The Blue Lagoon

I recall my very first experience in film analysis and explication. It occurred during the summer of 1969, or thereabouts, which means I was about nine years old. School was out and my brother Leo and I were hanging around the house watching the early morning movie. In those days, there wasn't a lot of programming on TV, so there was always a movie or two playing on most regular channels. Remember, youngsters, this was in the pre-cable era, so all the TV at our disposal was 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and a few UHF channels, namely 31 and 47 that looked like a blizzard was raging on the screen and were mostly in Espanol.

The most popularly known of these regular movie presentations was "Million Dollar Movie" on Channel nine. It began with a cool introduction that showed some evocative scenes of New York set to the musical score from Gone with the Wind. In the late 70's, they updated the images and the song, much to my regret. You can see the newer version on YouTube, but the older version was really worth watching. The "4:30 Movie" on Channel 7 was also popular. It ran until 6pm, with loads of commericals, so every film was cut to ribbons. Ask one of your parents if they can hum the theme song to that one. Ten bucks says they can. In the background was a swirling abstract image of a guy in a camera crane turning round and round.

Anyway, back to my story. If you can believe how cheap the networks were back then, they showed the same movie every day from Monday to Friday at 10:00am. I forget which channel. On this particular week, the repeating feature was "The Blue Lagoon." It's the story of a two children who get stranded on a deserted island. They grow up and become romantically attached, have a child experience all sorts of inconveniences and are eventually rescued. The film was remade in the 70's with Brook Shield playing the girl. It is not what one would call a masterpiece of cinema. Anyway, my brother and i watched it five times. (I don't proclaim this with pride, mind you.)

Now, (finally) I get to the point. There is a scene where the boy, now aged around 15 or so, notices a scar or birthmark or something on the girl's arm (she's perhaps 13). She responds that she has always had it. He says that he hadn't noticed it before. Scene ends. Now, my brother and I could not figure out what the significance of that scene was. Being scientifically minded, we figured at first that she was developing some form of malignant melanoma, and a grim amputation scene was about to commence. Or, perhaps she had been bitten by a poisonous spider and a plague of insects was about to make their lives interesting. But, nothing of the kind happened. In fact, the birthmark was never mentioned again, either on that first day, or (obviously) on each succeeding re-viewing.

It was not until many years later that I recalled that episode and realized immediately what the scene signified. I won't give it away. You may comment below if you can figure out what it was.