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Description: [IMG]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n217/gkline2004/lordofflies.jpg[/IMG]
Lord of the Flies (1990)
Directed by
Harry Hook
Writing credits
William Golding
Sara Schiff (screenplay)
Genre: Adventure / Drama / Horror / Thriller
Tagline: No parents. No teachers. No rules... No mercy.
Plot Outline: Stranded on an island, a group of schoolboys degenerate into savagery.
Cast:
Balthazar Getty .... Ralph
Chris Furrh .... Jack Merridew
Danuel Pipoly .... Piggy
James Badge Dale .... Simon (as Badgett Dale)
Andrew Taft .... Sam, Twin #1
Edward Taft .... Eric, Twin #2
Gary Rule .... Roger
Terry Wells .... Andy
Braden MacDonald .... Larry
Angus Burgin .... Greg
Martin Zentz .... Sheraton
Brian Jacobs .... Peter
Vincent Amabile .... Patterson
David Weinstein .... Mikey
Chuck Bell .... Steve
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Twenty-four American military cadets are stranded on a remote tropical island after their plane crashes. They manage to rescue the pilot, but he remains unconscious. Ralph is chosen to be the leader of the group. He immediately establishes order by having anyone who speaks hold a conch shell. The fragile equilibrium of the community is undermined when Jack challenges Ralph's leadership abilities. He eventually forms a hunting party and takes some of the boys with him to track down a wild boar that has been seen in the underbrush. While Piggy, an intellectual stands behind Ralph, many of the others leave when Jack sets up a rival camp.
Harry Hook directs this mesmerizing screen interpretation of Sir William Golding's Nobel Prize-winning novel. Shot in Jamaica, this version, unlike the 1963 film by Peter Brook, makes the island into a major character in the tale. With startling impact, the story charts the boys' casual descent into savagery. Golding's theme of "tracing the defects of society back to the defects of human nature" comes across vividly as the boys succumb to scapegoating and violence. Anyone who doubts that the " wilding" capacity resides within us all should experience Lord of the Flies. It is a testament about human nature, tempation and sin.
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I thought the opening scene was brilliant - the raft bursting out of the water and scaring the hell out of the kids got me straight into the film. The locations are spectacular - the scenery literally took my breath away. I was most impressed by the use of photography in this film - much better than the 1963 version.
Anyway, back to the point. This is a strikingly-made adaption of the novel. The characters, particularly Ralph, aren't always true to the book, but they were developed very well. Jack's transformation from a civilized teen to a savage brute is brilliant - and Ralph's relationship with Piggy is strengthened to a bond which is only broken by Piggy's death at the hands of mayhem. Another element I loved and thought extremely ingenious was having the pilot survive, and ultimately, take the place of the parachutist who "drops in" on the boys in the book and 1963 version. If the boys can survive a plane crash in the middle of the ocean, then why not the pilot? The only thing I found annoying about this change was that he floundered about like a lost puppy after recovering from his fever - then ultimately wound up being murdered by one of Jack's posse (Roger?).
The use of the dream sequences, I thought, was done extremely well. Ralph's hallucination of a helicopter spotting them on the island, only to blow up as it passes them, had me gasping in awe. What brilliant film-making. Simon's dream was also very haunting - the young boy witnesses the pilot, Captain Benson, announcing they are about to be rescued and are "going home", then wakes up to find the pilot still unconscious with sickness.
The music that accompanies the film is a masterpiece on its own. Every piece brilliantly sets the tone and mood of the film and gives a great feel of the emotions the boys are feeling. Particularly amazing is the music heard during the scene where Simon discovers Captain Benson's body, and his own subsequent death.
And of course, the mood during the film is absolutely true to the novel, even if the events taking place aren't. The "dance" Jack's "tribe" performs in front of a disbelieving Ralph and Piggy enforces the utter breakdown of law and order on the island and the dark forces operating within the boys. It is obvious that the notions applied in the novel - that the real monster is inside each and every one of us - is present here.
The ending is superb. The chase scene is executed masterfully, often in slow motion, amongst the raging flames of the fires Ralph has set in hope of being spotted by a passing ship. The emotion displayed by both good (Ralph) and evil (Jack and his tribe) is absolutely real, climaxing with Ralph tripping over a log to land smack-bang in front of a marine officer. What better way to snatch away the breakdown and decay on the island, and of the aforementioned chase, than having a group of marines spotting the fires and landing to investigate, only to discover Jack and his tribe ready to kill Ralph and immediately snap them back to reality. The acting here is top-notch. Jack's reaction to the naval officer is one of complete believability - he suddenly realizes that his dream world on the island has come crashing down and now there is an adult to take charge of things and put an end to his rain of terror. The marine officer (played by the brilliant Bob Peck) is a fitting model to the awful truth that society has its rules and boundaries.
And what better way to finish the film than with a long shot of a second helicopter approaching the island, ready to land and further emphasize the return of the boys to the "real world"?
Wonderful.
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I don't know what it is with all the reviewers who seem to enjoy smashing this Hollywood remake of the 1960s version to pieces. Apparently they can't stand this adaptation for a more modern audience who - like me - found the earlier version technically poor, acted very poorly, and going at a stultifying pace guaranteed to put you to sleep long before the end. Yes, there's maybe a bit too much swearing in this version, and it takes several liberties with the scenario, in sharp contrast to the slavishly faithful earlier adaptation, but my feeling is that many reviewers failed to consider, for one thing, that this is an American adaptation made for an American audience and so, naturally, the Britishness of the story simply had to go out the window. Everyone does what they're best at, right? Having said this, it's time to point out why this version is actually, although far from a masterpiece, not so bad at all, certainly when compared to its predecessor: 1. It's in colour, and technically - sound, camera work, musical score - superior to it
2. It still has all the main themes and ideas of the novel despite the changes to the book plot
3. While none are for the clearly worse, several changes are actually for the better. Take the 'beast' who in the original comes falling out of the sky. In this one he's actually from among the boys, but unrecognizable, and so fitting in much better with the 'evil inside' theme (Simon: "what if there's no beast, what if it's just us"?)
4. The acting is infinitely better. Jack (and Ralph) may swear a lot but they are - and look - also very natural in their roles compared with the overall stilted acting in the other one. And Piggy - his glasses may be over-sized, but his performance is memorable. He is readily identifiable with, something that the 1963 Piggy never managed to achieve. (BTW It would have been nice to hear the 'dialogue' between Simon and the Lord of the Flies but this would have sounded ridiculous to anyone not acquainted with the book, so it was a wise decision to leave that out in both versions)
5. It seems to me that if you really wanted to adapt this novel to the screen and reach a larger audience you'd probably have to compromise even more in terms of authenticity. The story is just damn difficult to transfer, therefore this version does not deserve the kind of 'purist' criticism leveled at it on these pages. It's more entertaining and still thought provoking, and that was likely what the makers set out to create - it would be unfair to expect more than that, and the older version definitely falls short on the first of those counts.
[IMG]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n217/gkline2004/11m.jpg[/IMG]
Size: 700Mb
Output codec: XviD
Resolution: 720x400 ( AR: 1.80 )
Audio: English AC3 2ch
Subtitles: none
Format: AVI
ripped by gkline
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