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Dec 04, 2024 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick Photography by Fun City Editions

Teenage Sarah (Phoebe Cates) is the well-to-do daughter of an English businessman; David (Willie Aames) is the buttoned-up son of Christian missionaries. While caravanning across the Syrian desert, they’re attacked by Bedouin slavers led by a notorious sheikh who locals call The Jackal. These plucky youths manage to escape capture, but find themselves stranded in the desert with only a camel, a knife, a medical textbook, and a never-ending supply of fine textiles. They must learn to survive in the wild while keeping a constant eye out for the Jackal, who remains determined to make Sarah one of his brides.

Fortunately for these two, it seems that lush, untouched oases—teeming with fruit trees, waterfalls, and friendly wildlife—are as commonplace in the deserts outside Baghdad as a Dunkin Donuts in New England. Sarah and David turn this little patch of heaven into their personal Garden of Eden. As time goes by and, as the movie’s promotional materials humorously phrase it, “their bodies grow stronger and more beautiful,” the nubile teens discover a far more exciting pastime than building five-star resort accommodations out of bamboo and palm leaves. Against a backdrop of ever-looming danger, Paradise becomes a tender chronicle of not only young Sarah and David’s sexual awakenings, but the sexual awakenings of Sarah and David’s chimpanzee companions.

Paradise (1982) is an infectiously silly knock-off Blue Lagoon (1980), and an early entry into an oddly specific, early ‘80s ‘wealthy white girl becomes the obsessive conquest of a lascivious desert sheikh in Ottoman-era Arabia’ micro-cycle of movies that would soon include Sahara (1983) and Bolero (1984). Shot largely around Tel Aviv with a handful or Cannon collaborators including DP Adam Goldberg and writer-director Stuart Gilliard—the latter of whom would return to the area to film Cannon’s A Man Called Sarge (1990)—Paradise feels very much like a Golan-Globus production even without the Go-Go Boys being involved, given its waffling tone that makes it feel like someone tried to insert softcore erotica into a children’s adventure film, to the skeezy behind-the-scenes tales of producers bringing in body doubles to add more nudity than they were already able to squeeze out of their underage lead.

Controversial production stories be damned, Paradise developed a small but dedicated fan following in large part through its heavy rotation on premium cable, where it was viewed by many folks who were presumably too young for its R rating, yet just the right age to appreciate its naive romantic escapism. There were far better-told coming of age stories to be found on video rental shelves, but Paradise was the only one where the young heroes’ sexual tension is pushed to a tipping point because they can’t get their pet chimp to quit masturbating. (Not since Bo Derek was felt up by a gorilla in 1981’s Tarzan, the Ape Man had a piece of cinema dared to pack in this much soft-focus nudity alongside this many cutaways to trained primates mugging for the cameras.)

It’s hard not to enjoy Paradise for its utter ridiculousness; it’s also a rather handsome film, which can now be appreciated thanks to Fun City’s good-looking Blu-ray restoration. (An original VHS transfer is included on the disc as an easter egg, for those wanting to experience the film like they first did in the 1980s—or who need a reminder of just how good we have it these days.) Nathaniel Thompson provides a scholarly yet up-tempo commentary track, while the release also features a large collection of original promotional materials, from press kit photos to trailers, radio and TV spots, all of which work hilariously hard to hide the fact that the movie is almost 10% chimpanzee reaction shots. Longtime Paradise fans will want to jump on this unexpected and lovingly-assembled release, while newcomers shouldn’t be scared to give it a look: the film is far goofier and more fun than trailers or descriptions make it sound.

(www.funcityeditions.com/shop/p/paradisestandardblu-4jb33)