Not the book, but possibly something more

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2001)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Warning! Contains spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Beach is a Danny Boyle film. In it's first week of release, enough people paid to see The Beach to cover over ¾ of Leonardo DiCaprio's paycheque for his first major role since 1997's Titanic, and it would be safe to say that the majority of those paying customers were disappointed. I believe this is a safe guess because I was one of those people. I have yet to read a positive review of the film and the best my friends could come up with was `It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be'. Sadly, I had to agree.
The thing is, I wanted so badly to love this film. I had read the book and loved it, I had seen Boyle's previous work and loved it (Yes, I even loved A Life Less Ordinary), and I wanted nothing more than to prove to all the nay-sayers that The Beach would rise above the stench of the usual February release crowd and be remembered as one of the best films of the year. I went to see The Beach for a second time. The film may not appear on any year-end top ten lists to vindicate my faith, but on second viewing The Beach became a Danny Boyle film. Those who are familiar with 1994's Trainspotting will understand that this is a compliment of the highest regard. Adapted from Alex Garland's 1997 first novel of the same name, The Beach follows Richard (DiCaprio) an admittedly brash, young American back-packer who escapes to Thailand to find something. Richard is a fairly vague guy. In fact, all he gives us is his name: `what else do you need to know?'. Is he looking for himself? For Love? What he does find is Daffy (a manic Robert Carlyle). He finds him on the floor of the neighboring hostel room, with his wrists slit  the blood covering the walls and bed in such a fashion as to leave no doubt that the act was committed with purpose (and joy?). The previous evening, Daffy tells Richard about a beach  a real paradise of mythical beauty. The following morning, Richard finds a map on his door. What is most immediately jarring to anyone who has read the book is the decision to make Richard an American instead of a Brit. This does change a couple of things: for one, we miss the joy of Zeph and Sammy  the two American tourists whom Richard unfortunately (or fortunately) invites to `paradise'.With Richard as an American, we Canadians are deprived of a well-needed slap in the face: In the film, Sammy and Zeph are our stereotypical, arrogant American surf dudes. In the book, the surf act was just that: `It's a protest against bigotry,' Zeph explained. `Europeans think all Americans are stupid, so we act stupid to confirm your prejudices. Then we reveal ourselves as intelligent and by doing so, subvert the prejudice more effectively than an immediate barrage of intellect  which only causes confusion and, ultimately, resentment.' (45) How pleasant it might have been to sit in a Canadian audience and listen as the trap is sprung. Still, the most important thing about Richard, Zeph and Sammy is intact. They are not the only things that lead to the end of paradise, but they are a symbol for all that shows us that paradise is not possible. They are Americans and they are a plague. In fact, the film is telling us that we all are, but for some it may be easier to keep the blame centered on our favourite target. The Beach is not an anti-American film. It is an anti-Consumerism film. And we are all targets. We see this in many telling scenes, not the least of which involves Richard preparing to leave the island for food , taking orders from the entire multi-cultural beach community of what to bring back from civilization to their `paradise'. Here's what's brought into `paradise': Bleach, for an Australian girl who doesn't like her dark hair; rubber gloves, for the Eastern European cook who is tired of smelling like fish and requests soap (`something toxic, something industrial') to solve the problem; and batteries, for those on the island (including Richard) who won't accept a paradise without Nintendo. `Paradise' has its problems. `Paradise' will not survive, because once it is found, it is lost.
As Richard's time on the beach passes, he finds something again. The only thing he ever finds - he finds twice. Daffy begins to appear to Richard in the latter part of the film. Daffy knows why he left the beach and he tells Richard. He doesn't tell us. But we soon understand. Perhaps the most common complaint I've heard about The Beach includes some comment on the studio system and how it destroys the independent genius of someone like Danny Boyle. Maybe it does. It's quite possible that 20th Century Fox wanted Leo, they wanted Leo to be an American, they wanted Leo's character to sleep with no fewer than two beautiful female characters and they wanted a `happy ending'. It's possible that Boyle consented. It's possible that he subverted the whole process. On the recommendation of a friend, I went to see The Beach for a second time and what I saw was brave. What I saw was Danny Boyle winking at me from behind the guise of Leonardo DiCaprio as Richard sits in an internet café, looking at a photo from `paradise' - I saw Boyle's version of Zeph and Sammy. He sprung the trap on us. Upon first viewing, the ending is a cop-out: a flippantly stupid wrap-up that says `it's okay to fall to the absolute depths of self-imposed degridation, because we'll always have a few happy memories to cover the fall'. Richard's words tell us that he `still believes in paradise', but his eyes tell us something else. This is Boyle's triumph: Richard's eyes tell us what they now know that there is no such thing. `God knows we're lonely souls' begin the lyrics to the song that plays over the closing credits, and we know that Richard is now the loneliest of them all. Danny Boyle's The Beach follows last year's The Matrix and Fight Club, showing us what we don't want to see: that there is no use looking for paradise because there is no paradise left - it's left us  we've repelled it. It is too late for Richard to save his beach because he believes it can be saved from Zeph and Sammy, he doesn't know that the reason it can't be saved is because he's already there  the poison has already begun to spread. But he learns, and we learn as The Beach reminds us of what we all too often are: `Cancers, parasites eating-up the whole ****ing world'.