THE BEACH OVER DETACHMENT

The Beach is a film from the year 2000, by Danny Boyle, which addresses the theme of hedonism and self-indulgence at its highest level. It depicts the adventure of Richard, an intrepid young man in search of remarkable experiences, who embarks on a trip to Thailand. The young man encounters Daffy, an angry man who commits suicide in the hotel room next to the one occupied by Richard.

This leaves a farewell gift, a map to a paradise beach where all pleasures can be satisfied. Thus, Richard finds himself in search of the “urban myth” of the Perfect Beach and finds two fellow travelers Françoise and Étienne, with whom he shares the adventure of discovering paradise on earth. Everything looks perfect, but that paradise is being destroyed, which is an excellent metaphor for the land where we live.

The film is a scathing critique of consumer society, of Benthamism, a radical utilitarianism that destroys the “virginity” of natural and human nature. The reflection is about the hypocrisy of a community that wanted to live under values ​​that no longer existed and that had no difference from the island's natives who lived under a dictatorship of survival, in the end everyone simply wanted to live to the fullest and ended up surviving.

The peak of the conflict occurs when a gun is pointed at Richard's head, it is clear that even there there is oppression and the dream has to be destroyed, duty kills love and dream. Richard's journey is also a journey of detachment and transformation, as he lives a love triangle that in the end becomes a good memory, because when there is respect and love there are always great stories, but the journey has to go and detachment ends up to be confidence in new beginnings and in all that the future may bring. Memory as a parallel universe is always what makes us smile when it's all over and becomes part of our personal experience.

The movie is a reflection on the frailty of life, on transformation and death of every dream, as Richard absorve the beauty of life, the desire and the absence of bliss becomes an obsession, and detachment destroys happiness, there is no way to achieve peace without fear of loss and pain, deep pain is experienced as the whole world changes. The conclusion on the need to detach has more to do with the way you concieve your future and less with moaning in the past, accept evolution, transformation and embrace a stroger version of yourself, in deeo love for yourself and remember only what you felt in your soul.