Lord of the Flies

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #43: Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies.

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It is tough get­ting chil­dren to act well; just ask any­one who’s ever had to get chil­dren to act well. A vast major­ity of the cast in Lord of the Flies couldn’t act their way out of a wet paper bag, but thanks to Peter Brook’s care­ful plan­ning and chore­o­graph­ing of key scenes, and relaxed impro­vi­sa­tional allowance in oth­ers, the awk­ward act­ing abil­ity morphs into an appro­pri­ate skit­tish­ness for ado­les­cent maroons. This adap­ta­tion is well on the mark of the book, with an added inten­sity of vis­ceral imagery and psy­cho­log­i­cal war­fare that only film can pro­vide so effec­tively. The main strength of the film is that it was shot entirely on loca­tion, apart from the open­ing mon­tage, and the real­ity of the island set­ting feeds into the real­ity of the char­ac­ters’ devel­op­ment. With­out the impos­ing hand of civ­i­liza­tion, regress­ing to a wild and sav­age state becomes easy.

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Lord of the Flies is not only a tract about the impor­tance of civ­i­liza­tion, but also an inter­est­ing thought-​experiment on the emer­gence of new cul­tural forms. In the film, this is notice­able fairly soon, as the polit­i­cal rifts between the two lead­ing boys, Jack and Ralph, are a micro­cosm of inter­na­tional polit­i­cal strife. Sim­i­larly, the cre­ation of rit­ual chants and activ­i­ties to ward off the beastie, and Jack’s clever manip­u­la­tion of their fear to main­tain con­trol have con­tem­po­rary par­al­lels in our own coun­try. This is no new trick, but its effi­cacy ensures its con­tin­ued use. The cog­ni­tive dis­so­nance and lin­guis­tic lacu­nae in their vocab­u­lary after the first mur­der takes place is also telling in terms of their fear. Sim­i­larly, the devel­op­ment of face-​paint and lit­tle to no cloth­ing are marked changes from their ini­tial school-​boy attire.

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Still, there are sim­i­lar­i­ties between before and after. The choir­boys become the hunters and their dis­ci­pline, orga­ni­za­tion, and loy­alty as the lat­ter is due directly to their train­ing in the for­mer. They are also the ones who cre­ate and enforce the cul­tural pro­gres­sion of the tribe of boys, while Ralph and Piggy, who’ve main­tained their rea­son to some extent, are increas­ingly ostra­cized. All of this ter­ror comes through strongly through the use of lib­eral cut­ting and realign­ments in the edit­ing room, and the sheer amount of footage Brook had on hand to pick and choose from. The final scene is so abhor­rent , as Ralph flees the other youths on all fours, much like the pig they are con­vinc­ing them­selves he is, that the appear­ance of white socks and match­ing deck shoes of adult pro­por­tions, and the adult that is wear­ing them is a great relief. The mon­ster we’ve only caught glimpses of, the mon­ster that was about to appear in full and ter­ri­ble force, espe­cially because of its famil­iar­ity, is slain just like that.

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Comments on this post

  1. Giggles

    Um…isn’t this book writ­ten by William Golding?

  2. Adam Harvey

    Yup, but Peter Brooks directed the movie, which is what this review covers.

  3. shiny shoe

    tht movie was a bit strange-​the book was evn stranger, but at least it cov­ered evry­ht­ing. the movie 4got the most important(altho bor­ing) parts

  4. Minya

    I absolutely love this book and movie. The sec­ond to last para­graph of the book is so eye-​opening. The book really isn’t all that strange. If boys were left on an island, this is prob­a­bly what would actu­ally hap­pen; in fact, the split between democ­racy and anar­chy did hap­pen not too long ago. Also, it’s not weird that there is a pigs head on a stick because it was just an offer­ing for the “beast”.

  5. billy

    its a great book. those who say its strange are naïve. there are a lot of val­u­ble and inter­est­ing points, because gold­ing was a naturalist.

  6. PellIan

    Yes the book was writ­ten by William Gold­ing but he got his idea for the book from Coral Island. A book that he would read to his kids before bed.

  7. Essie Slaughter

    oh wow…he would read a book like the lord of the flies to his kids afore bed?
    strange. a bit.
    i thought the book was amaz­ing.
    it was way eye open­ing, i think it explained soci­ety
    in an obscure way. also what a soci­ety based on anar­chy would be like.

  8. Joe Smith

    This book was not very good. Kids would not kill other kids.

  9. Simon

    There’s a lit­tle bit of Hitler in all of us, bud.

  10. Julia

    This book is VERY deep, it has a lot of sym­bols in it. Is the movie like the book? And what is the movie rated? Because I’m plan­ning to watch it but I don’t know if it’s proper for like 12 year olds.
    You know, Joe Smith made an inter­est­ing com­ment: kids would not kill other kids. HOW DO YOU KNOW? Have you ever seen a bunch of kids stranded on an island before? No…I sup­pose not. They might. You never know-​the beast might be real, exist­ing inside all of us.

  11. Chazburger

    im cur­rently doing a play on this book for the­atre stud­ies and im respon­si­ble for cos­tumes, after look­ing at the movie and the book im prob­a­bly just gonna get school uni­forms then they get destroyed as easch act goes does any­one hav any ideas on cos­tumes for the play?

    thanks.

  12. Chelle

    This book was hor­ri­ble. It was dif­fi­cult to under­stand and did not demon­straite a proper use of the eng­lish lan­guage. It was bor­ing and unre­al­is­tic. It was prob­a­bly the worst book i have evr read.

  13. jess

    the book was great. i loved it. but the one thing that they changed in the movie is when they saw a plane, it was where the boat was sup­posed to be. like when ralph said “there was a plane” it was a boat in the book. and my one friend said she was dis­s­a­pointed that the lord of the flies didnt talk to simon, but also i dont think she is good at ana­lyz­ing movie but thats just me. when they killed simon,you wouldnt have known what had hap­pened if you hadnt read the book before or until piggy and ralph talked about it.

  14. jess

    chelle, think about when this book was written

    Chazburger, i would sug­gest alot more make-​up than worry about cos­tumes. make-​up can show un-​cleanlinesss and sav­age­ness. but also tear up the cos­tumes lit­tle by little.

  15. Anonymous

    The novel might be well writ­ten, but it con­tains a deeper mean­ing than just bunch of kids being stuck on an island. The Lord of the Flies is micro­cosm of our soci­ety. By put­ing inno­cent chil­dren on an islo­lated island, Gold­ing is try­ing com­ment on his view point of human nature. And that is, there is a “beast” within us and with­out laws and orders the beast will unleash. Over­all, The Lord of the Flies a very inter­est­ing novel.

  16. Astrid

    What about hte choir boys?