Something happening here

Rating: 6/10 (5 December 2004)

The Beach seems to be striving to tell us something about an era. Our heroes go to an island in SE Asia where rather heavily armed native farmers are growing a boatload of pot. Once they get past that danger, they encounter something we're led to think is like paradise.
SPOILER WARNING
The farmers turn out to be capable of killing to protect their crop. They rationalize their aggression by pointing out that the profits feed their families. OK that's probably like the drug lords in SE Asia. And the paradise is full of sort-of-hippy types (a generation removed), so maybe the film is alluding to the Vietnam era? DiCaprio does a video-game-like scene where he goes crazy, which features some sort of tongue-in-cheek dialog from bad movies about Vietnam.
Phew. Hard to tell with this director, who seems to relish the disconnected sensations and dreamy mentations of multi-drug tripping.
Another interpretation might be this: America is like the pseudo-paradise, and the rest of the world, particularly the third world, is like the farmers, who agree to let the islanders have a paradise on their island world if they don't invite any more people.
Either the writers were grossly incompetent or they just wanted to point at a whole lot of things without resolving into any one thing. Or maybe the director just needed a vehicle to flash around some flesh and some dreamy scenery.
And then there's this third theory: the director is a Coen brothers wannabe. Yeah, I think that's it. Throw in a couple ideas from a Meatballs summer camp movie. And a scene quite a bit like one in Y Tu Mama Tambien. And a tribute to Jaws.
Like, maybe if we throw enough stuff at the audience, like Donnie Darko did, they'll dig it, they'll walk out dazed and confused.
This would be like a great drive-in movie by Ed Wood ... if there were any drive-ins left.
Oh heck, Dude, let's just go bowling.