Here's a video clip collage from the 2000 movie The Beach about a man, Richard (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), who travels to Thailand in search of the unordinary adventure and stumbles upon a crazy man staying in the hotel room next to him. Before the neighbor commits suicide, he gives Richard a map to and story-tells of an uncharted, secret island where a utopian society has developed and existed for years. The society he describes is made up of a diverse group of self-sustaining and 100% secretive individuals- no one gets out who has gotten in. The man with the map, who goes by the name Daffy, was from the island but had obviously gone mad and escaped. This sparks Richard's curiosity even further causing him and two acquaintances to embark to find this fabled paradise. Upon their arrival, Richard soon discovers that this society is a dystopia rather than a utopia. After being exiled from the community later in the story, Rich soon grows further and further away from the society's values and also goes mad while spending his days on the opposite side of the island by himself. I found the digression of his character throughout the movie perfectly displays the negative sides of even the most perfect utopian societies and their realistic effect on certain individuals ....the movie itself is far better than this clip lets on and I highly recommend renting it. After taking this class, viewing this movie the second time around was much more interesting because it relates so well to the ideas discussed in class..... and the clip does have a couple bad words in it, that I of course DO NOT endorse but had to include due to the lack of comprehensiveness of all the other clips...
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In a sense, I believe that the author of this was portraying that 'perfection' is in the eye of the beholders. It could be taken from this that "The Beach" is either a utopia or dystopia, though only the beholder of the thought can tell you what it is. It kind of goes along with what I posted earlier this semseter about if utopia can even be defined. Everyone has a different idea, a different view of what utopia is. There is no wrong or right answers either. Similar to this, some people may view it as a utopia and others see it as a dystopia. A utopia rather is in the eyes of the beholder.
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