Lord Of The Flies [1963]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
In this classic 1963 adaptation of William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, a planeload of schoolboys are stranded on a tropical island. They've got food and water; all that's left is to govern themselves peacefully until they are rescued. "After all", says choir leader Jack, "We're English. We're the best in the world at everything!" Unfortunately, living peacefully is not as easy as it seems. Though Ralph is named chief, Jack and the choristers quickly form a clique of their own, using the ever-effective political promise of fun rather than responsibility to draw converts. Director Peter Brook draws some excellent performances out of his young cast: the moment when Ralph realises that even if he blows the conch for a meeting people might not come is an excruciating one. Well acted and faithfully executed, Lord of the Flies is as compelling today as when first released. --Ali Davis

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-03-08 rating:
The definitive film of Lord of the Flies
Worthy restoration edition of this mostly forgotten film, with extras and director commentary. There's a whole generation who have never read the book or seen the film, unless it's on their GCSE topics list. Look around and see what's happening in inner cities today and you realise that this film is more relevant now than when it came out in '63. Don't blame the production team for the choppy editing or limited character development; that was the fault of the distributors who wanted a 90 minute film, not the two hours the director intended. It would be impossible to make a film as close as this to the book now. Don't even look at the '93 remake, its hopeless.

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review by: date: 2008-01-17 rating:
classic
The novel is one of the great books of the 20th century, and in the nature of things, one might have thought it impossible to film (like Lolita) because you have to get children to do unchildlike things. How Peter Brook brought it off is a mystery (with great difficulty, as he explains, as the children really did revert to savagery, and far quicker than Golding feared). But he did bring it off, and the result is very powerful. A really great film.

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review by: sea view date: 2007-09-14 rating:
Classic brilliance
All the family enthralled by this Black and wHITE CLASSIC MY 2 boys aged 8 and 11 ENGROSSED.
I had seen it many years ago for book study at school.
The power,pathos, I will say no more, remain.
Could watch again one for the collection as I expect it will be back on the curriculum again.

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review by: almac1975 date: 2007-06-21 rating:
a classic ; a justly famous film
To make this film, Peter Brook took a group of schoolboys to a tropical island and worked with them through improvisation to try to replicate the naturalness so well captured by Golding in his famous novel. Largely, he succeeded. The film does have its patchy moments but it is, as a whole, very powerful and very compelling. All of the central roles are well cast - Ralph reasonable and fair but struggling with the demands of leadership when things begin to fall apart, Jack eager, domineering and capable of dangerously over-excited behaviour, Piggy vulnerable, plodding, intelligent and strangely mature, Simon fey and weird but closer to the heart of truth than any of them. The film is in black and white, continuity is sometimes a little abrupt, a few of the lines are ineptly delivered, the special effects of the plane crash at the beginning are frankly primitive, but all the important things are right, which is why this is so very very much better than the much more sophisticated but much weaker American remake. It's a unique film of a unique novel, and it fully does justice to its source.


review by: huw-mungus date: 2006-07-19 rating:
brilliant!
im 15 years old and my english group has read the book and both film interpritaations and i must say this was by far the best film. unlike the american version which lacked much detail, this version is very accurate to the book and you can follow many of the scenes with the book itself. although its 40 years old and black and white the scene were very clear and it was very easy to pick up who characters were. so if somebody has read the book and wants to watch a film. i recomend this one.

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