Lord of the Flies (1990 film)

Lord of the Flies
Directed by	Harry Hook
Produced by	Lewis M. Allen
Written by	Sara Schiff
Starring	Balthazar Getty Chris Furrh Danuel Pipoly
Music by	Philippe Sarde
Cinematography	Martin Fuhrer
Editing by	Harry Hook
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	March 16, 1990
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Lord of the Flies is a 1990 film adaptation of the classic novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding. It is the second film adaptation of the book, the first being the 1963 film Lord of the Flies.

Cast

• Balthazar Getty - Ralph
• Chris Furrh - Jack
• Danuel Pipoly - Piggy
• James Badge Dale - Simon
• Andrew Taft - Sam
• Edward Taft - Eric
• Gary Rule - Roger

Differences Between Book and Film

• The children are American boys from a military academy in the 1990 film rather than British boys from a private school as in the book. The 1963 film had the boys from Great Britain.
• Instead of a British officer finding the group, an American Navy officer does.
• The children are all ethnically diverse, as one boy wears a cross (indicating that he is a Christian), another wearing the Star of David (indicating a Jewish boy), and an African-American boy.
• The characters in the movie use harsher profanity than the characters in the book, and use profanity more frequently.
• Like the 1963 version (which also implied that the events took place over a short period of time), the boys' hair never grew too long.
• Instead of a dead parachutist playing the role of "the beast," Captain Benson plays it, who is found dead on the island days later.
• The Lord of the Flies never talks to Simon in the film, whereas the novel has Simon experiencing a hallucination in which it speaks to him.
• The killing of the mother sow is not shown, only the boys stabbing at something off-screen.
• Piggy does not make an emotional speech denouncing Jack and imagining a confrontation after the theft of the glasses.
• Ralph does not insult Piggy as much as in the novel.
• Simon has very few lines throughout the film.
• When Jack leaves the tribe, the whole re-election scene is left out, instead, he just leaves the tribe and asks who wants to come with him
• Piggy is not shown as intelligent, courageous and logical as he is in the book.
• In the film Piggy declares his name as Piggy, whereas in the novel he said he would prefer any name but Piggy.
• In the book the boys call the creature the "beast" but in the film they call it the "monster" instead.
• In the film Piggy dies due to the boulder thrown off of Castle Rock hitting him but in the book he falls off a cliff after being struck by the boulder.
• In the book, Ralph is described as having blond hair, and Jack as having red hair. Both characters have different hair colors in this adaptation.
• In the book the vote of the leader is a big deal, while in the film it is not, and the reason Ralph is voted leader in the film is because 'he's colonel', while in the book it is because he is bigger and has the conch.
• There was never an accordian washing up on the shore or any mention of the Russians or the Olympics

Reaction

Critics' reviews were generally mixed, and the film has "Fresh" 61% rating on the movie review scaling site Rotten Tomatoes.^[1] Some cited that the novel in general is somewhat dated and unsuitable for a remake. Roger Ebert remarked in his review that, "events take place every day on our mean streets that are more horrifying than anything the little monsters do to one another on Golding's island."^[2] Barrie Maxwell of DVD Verdict commented that the color of the island creates a more superficial atmosphere than the stark black and white of the previous version.^{[citation needed]} The film made only $13,985,225 domestically in 919 theaters.^{[citation needed]}

References