Lord of the Flies - Criterion Collection

Amazon.com

In this classic 1963 adaptation of William Golding's novel, a planeload of schoolboys is stranded on a tropical island. They've got food and water; all that's left is to peacefully govern themselves until they're 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 realizes 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

Description

Lord of the Flies is famed theater director Peter Brook's daring translation of William Golding's brilliant novel. The story of 30 English schoolboys stranded on an uncharted island at the start of the "next" war, Lord of the Flies is a seminal film of the New American Cinema and a fascinating anti-Hollywood experiment in location filmmaking. As the cast relived Golding's frightening fable, Brook found the cinematic "evidence" of the author's terrifying thesis: there is a beast in us all.

Customer Reviews:

Blah........2007-05-01

The point, I think, of making a novel into a movie is to take the text and replace it with a visual. In this case, and in most cases, all the awesome good bits of the text are butchered in the name of artisitc license. Well "boo" to that! I cringe when my students ask to see the movie after we read the book, because it's just not the same. Where's the part with Simon and the head? And what's the deal with the parachutist? Those are important elements of the text that are either glossed over, mangled, or removed completely. I object to such tinkering with greatness! The merit in such films is only to encourage students to write reviews or to compare/contrast. Any other use, such as a substitution for the text, is not reccomended. Rhetorical question: Why don't film makers create a real version of the text? Enough said. Just read the book.

Fly No Further.......2007-01-19

If you are looking for the definitive theatrical version of "Lord of the Flies", here it is. All essential thematic elements are included without laboring over miscellaneous detail. Sure, it could be longer to include every detail from the novel, but it loses nothing at its current length. I found it very useful as a follow up to classroom study, and my students adjusted well to the black and white presentation. You know it hits the mark when you need to pass out Kleenex, after Simon and Piggy's deaths, to a jaded bunch of ninth graders. Worth the investment!!

One of a Kind, a True Classic.......2006-07-17

"We're Englishmen, and the English do everything right!" one of the choirboys says soon after finding themselves on the island. From then on, it's a steady degeneration into savagery. I saw Lord of the Flies (and read the Golding novel) when it first came out in the '60's, and it keeps getting better everytime I see it. There are just so many memorable images: "Piggy", the nerdy kid with the shattered glasses lens; flies buzzing around the hog's head impaled on a stick; the "Beast", etc. This is great story telling, and the kids' characters are so well delineated. Low budget and filmed entirely on location, the camera crew had to be very resourceful in overcoming obstactles. (Speaking of budgets... Criterion Editions does great work, but there's no reason to charge 40 bucks for this DVD. The transfer is excellent, but it's no better than an earlier issue on videotape put out by another outfit.) In special features, the filmakers discuss how they discovered an ingenious use of the zoom lens, a relatively new gadget at that time. (The effect is not the cheesy zoom in/zoom outs used ad nauseum on '70's TV shows.) An "indie" film of sorts, Lord of the Flies was filmed in black and white, but then, so were classics like On the Waterfront, To Kill a Mocking Bird and The Haunting. Technicolor film was very expensive, and you didn't want to leave too much of it on the cutting room floor. The '90's version is OK, but I think the film makers erred in making the kids military school students. The seed of violence has already been planted, and it's not so far a leap to savagery.

The Power of the Conch.......2006-07-07

We were handed paperback copies of Sir William Golding's novel in my seventh grade class back in 1973, and it was not until three years later when I saw the 1963 movie. The plot was about thirty or so British schoolboys, ages 6 to 13, whose plane crashes in the South Pacific Ocean and were the only survivors. They came ashore on a small uncharted, uninhabited tropical island where survival and the hopes of being rescued took precedence. While the pilot perished in the crash, there were no other adults and the boys were left to fend for themselves.

The task was left to two of the oldest boys, Ralph and Jack. Ralph did his best to keep order with the younger boys where survival was the key by building shelters and gathering food. They would also build a fire as a signal to alert any passing ship or plane. While exploring the island and walking along the surf, Ralph and a fat, nearsighted boy, suffering from asthma, named Piggy stumbled upon a conch washed up on the shore. To Ralph the conch was an important symbol that whoever held onto it had the power to speak.

During their isolation on the island, the boys managed to get along until Jack, a choirboy who initially proclaimed that the British people were the most civilized on earth, wanted to have fun and hunt since the island was inhabited by wild pigs. This led to a falling out between him and Ralph, and two separate factions ensued. Jack's group were mainly other choirboys who split away from the main group, settling on one part of the island where they would engage in savagery with painted faces and long hair. Aside from Piggy, Ralph's group included a boy named Simon, two twins named Sam'n'Eric and some of the smaller boys that were called "littleuns".
The longer the two groups remained, hostilities between them grew more and more.

