Lord of the Flies (1990 film)

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Lord of the Flies
Directed by	Harry Hook
Produced by	Lewis M. Allen
Written by	Sara Schiff
Starring	Balthazar Getty Chris Furrh Danuel Pipoly
Music by	Philippe Sarde
Cinematography	Martin Fuhrer
Editing by	Harry Hook
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Castle Rock Entertainment
Release date(s)	March 16, 1990
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
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IMDb profile

Lord of the Flies is a 1990 film adaptation of the classic novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding. It is the second film adaptation of the book, the first being the 1963 film Lord of the Flies.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Location 3 Differences between book and film 4 Reception 5 References

[edit] Cast

• Balthazar Getty - Ralph
• Chris Furrh - Jack Merridew
• Danuel Pipoly - Piggy
• James Badge Dale - Simon
• Andrew Taft - Sam
• Edward Taft - Eric
• Gary Rule - Roger
• Robert Shea - Billy

[edit] Location

Filmed on location in Port Antonio, Jamaica.

[edit] Differences between book and film

• In the book, they crash onto the island, with the kids scattered all over the island. In the movie, they crash into the ocean and all get brought ashore by a life raft.
• Maurice isn't in the film
• The children are American boys from a military academy in the 1990 film rather than British boys from private schools as in the book. The 1963 film had the boys from Great Britain.
• Instead of a British officer finding the group, an American Navy officer does.
• The children are all ethnically diverse, as one boy wears a cross (indicating that he is a Christian), another wearing the Star of David (indicating a Jewish boy), and one boy is African-American.
• The characters in the film use harsher profanity than the characters in the book, and more frequently.
• Like the 1963 version (which also implied that the events took place over a short period of time), the boys' hair never grew 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.
• Ralph, not Jack discovers Piggy's spectacles can make fire.
• The Lord of the Flies never talks to Simon in the film, whereas the novel has Simon experiencing a hallucination in which it speaks to him.
• In the book, the Lord of the Flies was safely away from the "beast", but in the film the Lord of the Flies is literally right next to it.
• The killing of the mother sow is not shown, only the boys chasing and decapitating a pig.
• Ralph doesn't take part in the killing of Simon, while in the book he does.
• Simon's death is much less violent in the movie, in the book he was bitten and clawed to death by the others.
• Piggy does not make an emotional speech denouncing Jack and imagining a confrontation after the theft of the glasses.
• Jack does not insult Piggy as much as in the novel.
• In the book, Piggy's glasses break after Jack smacks his glasses off his face, whereas in the film, his glasses break after Jack's tribe destroys Ralph's shelters at night to get a knife back, in turn trampling over Piggy's glasses.
• 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's glasses are shattered in one raid in the book; a shard of glass gets in his eye, blinding him. In the film, he is simply robbed of his glasses.
• Piggy is not shown as intelligent, courageous and logical as he is in the book.
• In the film Piggy declares his name as Piggy, whereas in the novel he said he would prefer any name but Piggy.
• In the book the boys call the creature the "beast" but in the film they call it the "monster" instead.
• In the film Piggy dies due to the boulder thrown off of Castle Rock hitting him but in the book he falls off a cliff after being struck by the boulder.
• In the film the Conch is never shown being broken. In the book however, it shatters when Piggy is struck by the boulder.
• In the book, Ralph is described as having blond hair, Simon having black hair, and Jack as having red hair. All three characters have different hair colors in this adaptation.
• In the book the vote of the leader is very important, while in the film it is not. Also, the reason Ralph is voted leader in the film is because 'he's colonel', while in the book it is because he is bigger and found the conch.
• In the book everyone revotes Jack as leader, in the movie everyone but Piggy does.
• In the book Jack has a slightly deformed face from either a birth defect or a burn he received in an accident; the film does not show this.
• The boys are saved by men in helicopters in the movie, in the book they are saved by British marines in boats.

[edit] Reception

Critics' reviews were generally mixed, and the film has "Fresh" 61% rating on the movie review scaling site Rotten Tomatoes.^[1]

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."^[2]

Barrie Maxwell of DVD Verdict commented that the color of the island creates a more superficial atmosphere than the stark black and white of the previous version.^[3]

The film made only $13,985,225 domestically in 919 theaters.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References