Paradise is a 1982 Canadian adventure romance film written and directed by Stuart Gillard (in his directorial debut). It stars Phoebe Cates, Willie Aames, and Tuvia Tavi. 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, as it shared a similar story to the 1980 film.

Plot summary

In 1823, during the Georgian era, teenagers David and Sarah travel with a caravan from Baghdad to Damascus. At an oasis, a slaver known as the Jackal raids the party and attempts 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 a massacre, including David s American missionary parents. When Geoffrey seeks help at an encampment controlled by the Jackal, he is killed.

David and Sarah rest at a nearby enclave as they head west toward civilization. Their flight leads them to a beautiful oasis — a Paradise—where they discover love and sex. However, the Jackal does not give up hope of capturing Sarah, so David must lure him to his death. At the conclusion, Sarah reveals to David that she is pregnant and the two young lovers finally reach civilization, the city of Damascus.

Cast

• Phoebe Cates – Sarah
• Willie Aames – David
• Tuvia Tavi – The Jackal
• Richard Curnock – Geoffrey
• Neil Vipond – Reverend
• Aviva Marks – Rachel
• Yosef Shiloach – Ahmed

Production

Producers of the film, Robert Lantos and Stephen J. Roth first selected Aames and later, after a screen test, agreed on Cates for the role of Sarah. The film marked the acting debut of Cates, who was 17 years old at the time of filming. Cates starring role involved several fully nude scenes. She was also selected to sing the movie s theme song. The film was shot on location at various settings in Israel including Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.

During production, Aames and Cates both decided that the film did not need as much nudity as the script called for. In interviews, Aames and Cates claimed that the producer (Lantos) went back to Canada and used somebody else in the shots. They weren t in the version of the film they showed us for approval. When I finally got to see the final print months later, I flipped. Lantos responded to this by saying that it was up to himself and the distributor to decide what would be included in the final release, not any of the actors. He furthermore claimed that 99% of it was what Willie and Phoebe shot.

Nevertheless, Aames agreed to promote the film because, as he admitted, aside from those parts that bother me, it s a damn good film. Cates felt differently and refused to have anything to do with promotion, such as screenings and parties. According to Aames, Cates was really upset by the film.

Critical reception

On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 20 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating generally unfavorable reviews .

Writing in The Washington Post, Tom Shales stated that Paradise amounts to 100 minutes of agonizing tedium seasoned with equal parts excruciating embarrassment. He also criticized the depiction of the Jackal, describing the character as an offensively stereotyped Arab . 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. In his book Reel Bad Arabs, writer Jack Shaheen criticized Paradise for the character of the Jackal, calling him a particularly degrading depiction of an Arab sheikh.

Nominations

Golden Raspberry Awards

Year	1982
ReleaseDate	1982-05-07
RuntimeMins	100
RuntimeStr	1h 40min
Plot	After their caravan is attacked and their respective families butchered by Arab marauders, teenagers David and Sarah flee across the desert. But the desert is filled with danger from the elements, animals and the appetite of the Jackal.
Awards	Awards, 1 nomination
Directors	Stuart Gillard
Writers	Stuart Gillard
Stars	Willie Aames, Phoebe Cates, Tuvia Tavi
Produced by	Wendy Grean,Robert Lantos,Howard Lipson,Bruce Mallen,Larry Nesis,Stephen J. Roth
Music by	Paul Hoffert
Cinematography by	Adam Greenberg
Film Editing by	Howard Terrill
Production Design by	Claude Bonnière
Costume Design by	Mary Jane McCarty,Julie Whitfield
Production Management	Eitan Alon,Manon Bougie,Raz Haen
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Nitzan Aviram,Zion Haen,Jim Kaufman
Art Department	Ladislav Wilheim
Sound Department	Yohai Moshe,Eli Yarkoni
Special Effects by	Warren Keillor
Stunts	Dedi Hausdorff
Camera and Electrical Department	Avi Avrahami,Yoni Hamenachem,Avraham Leibman
Location Management	Gadi Levy
Music Department	Les Bateman,Marvin Dolgay,Paul Hoffert,Lawrence Shragge
Script and Continuity Department	Monique Champagne
Transportation Department	Michael Hartman
Additional Crew	Gene Corman,Alex Dukay,Harvey Edinoff,Yosef Hausdorf,Dedi Hausdorff,Danny Rossner,Zigler Zeev,Ralph Helfer
Genres	Adventure, Romance
Companies	Embassy Pictures, Guardian Trust Company, Moviecorp VI
Countries	Canada
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	4.8
ImDbRatingVotes	2694
MetacriticRating	20
Keywords	buttocks,female rear nudity,sex scene,human trafficking,black goat