Since no adults were present, one fear they faced was that of "the Beast". Jack's group was determined to hunt down the beast, and the nightly rituals was dancing around the fire and chanting, "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"

The trauma was that of a weak Simon who happened to stumble upon one of these rituals and was killed by Jack's group. His bloodied body thrown into the sea. The traumas continued as Jack's attention turned toward Ralph's group. The need for Piggy's spectacles to start fires was one thing and finishing off Ralph was another. Piggy would later be killed by a boulder falling on top of him and the conch smashed into worthless pieces. Sam'n'Eric would be apprehended and forced into Jack's group. This led to the littleuns abandoning Ralph as well.

Ralph, now alone, was in fear for his own life. Jack's goal now was to hunt him down and kill him, even if it meant smoking him out by burning the entire island. While Jack and his group were in pursuit, Ralph ran as fast as he could until he stumbled on the beach and would look up at a naval officer who happened to come ashore with a rescue party.

The plot in the film came very close to that of the novel. There was a remake of "Lord of the Flies" in 1990 that, to me, did not make any impression. The plot was altered where American boys from a military school faced similar situations. As for the 1963 film, I find it a classic not one worth missing.

Don't Let the Pig Speak to You! Unnoticed cinematography!.......2006-06-05

This film is truly a masterpiece! Unless you're so up on your research, or unless you watched the extra stuff on the DVD, you'd have no idea that it was probably the first big picture which used a zoom lens! Many of the camera shots were extremely complicated since the producers had to invent and tinker around until they could make temporary dolly mechanisms with proper tracks that worked for their sets in Puerto Rico. Dialogue had to be done separately almost every time sinc eethe soun of the sea was so loud and since our video technolgoy was not so advanced. (I don't know of advanced technology can even block the sound of the sea out.) Long, hot hours for all 1st time actors and film people- most people involved in the film didn't realize at the time that the film was risky- limited time slot- all the students hasd to miss 1 month of school, not a day more, and summer vacation.

Another interesting factoid is that this film for the Premier release had the sound all backwards, and it was fixed and played correctly all on time in 1.5 hours. A police escort was provided to have the reel shipped to a UK theater.

The DVD has a "movie version" where Golding himself reads an abridged version of his book while the entire movie plays. There's also another "movie version" where directors and other staff make various comments on the movie. Listening to the readings is probably good enough for "cliff notes" though I would not recommend ever readign only the cliff notes or just watching the video. The book is too good to just read the cliff notes only, and that accentuates the video only more. One thing to noe though is that Golding's readings do not always match up with what is being shown in the movie itself.

In this original version, the pig does not talk because they had to remove many scenes. Most of the scenes removed were due to the film being too long, but the pig talking portion may've been removed because it may have been too hard for people to handle at the time. Even now, the movie's content is questionable for a rating because it's young male children living as savages, and sometimes there are captures with very little clothes. You never see the front when someone is totally undressed, but there may be a quick flash or two or things that you can't really see distinctly. This movie is definitely NOT sexual, but if you are looking for a clean, pure movie, non-realistic movie, or if you are vegetarian, this is probably not a good movie for you to watch.

This version of the movie is very different than the 1990 version, as 1990 is in color, and this version is more raw and more real like Survivor minus all the hype and silliness. I don't remember if Piggy's real name is even mentioned in the book or the 1990 version, but it's definitely not in this version. Most people would say this version is critically much better than the 1990 version as the 1990 version strips away the fact that about half of the boys are from a choir school. American actors will tend to act different than actors from various countries with a UK background, and since the book was written from a UK perspective, in this sense, the 1990 movie loses that degree of originality from the book. There have been other "versions" of the movie, and one mentioned in the extra stuff on this DVD that was so offkilter that they wouldn't even name it "Lord of the Flies." This particular version mentioned even had girls in it and a very happy ending. This is a movie of true value, substance, and realism.

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)

Average customer rating:

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)
Starring: Joel McCrea , Fay Wray , Leslie Banks , Robert Armstrong , and Noble Johnson
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack , Irving Pichel , and David Lean
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Drama | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

Boxed Sets | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

All | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0002JELNQ
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Description

Great Expectations: One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean's, Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens' masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean's magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and designed by John Bryan. Lord of the Flies: Lord of the Flies is famed theater director Peter Brook's daring translation of William Golding's brilliant novel. The story of 30 English schoolboys stranded on an uncharted island at the start of the "next" war, Lord of the Flies is a seminal film of the New American Cinema and a fascinating anti-Hollywood experiment in location filmmaking. As the cast relived Golding's frightening fable, Brook found the cinematic "evidence" of the author's terrifying thesis: there is a beast in us all. The Most Dangerous Game: "One of the best and most literate movies from the great days of horror," The Most Dangerous Game stars Leslie Banks as a big game hunter with a taste for the world's most exotic prey—his houseguests, played by Fay Wray and Joel McCrea. Before making history with 1933's King Kong, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack wowed audiences with their chilling adaptation of this Richard Connell short story. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of The Most Dangerous Game in a new digital transfer. Oliver Twist: Expressionistic noir photography suffuses David Lean's Oliver Twist with a nightmarish quality, fitting its bleak, industrial setting. In Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.

DVD:

DVD

DVD