When William Golding's classic parable was originally published in 1954, critics gave outstanding reviews for a debut novel. The book was not only a first-rate adventure story, but a parable of our times. While back in 1954 kids killing each other took some strong believing, today you can see Golding's prediction being chillingly accurate. Nine years later, stage director Peter Brook would direct the film version that generated many mixed reviews. Some called it unprofessional and rushed, while others praised it as a classic. When the terrible American remake was released in 1990, many looked back at this version as a classic, and rightly so.
Brook's film opens with a very creepy montage consisting of pictures of a British boarding school intercut with planes flying over London with a haunting school chorus playing in the background. We learn that the world has been caught in a nuclear war and all the kids in the school were evacuated on planes. One plane crashes into the sea during a thunderstorm. The only survivors are kids ranging from six to twelve years old. Knowing they are trapped on a deserted island, they decide to re-start civilization.
The leader is Ralph (James Aubrey), one of the oldest kids who calls on assemblies with a conch. His buddy is Piggy (Hugh Edwards), a fat nerdy kid with glasses who is ignored by the other children even knowing he is the most mature. The bully is Jack (Tom Chaplin), a trouble chorus leader who quickly evolves to a Nero-like totalitarian leader and begins to lead the boys into savagery. The neutreal Christ-like figure is quiet Simon (Tom Gaman) who fails to fit in with others. The kids eventually split up to two tribes after many disagreements, one tribe consists of savage hunters led by Jack, while the other tribe led by Ralph is worried about being rescued.
Like the book, Peter Brook's THE LORD OF THE FLIES is a parable of the world under different political views. Piggy and the conch represent order and are both eventually ignored. Ralph represents a democracy while Jack represents a totalitarian form of leadership. Simon represents Christianity, although he is also ignored for most of the time. The kids undergo many conflicts, most ending in tragic results.
Today, Golding's novel is a subject in many school discussions, and some people today criticize it for being unrealistic and irrational. But after all, it is a parable. In real life, it is obvious the kids wouldn't last for very long.
Not believing professional child actors would deliver acting strong enough to portray such characters, Brook decided to cast non-actors that lived close to the island of shooting. This benefits the film greatly since Brook coaches great performances out of the kids (were some of them really acting?) and the fact that the actors are all unknown adds to the realism (This technique could be compared to the recent CITY OF GOD.) But the film's secondary performances are not as good. The kids usually take long pauses in between their lines, and for most of the time they seem to be reading them. Poorly reading them, in fact. To make things worse, the movie was dubbed on post-production due to the low-budget. This makes some of the scenes awkward, mute, and out of synch. May I also add the scenes are edited abruptly, making the whole thing seem rushed. It's sad that the film had to be cut to 90 minutes, considering an extra 30 minutes of footage would improve it. This process slows down the film, making it sometimes boring and tiresome.
This, by no means, is a bad movie. Brooks direction and Tom Hallimans cinematography put the 1990 remake to shame. The island locations (Puerto Rico) look dark and menacing in B&W, the kind of atmosphere the remake lacked. Brook is able to compose beautiful sad visuals. ***SPOILERS*** These include the kinetic editing during the hunt for Ralph, Simon's dead body floating in the water arranged by the sad school chorus (depressing moment), Piggy's tragic demise that puts the 1990s remake laughable mirrored scene to shame, and the very scary feast that occurs at night followed by the dance. That scene, consisting of quick images, scary close-ups on the savages painted faces, and disturbing screaming is very strong even for today's standards. Brook is also wise on deciding to omit the Lord of the Flies scene and only suggesting it. He does a batter job at it than Harry Hook did in the remake. Imagine the pain of actually filming that scene. ***END OF SPOILERS***
While the out-of-synch audio, some poor acting, and slow pacing might keep this movie away from the recent generation, it is still an underrated classic on its own right. It is disturbing, haunting, and visually wonderful. It really deserves to be seen twice to be really appreciated. Strongly recommended for those that never read the book and an essential preference over the remake.
(4/5)
Brook's film opens with a very creepy montage consisting of pictures of a British boarding school intercut with planes flying over London with a haunting school chorus playing in the background. We learn that the world has been caught in a nuclear war and all the kids in the school were evacuated on planes. One plane crashes into the sea during a thunderstorm. The only survivors are kids ranging from six to twelve years old. Knowing they are trapped on a deserted island, they decide to re-start civilization.
The leader is Ralph (James Aubrey), one of the oldest kids who calls on assemblies with a conch. His buddy is Piggy (Hugh Edwards), a fat nerdy kid with glasses who is ignored by the other children even knowing he is the most mature. The bully is Jack (Tom Chaplin), a trouble chorus leader who quickly evolves to a Nero-like totalitarian leader and begins to lead the boys into savagery. The neutreal Christ-like figure is quiet Simon (Tom Gaman) who fails to fit in with others. The kids eventually split up to two tribes after many disagreements, one tribe consists of savage hunters led by Jack, while the other tribe led by Ralph is worried about being rescued.
Like the book, Peter Brook's THE LORD OF THE FLIES is a parable of the world under different political views. Piggy and the conch represent order and are both eventually ignored. Ralph represents a democracy while Jack represents a totalitarian form of leadership. Simon represents Christianity, although he is also ignored for most of the time. The kids undergo many conflicts, most ending in tragic results.
Today, Golding's novel is a subject in many school discussions, and some people today criticize it for being unrealistic and irrational. But after all, it is a parable. In real life, it is obvious the kids wouldn't last for very long.
Not believing professional child actors would deliver acting strong enough to portray such characters, Brook decided to cast non-actors that lived close to the island of shooting. This benefits the film greatly since Brook coaches great performances out of the kids (were some of them really acting?) and the fact that the actors are all unknown adds to the realism (This technique could be compared to the recent CITY OF GOD.) But the film's secondary performances are not as good. The kids usually take long pauses in between their lines, and for most of the time they seem to be reading them. Poorly reading them, in fact. To make things worse, the movie was dubbed on post-production due to the low-budget. This makes some of the scenes awkward, mute, and out of synch. May I also add the scenes are edited abruptly, making the whole thing seem rushed. It's sad that the film had to be cut to 90 minutes, considering an extra 30 minutes of footage would improve it. This process slows down the film, making it sometimes boring and tiresome.
This, by no means, is a bad movie. Brooks direction and Tom Hallimans cinematography put the 1990 remake to shame. The island locations (Puerto Rico) look dark and menacing in B&W, the kind of atmosphere the remake lacked. Brook is able to compose beautiful sad visuals. ***SPOILERS*** These include the kinetic editing during the hunt for Ralph, Simon's dead body floating in the water arranged by the sad school chorus (depressing moment), Piggy's tragic demise that puts the 1990s remake laughable mirrored scene to shame, and the very scary feast that occurs at night followed by the dance. That scene, consisting of quick images, scary close-ups on the savages painted faces, and disturbing screaming is very strong even for today's standards. Brook is also wise on deciding to omit the Lord of the Flies scene and only suggesting it. He does a batter job at it than Harry Hook did in the remake. Imagine the pain of actually filming that scene. ***END OF SPOILERS***
While the out-of-synch audio, some poor acting, and slow pacing might keep this movie away from the recent generation, it is still an underrated classic on its own right. It is disturbing, haunting, and visually wonderful. It really deserves to be seen twice to be really appreciated. Strongly recommended for those that never read the book and an essential preference over the remake.
(4/5)