A literary adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t sound like the sort of movie that would lead to catastrophic environmental damage and years of legal battles – especially when you consider the actor’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s most high-profile humanitarians – but The Beach lived on in infamy for years.
In order to make the locations more palatable and paradise-like, studio 20th Century Fox opted to bulldoze and landscape some of Thailand’s natural beaches for aesthetic value, which included the clearing of coconut trees and grass. Despite committing to a restoration project afterwards, multiple lawsuits were filed nonetheless after the damage proved irreversible.
The company and several government officials were named in a supreme court ruling in 2006 as the case rumbled on, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the beach in question was closed entirely in 2018 due to the influx of tourist traffic causing widespread harm to the coral reefs. It didn’t even reopen until last year, but only under the strict orders of no boats, no swimming, and a maximum capacity.
The risk wasn’t exactly worth the reward for a backpacking adventure that ended up with a 21 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, landed DiCaprio a Razzie nomination for Worst Actor, and caused a rift in director Danny Boyle’s friendship with Ewan McGregor after the Trainspotting alum didn’t get the lead role, but at least it’s a pretty film to look at.
Streaming subscribers have been ignoring the courtroom drama in favor of luxuriating in the stunning cinematography that still can’t overcompensate for a paper-thin story, though, with FlixPatrol naming The Beach as one of the most-watched films on iTunes this week.