Lord of the Flies (1963)

Even if one likes literature and reads all the time high school English classes can be frustrating.  Most curriculums have a certain number of named books and short stories that must be taught to students.  One of those is Shakespeare and, to be honest, as much as I love the Bard most of that love came after having a smattering of experience with learning the actual history of the English language and enough experience reading other English works of the time so that the language Shakespeare wrote in could be understood properly.  He may have been writing for the common man, but so are most playwrights and novelists, and it is sometimes difficult for students to understand a book written in the 1950s, much less the latter part of the 16th century. 

There were exceptions to the rule when it came to slogging through a national education consensus on what constitutes a classic.  Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", for instance, and Victor Hugo's Les miserables were highlights from AP English - even if Hugo was French - as is, of course, William Golding's Lord of the Flies.  Golding's book appealed to me in some ways because there is a science fiction aspect to it, much as 1984 or Brave New World nominally could be classed in that genre, but it was also one of the first books that introduced me to philosophy on a level that a teenager could understand.  It's extremely pessimistic in its portrayal of human nature, which makes it appealing to the typical disaffected adolescent.  It is also a well-written piece of literature, devoid of many pretentions, and works as a dark adventure story as well.  It is no surprise that it also translated well into a movie version, even if some of the deeper parts of the book had to be glossed over.

As tensions rise and World War III begins children in boarding schools are evacuated from the urban areas of England to avoid a potential new Blitz.  One plane of school children, enroute to one of the British colonies in the Pacific, crashes on a deserted island.  The first two we meet are Ralph (James Aubrey) and a boy known as Piggy  (Hugh Edwards), due to being overweight and not athletic like most of his fellow students.  They find a conch on the beach and, after Ralph blows it, the other surviving children arrive, including a group of older boys from a religious school led by Jack (Tom Chapin).  

It soon becomes apparent that there are pigs on the island as well as plenty of fruit and water, so basic survival needs are met.  Ralph is elected chief, and they immediately go about building shelters as well as a signal fire for any passing boats or aircraft, while Jack and his mates volunteer to hunt for food.  Tensions begin when the hunt becomes the focus and Jack lets the fire burn out shortly before a jet plane passes over, thus missing a chance for rescue.  There is also a concern that something dangerous may be on the island, as a young boy named Percival (Kent Fletcher) claims to have seen a beast.  What to do about the beast, and how to govern, soon leads to a divide between Jack and Ralph, with Jack making the beast and hunting a focal point.  Meanwhile, Simon (Tom Gaman), suffering from PTSD due to the crash, soon begins to figure out the truth behind the beast as well as the madness that Jack is spreading. 

Director and screenwriter Peter Brook largely sticks with Golding's book, hitting all the main plot points save removing Simon's inner dialogue with the titular Lord of the Flies, a pig's head on a stake left by Jack to appease the beast.  The title of the book refers to that as well as Beelzebub, one of Lucifer's major demons, that often sows discord among humans.  Despite much of this symbolically having to do with what happens in the story, the removal doesn't affect the movie much as the main point of the book - that human nature will always lead to conflict and death and that civilization is thin veneer that disguises our animalistic nature - is still very much on display.  

It was the way that Brook went about it that was different.  Over 60 hours of footage was shot with the child actors largely improvising, whittling it down to the 92 minutes of movie that was presented.  It is a similar process to many found footage movies today, except that Brook, though not specifically scripting the lines, still followed the events of the story.  Since many of the children did not come from acting backgrounds, nor had any desire to pursue one afterward, there are different levels of skill on display, but not in the annoying way of the more saccharine kids movies.  Like the book, even though the protagonists and antagonists are all young boys, it is still not a movie for children.

As for the famous conceit of Golding's, apparently much of his belief was due to his own conflicts, some of the more controversial of which have come out since his death.  He apparently tried to experiment in some ways to see if the outcome would be similar to the book he had planned.  One actual incident, involving a group of Tongan kids who stole a fishing boat and got stranded, proved just the opposite of Lord of the Flies.  Where in the book the society devolves within weeks (in the movie it feels like days), in reality a group of kids were able to survive and flourish for 15 months before rescue came.  It makes one think that, as long as resource competition doesn't come into play, that humans have some innate ability to cooperate in order to survive.  Still, Golding's ideas have formed the basis for many modern stories, including pretty much the whole of The Walking Dead television series.

The only really annoying thing about the movie is the audio.  Because of the location filming there was too much background noise to properly capture the voices on site, so the actors' lines were re-recorded, often from memory, on a nightly basis to be dubbed in later.  While the accents aren't a challenge, much of the recording after all these years is still a bit on the bright, tinny side, making the children's voices seem unnatural.  It could be a bit of contention for modern audiences, but otherwise the movie itself stands the test of time better than the 1990 version.

Lord of the Flies (1963)

Time: 92 minutes

Starring: James Aubrey, Hugh Edwards, Tom Chapin, Tom Gaman

Director: Peter Brook