book, the words are "No, sir, they are asleep," just like in the film. We are meant to take the words for granted. The ImmediateSequel (''The Garden of God'') has Arthur saying "No, they are dead" in the ''very first line'', and we are told they have just stopped breathing at that moment. Seems Stacpoole didn't want to write ''any'' sequels; he ended up writing two. First he killed off Richard and Em; book two ends up taking their son off the island as a boatful of New Hebridean slaves revolt from their white masters, kill them and take over the island; in book three, ''The Gates of Morning,'' Stacpoole went into full RocksFallEveryoneDies mode. He killed off ''the island itself'' by having it completely swallowed up in a huge typhoon. He followed that up with an EverybodysDeadDave by visiting almost the entire population of Kanaka people on Karolin (and Dick, but not Katafa) with a measles epidemic. In the last chapter, Katafa's niece Le Moan offers her life to the gods to spare Dick's life and he begins to recover. Sheesh!
* {{Irony}}: In the 1980 film, after awakening from a nightmare, Emmeline is comforted by Richard and make him promise to never leave her and always be with her. After which she kisses him but as the kiss intensifies, Emmeline pushes him away telling him not to.

* MasturbationMeansSexualFrustration: In the film, Richard masturbates to vent his sexual frustration for Emmeline. Emmeline [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown catches him in the act]] and later mocks him for it.

* MorningSickness: In the '80 film, Richard awakens one morning to discover Emmeline vomiting by the sea due to her pregnancy.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Done in a somewhat comic scene in the '80 film in which the two kids go running naked ahead of Paddy, who's yelling at them to get their clothes back on.
* NationalGeographicNudity: The film can be said to have this, even with Brooke's hair glued down over her top, but the books have it explicitly, especially in ''The Garden of God''. Jim Kearney, the sailor who stayed to help care for Richard and Em's son Dick with his grandfather Arthur, notes that the child doesn't need any clothes, he's sun-browned and "doesn't look naked". Goes without saying that the Kanaka aren't wearing much either.

* NobleSavage: Richard and Emmeline in the original book and film, and Richard (son of the couple from the first movie) and Lilli of the sequel. They pretty much raise themselves to adulthood and know little of human civilization. They are described explicitly as "far gone in savagery", to the point that they don't talk much anymore (they don't have to). On the other hand, the original inhabitants of the island are seen practicing human sacrifice; nothing particularly noble about them.
* NostalgicMusicbox: Among the artifacts taken to the island is a music box that plays Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9, #2 in E flat major. Emmeline says "That's Chopin! I can play it on the piano." It's used by the kids growing up as a connection with/nostalgic reminder of their life before the island. Sometimes they dance to it. None of this is in the book.

* PlotHole: Being stranded on an island for years, neither Richard nor Emmeline show any signs of sunburning although they do have some pretty deep tans.

* RagingStiffie: In the first film, there are many shots of Christopher Atkins swimming naked underwater with an erect penis. How the filmmakers got away with an R rating for that is quite a mystery. In ''Return to the Blue Lagoon'', Richard wakes up with an erection, which is sort of what tends to happen to a guy when he's close to Milla Jovovich.

* SceneryPorn: It even got an Academy Award nomination for its cinematography.
* ScreamingBirth: Emmeline doesn't even ''know'' she's giving birth, only that she feels sick and is in pain and her body's pushing against ''something''. She instinctively takes a hands-and-knees posture. The only acknowledgement of it being a birth is Richard asking why she had a baby. (She'd left while he was distracted fishing, then he frantically looks for her -- in the book, he never finds her and she just comes back with the child. In the film, he does and is with her during the delivery).

* SurprisePregnancy: Justified, in that neither Richard or Emmeline have had enough of a sex education to recognize the signs of a pregnancy. They also don't even know what ''sex'' is, or that it causes this.

* WackyCravings: In the film, Emmeline indulges in coconut to satisfy her pregnancy cravings. [[note]]Not inappropriate by a long shot: coconut is rich in nutritional value including fiber, vitamins, minerals and fats. Em may have also found that she has less morning sickness if she eats some every day. Pregnant women today are counseled to eat it for their own health and the child's. [[/note]]

* WhenSheSmiles: Emmeline in the book.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: In the film, when Emmeline walks in the water she accidentally steps on a fish and gets sick. The fish that the movie shows is called Stone Fish and in fact if you step on one the venom will cause excruciating pain, shock, paralysis, tissue death and if not treated within few hours, death. Emmeline doesn't seem to suffer from any of these symptoms outside of extreme pain and fever, and it seems it takes some time until Richard finds her.

* A 1923 silent film directed by W. Bowden and Dick Cruickshanks.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_blue_lagoon_dvd.jpg]][[caption-width-right:250:''[[TagLine A sensuous story of natural love.]]'']]

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Emmeline is terrified when she gets her first period, and not knowing what to do about it, refuses to talk to Richard about it.
** In the book Richard notices as they get older that she sometimes goes off and bathes by herself.