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The Beach
2000
The desire to find something real - to connect with something or someone - is what drives Richard, a young American backpacker who arrives in Thailand with adventure on his mind. Travel, he asserts, is the search for experience, the quest for something different. At a cheap hotel in Bangkok, Richard meets a French couple, .. Read more
| Starring | Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet |
|---|---|
| Director | Danny Boyle |
| Genres | Drama |
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The Beach
The desire to find something real - to connect with something or someone - is what drives Richard, a young American backpacker who arrives in Thailand with adventure on his mind. Travel, he asserts, is the search for experience, the quest for something different. At a cheap hotel in Bangkok, Richard meets a French couple, Etienne and Francoise. He also encounters Daffy, an older traveler ravaged by years of sun and drugs. Rambling and paranoid, Daffy tells Richard the improbable tale of a secret island, a paradise on earth: the perfect beach, unsullied by tourists. The next day, Richard finds a piece of paper pinned to his door. It is a hand-drawn map of the island described by Daffy. This, Richard realizes, may be the "something different" he has been looking for. Richard persuades Francoise and Etienne to join him and they set off on a journey, following Daffy's map. Reaching their destination, they find a small community of travelers like themselves, living in secret. They are welcomed into the group, and the island paradise becomes their home, sapping them of all will to return to the world they knew before. Yet beneath the surface, this heaven on earth is less than perfect.
| Starring | Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, Robert Carlyle, Daniel York |
|---|---|
| Director | Danny Boyle |
| Studio | 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 55 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish |
| Released | DVD: 27 Dec 2000 Production year: 2000 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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This journey down the hippy trail from the Trainspotting team takes a tour round the mind of Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young backpacker seeking adventure in Thailand, who gets more than he bargained for when drug-crazed madman Daffy (Robert Carlyle) tells him the location of a secret beach. Controversial during its production, the movie garnered headlines in the press for allegedly causing environmental damage to Phi Phi island, attention that did much to increase its public awareness. John Hodge's clever, witty script, based on Alex Garland's bestselling novel, keeps the narrative firmly on track, leaving director Danny Boyle ample room to luxuriate in the region's visual delights. With DiCaprio giving his most mature, multilayered performance to date, and French actress Virginie Ledoyen a great find as the love interest, The Beach achieves the near impossible by evoking in us the same feelings of longing and regret experienced by the film's characters.
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"... [DiCaprio] goes APOCALYPSE NOW Brando, launching the most inspired sequence of this ambling meditation on paradise and innocence lost..."
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Most helpful member's review
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17 out of 18 people found this review helpful
What have you done to a Masterpiece story?
Danny Boyle and Hollywood have a lot to answer for after butchering Alex Garland’s modern classic!
First off DiCaprio hams up the character of Richard. This I don’t understand. He is great in so many films! "Basket Ball Diaries", "What’s eating Gilbert grape", "Gangs of New York" and the list goes on. I think it was just awful casting, as the whole point of the Richard's character was that he was a geek! Spotty, ginger geek! That had more chance of loosing his eyesight from shaking hands with the governor of love than pulling the “love interest” in the story. But give a story to Hollywood and watch them disfigure it almost as much as the moviemakers did to the beach in Thailand to make the film!
It’s a shame, because there is so much potential there but it all fails to be delivered in this popcorn “oh isn’t Leo cute with his top off” trash!
There is one redeeming feature in that Robert Carlyle puts in a sterling performance as Daffy. One to avoid if you have read the book or if you actually like good films! -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Not worth it!
After reading the book I was really eager to see this film, but it did not live up to my expectations. The story changed considerably and the main character (Leonardo Di Caprio) was dislikable. Maybe if you haven't read the book the film would seem better.
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News and features
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McGregor ready to end feud with Boyle
- 27 May 2009
Ewan Mcgregor has reached out to end his long rift with director Danny Boyle - nearly a decade after the Oscar winner dropped him from a movie. The pair formed a close friendship after collaborating on 1996 movie Trainspotting, and Boyle promised McGregor the lead role in 2000 blockbuster The Beach. But studio bosses pressured him to cast a more famous name and the role went to Leonardo DiCaprio instead. Speaking back in 2005, McGregor accused Boyle of "betraying" him, telling Playboy magazine, Read more
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