Does paradise exist? This is the question asked in the 2000 film The Beach. One of the most highly underrated films in recent years, Its plot is brilliantly executed with several underlying meanings. The Beach really about two distinct, yet interrelated things, finding out that paradise does not truly exist, and that human society tends to take beautiful things and distort them into something hopelessly awful. .
The opening scene reveals to the viewer one of the main points of the film. In it, the main character, Richard, played by Leonardo Dicaprio, is walking through the streets of Bangkok, Thailand. This is a place that was once beautiful, but has been consumed by the mindless pop of western culture. Richard, a person who longs for the unique, is disgusted by this. He has traveled all the way from America searching for tranquility, only to discover that it is exactly like home. This is the first delve intp the underlying meaning of the film.
"I just feel like everyone wants something different, but we all end up doing the same damn thing"(Richard). This is Richard's proposal to Etienne and Francois, his two French companions. Richard has been given a map to a secluded beach protected from the outside world. This is a way to express the desire to search for paradise, or the perfect place, something everyone strives for. The fact that the beach is so well hidden from people is a representation of how any kind of peaceful paradise is not easy to find. Richard receiving the map to it shows that not everyone is worthy to know how to get there. It shows that to achieve paradise, one must desire it sincerely, it will not be a gift.
To reach the beach, the trio must overcome several obstacles. The characters are forced to swim a mile risking drowning, escape marijuana farmers with guns, and finally, leap off a gigantic waterfall. This is put in the film to show that strong will is the only way to get to paradise.
