Paradise (1982 film)
| Paradise | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Stuart Gillard |
| Produced by |
Robert Lantos Stephen J. Roth |
| Written by | Stuart Gillard |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Paul Hoffert |
| Cinematography | Adam Greenberg |
| Edited by | Howard Terrill |
| Distributed by |
New World Pictures (Canada) Avco Embassy Pictures (U.S.) |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CA$3.5 million |
| Box office | $5,588,800 (United States) |
Paradise is a 1982 Canadian romance adventure film starring Phoebe Cates and Willie Aames, written and directed by Stuart Gillard. The original music score was composed by Paul Hoffert with the theme song written and produced by Joel Diamond and L. Russell Brown and sung by Phoebe Cates.
It was critiqued at the time as a "knockoff" of the more-famous The Blue Lagoon (1980). The film was marketed with "If Only It Could Have Been Forever... Paradise... No Two People Have Ever Come So Close."
The films' themes were similar: Two young people find themselves abandoned in a world with no adult supervision, in fact no other people anywhere. Thus they have total freedom, inevitably learning all about love and sex, as well as basic survival techniques.
Leonard Maltin's annual Movie Guide book describes it this way: "Rating: star and a half. Silly Blue Lagoon ripoff, with Aames and Cates discovering sex while stranded in the desert. Both, however, do look good sans clothes." Upon its release, when reviewed on the show Sneak Previews, Roger Ebert selected it as his "Dog of the Week", the worst film he saw that week and heavily berated it.
The film was rated "R" for nudity and sexuality. The film genre was described as "exotic teen" (a teen film set in exotic locations) which began with The Blue Lagoon in 1980. The song "Paradise" was one of the leaders of the pop music hit parade around the world for a long time, becoming one of the biggest hits of the 1980s and giving resultant fame to the film, more so than the reverse.
The Georgian era, 1823: David (Aames) and Sarah (Cates), two teenagers, travel with a caravan from Baghdad to Damascus. At an oasis, the white slave agent 'Jackal' raids them, mainly to add the beautiful young Sarah to his harem. David and Sarah and her servant, Geoffrey, narrowly escape, but all the others are slain in the massacre including David's American missionary parents. However, Geoffrey doesn't survive long, as he sees an encampment that, unbeknownst to him, is run by the Jackal. Geoffrey goes to the encampment seeking help but is killed by the Jackal as the remaining duo takes a rest in a nearby enclave on their westerly direction toward civilization.
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Wikipedia