What happens when children have complete control over themselves and their situation and all authority is cast out the window? Lord of the Flies documents just such a situation. The movie, adapted from William Golding's novel of the same name, is about a plane full of young British school boys that crash lands on an island. The pilot of the plane dies and the thirty something boys are left to fend for themselves and make their own rules. As lines are drawn and tribes are created and divided, chaos descends. This story delves into the dark and undisciplined, essentially animal side of the human mind. It's extremely dark and indeed frightening to watch the depths that unattended children sink to when they lose all control and authority.
The story William Golding created is an absolute incredible one that goes so much farther into the psyche of the adolescent than most dare to go. Unfortunately the film adaptation of this epic tale does not even begin to do the source material justice. It is a poorly executed attempt at bringing Golding's novel to a new medium. My biggest complaint with this film would have to be the acting. The direction is somewhat shoddy and the sound mixing is particularly frustrating (even though I read all the sound had to be overdubbed because the ocean drowned out everything while filming) but the acting is the biggest issue. The child actors all seem to regurgitate their lines, giving the film a stale feel without any substance to lines which are meant to be harrowing and dramatic. During the entire first and second act the acting is tense and feels very forced, whilst the actors are being completely unenthusiastic. In a film about children losing control and going absolutely mad with power and freedom, the acting should be much more restless and I kept thinking these kids needed to be more hyperactive and significantly less subdued.
Leading into the final act there is a very significant and very obvious shift in tone. The story turns from an innocent one about lost children, to a terrifying psychological study. It was here that the highlights of the film came from. There were some scenes that delivered in a dark and cynical way, and for that I can appreciate the effort only slightly more. After this dark turn the film started to improve at points, but then would seem to drop back down to that subdued level of lackluster acting. By the end of the film I felt robbed of what could have been a great adaptation of a fantastic story. But by the ending, which was still well done, I realized that the character relationships were still underdeveloped, as well as the underlying themes of the story. They weren't absent from the story, but they could have gone much further.
All the right elements are present in Lord of the Flies but they are all very underdeveloped and the film does not achieve its full potential. Poor acting and a lack of enthusiasm hurt an extremely well crafted psychological experience that had so much potential. A story like this could be amazing if done right, but when it isn't done right, everything goes horribly wrong. I was left very disappointed by this film adaptation.
The story William Golding created is an absolute incredible one that goes so much farther into the psyche of the adolescent than most dare to go. Unfortunately the film adaptation of this epic tale does not even begin to do the source material justice. It is a poorly executed attempt at bringing Golding's novel to a new medium. My biggest complaint with this film would have to be the acting. The direction is somewhat shoddy and the sound mixing is particularly frustrating (even though I read all the sound had to be overdubbed because the ocean drowned out everything while filming) but the acting is the biggest issue. The child actors all seem to regurgitate their lines, giving the film a stale feel without any substance to lines which are meant to be harrowing and dramatic. During the entire first and second act the acting is tense and feels very forced, whilst the actors are being completely unenthusiastic. In a film about children losing control and going absolutely mad with power and freedom, the acting should be much more restless and I kept thinking these kids needed to be more hyperactive and significantly less subdued.
Leading into the final act there is a very significant and very obvious shift in tone. The story turns from an innocent one about lost children, to a terrifying psychological study. It was here that the highlights of the film came from. There were some scenes that delivered in a dark and cynical way, and for that I can appreciate the effort only slightly more. After this dark turn the film started to improve at points, but then would seem to drop back down to that subdued level of lackluster acting. By the end of the film I felt robbed of what could have been a great adaptation of a fantastic story. But by the ending, which was still well done, I realized that the character relationships were still underdeveloped, as well as the underlying themes of the story. They weren't absent from the story, but they could have gone much further.
All the right elements are present in Lord of the Flies but they are all very underdeveloped and the film does not achieve its full potential. Poor acting and a lack of enthusiasm hurt an extremely well crafted psychological experience that had so much potential. A story like this could be amazing if done right, but when it isn't done right, everything goes horribly wrong. I was left very disappointed by this film adaptation.