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“A horror film’s job is to scare you, is to get your pulse going, is to make you scream and yell. It’s to make you be afraid. That’s its main purpose, and creeping you out. And that can be an enjoyable experience.” --- John Carpenter ::::::::::::: MY CRITERIA FOR DISCUSSION ENCOMPASSES THE HORROR GENRE AND BEYOND, SO I USE THE TERM "NIGHTMARE MOVIES". SPOILERS CAN OCCUR WITH OR WITHOUT WARNING. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Lord of the Flies

April 20th 2009 01:24
Lord of the Flies DVD cover art
Following an evacuation from the threat of a nuclear war a plane full of English school boys crash lands in the surf and they are marooned on a tropical island. With no adults to guide them the group soon fractures and they begin to behave like savages.

Like most Gen-Xers I studied William Golding’s brilliant novel Lord of the Flies in high school. I assume the book is still on most school syllabuses along with The Catcher in the Rye. I never saw the original film adaptation but I was very familiar with a few images from the movie especially that of Piggy squinting through his cracked spectacles. I finally saw Lord of the Flies (1963) recently and found it to be as disturbing and compelling as I had always expected.
Lord of the Flies James Aubrey and Hugh Edwards
Ralph (James Aubrey) and Piggy (Hugh Edwards) with the symbol of power
Many filmmakers wanted to turn the novel into a movie but Golding resisted. Director Peter Brooks, a highly respected and acclaimed theatre director, was the man who broke the beast. After auditioning 3000 boys he was allowed to workshop the novel with a group of youths on an island location off Puerto Rico. Once filming began Brooks largely dispensed with the script he’d penned and encouraged his talented young cast to improvise. He shot over 60 hours of raw footage!
Lord of the Flies choirboys
The choirboys led by Jack
The 60 hours, shot in 1961, was edited into a four hour rough cut, then cut down to a 100 minute feature which screened at Cannes Film Festival. Further dialogue over-dubs had to be made a year later, which proved troublesome as James (Ralph) Aubrey’s voice had dropped three octaves (so had to be electronically manipulated) and Tom (Jack) Chapin had lost his English accent (so another actor’s voice was used).

Lord of the Flies Tom Chapin
Tom Chapin as Jack
The film was shot on black and white 35mm stock in the standard 1.33:1 ratio, but looks as if it was shot on 16mm. This adds a level of proximity and claustrophobia to the action, which is imperative to the dramatic intensity which steadily builds over the course of the movie. Not only is the story filled with metaphors, but the entire premise is symbolic; a moral parable exploiting the theme of humans reduced to power struggles and survival of the fittest when under duress is universal. It is particularly affecting in that this is happening between young adolescent boys.
Lord of the Flies Hugh Edwards and James Aubrey
Piggy and Ralph after relations start to deteriorate
A tribal mentality takes control quickly. At first level-headed Ralph is leader, using a huge conch shell as the official communiqué device. But aggressive Jack soon challenges Ralph’s position and a rivalry ensues which ultimately ends in deadly pursuit. The ending of the novel, which director Brooks faithfully films, is one of the most powerful and unsettling in modern literature, right down to the Ralph’s final desperate scramble across the sand.
Lord of the Flies savage boys
The tribal mentality takes over ...
The performances are all excellent, especially the two leads, but also Hugh Edwards, and Tom Gaman as Simon. Considering the movie originally ran at four hours the editing job by Brook, Gerald Feil and Jean-Claude Lubtchansky is amazing. The final theatrical release was a lean 90 minutes and is superbly paced.

Lord of the Flies savage boys
... And soon it consumes them all
The opening still photograph montage depicting the evacuation is a terrific example of economy and style. The violence is mostly suggested, yet the threat is inescapable. It is this implicit violence and the horror of what the boys are capable of which permeates the movie. An unexpected dream scenario (the freedom of a tropical island with no teachers to pester them) becomes the nightmare (resorting to primitive hunter behaviour in order to eliminate competition for authority).

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Lord of the Flies lord of the flies
The lord of the flies
There are many memorable scenes, and one that lingers in my mind is when Ralph and Jack climb to the island’s highest point and discover the “beast” lolling between the rocks. Also highly memorable is the movie’s last ten or so minutes following Piggy’s tragic demise and Ralph’s mad dash to the beach where the boys are finally re-acquainted with the presence of adults.

As much as I enjoyed the novel as a teenager, I wish I’d seen the movie at the same time, as it is in many ways even more powerful than the book, which is a very rare beast indeed.

Here's the original trailer:


Here is a great deleted scene, which should never have been deleted:


Lord of the Flies DVD, complete with oodles of extras, is courtesy of Madman Entertainment, many thanks!

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
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4 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

April 20th 2009 03:36
Bryn

You have done well to raise this specter of evil.

Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite novels. You can read it twenty times over and still pull something new from it. William Golding is a master of inference and does it with such few words. But enough about my hero worship.

There were two film made for this. The 1963 version that you just reviewed and a more recent version that never made it to cinema. Perhaps with good reason. It is not that they were bad film, because they were both good film in their own right. However I think the book is such a literary master piece that it is hard to confine to a two hour film.

The one thing that always disappointed me in both film is they never have Pigs head talking to Simon. I always thought that that would be such a cool thing to see.


Comment by JohnDoe

April 20th 2009 15:16


Film & TV on DVD
Few books or filsm shaped my youth like this one Buddy...but you already know that.

I've been meaning to review it myself for sometime but have never felt confident i would do it justice. (Or maybe my over salivating just removes any chance of objectivity). Your review is spot on, great writing and observations.

Comment by Kleonaptra

April 20th 2009 23:51


Kalikapsychosis
Great Stuff Bryn!

Yeah, read the book and seen both movies - there was a colour version, but it didnt capture the isolation very well, and the actors werent as good. Still remember the book, chilling.

And that final line - "Are you boys having a war?"

Comment by Bryn

April 21st 2009 02:43


Horrorphile
I've not seen the 1990 version with a young Balthazar Getty ... but word on the beach is it's not that crash hot.

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