Lord Of The Flies (DVD)

Lord of the Flies – 1963 Today, this story is probably not as powerful as it was back in 1963 when it was filmed or in 1954 when William Golding’s book was published. These days we have all become desensitised to the violence and random, meaningless killings that seem to happen on a daily basis, especially in this day and age when children whom are only three or four years older than those depicted in the film do far worse things than was ever shown within the running time of this feature. It could be said however that the film was a premonition of how lousy things were to become in the early 21st century. The film is set during an unspecified ...

This is a disappointing adaptation of a brilliant book. I watched the film before I read the book, and although I was intrigued by the story, the character and the representation of human nature, I couldn't help feeling it was a bit empty - a bit void of an essential ingredient. After reading the book, I found that the essential parts - the parts that were missing - were the characters' own inner thoughts and feelings. The film does try to reflect these, for example when they focus on Simon watching the flies, but it fails to conjure up the full empathy needed to make the film truly successful and a worthy match for the ...

William Golding's Lord of the Flies is, or used to be, a staple of everyone's teenage reading experience, a harrowing fable about how ordinary kids revert to savagery when they are marooned on a deserted island. The story is less poignant nowadays than it once was, if only because events take place every day on our mean streets that are more horrifying than anything the little monsters do to one another on Golding's island. When Peter Brook made the first film version of the novel in 1963, most viewers no doubt identified with the character of Ralph, the little liberal humanist, instead of with Jack, the little free market economist. These ...