Lord of the Flies (1990 film)
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Lord of the Flies is a 1990 adaptation of the classic novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding. It is also something of a remake, as a previous film adaptation of the source was made in 1963 (see Lord of the Flies (1963 film)).
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[edit] Cast/Crew
- Harry Hook - Director/Editor
- Sara Schiff - Screenwriter
- Philippe Sarde -Composer
- Martin Fuhrer - Director of Photography
[edit] Cast
- Balthazar Getty - Ralph
- Chris Furrh - Jack
- Danuel Pipoly - Piggy
- James Badge Dale - Simon
- Andrew Taft - Sam
- Edward Taft - Eric
- Gary Rule - Roger
[edit] Plot
The plot involves a few dozen military cadet kids who have crashed on an island. As there are no adults around, one of them named Ralph sets up a government. However, as a power-hungry hunter named Jack continually challenges his democratic rule as they wait to be rescued, the tribe begins to fall back into the all-too human traits of primality and evil itself.
[edit] Trivia
- One of the actors, Chris Furrh, was in another film involving children stranded on an island: the TV movie Exile.
- The movie references The Muppet Show, ALF, and Rambo: First Blood Part II.
[edit] Differences Between Book and Film
- Instead of a British officer finding the group, an American Navy officer does.
- All of the children come from a military cadet school.
- The children are all ethnically diverse (suspiciously so, according to Janet Maslin in her review [1]) , as one boy wears a cross (indicating that he is a Christian), another wearing the Star of David (indicating a Jewish boy), and an African-American boy.
- Like the 1963 version (which also implied that the events took place over a short period of time), the boys' hair never grows too long.
- Instead of a dead parachutist playing the role of "the beast," Captain Benson plays it, who is found dead on the island days later.
- The Lord of the Flies never talks to Simon in the film. In the book Simon has a hallucination where it speaks to him.
- The killing of the mother sow is not shown, only the boys stabbing at something off-screen.
- Piggy does not make an emotional speech denouncing Jack and imagining a confrontation after the theft of the glasses.
- Ralph does not insult Piggy as much as in the novel.
- Simon has very few lines throughout the film.
- When Jack leaves the tribe, the whole re-election scene is left out, instead, he just leaves the tribe and asks who wants to come with him
- Piggy is not shown as intelligent, courageous and logical as he is in the book
- In the book the boys call the creature the "beast" but in the film they call it the "monster" instead.
- In the book all the boys (including Ralph and Piggy) are responsible for the killing of Simon at Jack's feast. In the movie Piggy and Ralph 'didn't do anything about it'.
- In the film, Jack curses "Fuck" several times. In the book, he does not curse.
[edit] Re-interpretation
The re-interpretation of the novel seems to be a direct play upon the intended interpretation. Instead of highlighting the obvious dynamics of civilisation on a moralistic and ethical standing, the film instead tries to highlight humanities reasoning and desire to 'Escape the Island'. This view point can be seen in the closing scene, where a Helicopter is seen to fly over the ocean. Which in effect is a representation of how far 'our civilisation' has come and that the only reason civilisation spread across the globe is because of people like Ralph leaving the island (Albeit he hadn't prepared a canoe as his mode of transport across the ocean).
The 'Pig' 'Mother' relationship shows a view that a mothered society won't have any reason to 'leave the island' . The first meal caught by Jack's Tribe is not cooked, and highlighted by Piggy as needing to be cooked in order to remove disease. Piggy's glasses are needed in order to procure a fire for the second Pig which becomes a successful meal. During the meal the murder of Simon, which in the movie's case is a representation of a content, superior, human being, therefore not needing any reason to leave the island and his death starting the ball rolling towards the need for a 'clan amongst the tribe' to leave.
Ralph's demise after the death of the last mothering entity, Piggy, puts Ralph in the forest where the twins omit their knowledge of Ralph whereabouts to Jack (Which could be interpreted as the struggle the Jewish people had to endure throughout the ages, yet there are times that some groups of people will help out of their hearts, as long as it doesn't put them into danger).
The mother of course comes back in the form of the rescuers which are bemused by the actions the the stranded boys have taken, especially in what seems to be (by the tone of their voice, and the fact that we only see 3 nights of sleep throughout the movie) as a short period of isolation.
[edit] Reaction
Critics' reviews were generally mixed, and the film has a just barely "Rotten" 59% rating on the movie review scaling site Rotten Tomatoes. [2]
Some cited that the novel in general is somewhat dated and unsuitable for a remake. Roger Ebert remarked in his review that, "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." [3]
Barrie Maxwell of DVD Verdict commented that the color of the island creates a more superficial atmosphere then the stark black and white of the previous version.
The film made only $13 million domestically in 919 theaters.
