Nudity! Murder! Barbarism! Hopelessness! Despair! ....
I still love every moment of the Lord of the Flies.

The Peter Brook version - 1963.

Funnily enough I was really looking forward to this - I read all Golding's novels (The Spire was my favourite) - and absolutely hated it. The children simply could not act; it was ghastly beyond all measure - I turned it off after 30 mins and went to sleep.

I think its one of those instances where the book is SO powerful that no film can do proper justice to it.

The thing to know about this film is that they just took a group of school boys who had no acting training at all and basically dumped them on an island, with a script. It was a kind of experiment, and this is what makes it work for me. I saw the American movie version, and that was very bad.

Yes I knew that PH and funnily enough now remember hating the film at the time.
On paper - clever idea; should have worked.
In reality - the lack of any acting ability whatsoever killed it and actually I thought it was pretty badly directed too.
Piggy was brilliantly cast though.
Sad about Ralph (check Google).
I must reread Golding (I was such a fan as a teen).
Bit like Richard Adams - I remember loving Shardik (he wrote much more than divine Watership Down and I loved his novels too).

And I adored Ursula La Guinn and Mary Renault at that age.
All rather forgotten now. There's your holiday reading PH unless your Russian genes make you stick to Tolstoy and Dosty!

JK2006 wrote:

On paper - clever idea; should have worked.


Eh? It seemed a stupid idea and there was no reason why it should have worked. You might as well put a monkey at a typewriter and ask it to type a great novel.

I actually liked the film first time around although it's a bit boring but the kids were good..and of course Piggy is wonderful. The idea is good.

The US remark was ghastly with all those American private school kids who should have been left to rot there.

another film I watched on Iplayer on the laptop while TV is running as well..fantastic for a person like me who can't concentrate on one film let alone two but as long as there is colour and movement and people talking. I recommend it...get in two mind numbing films or TV shows ..saves time.

I try to keep my Russian genes seriously under check.
I knew about James (Ralph). Some people had suggested he would have been a good Dr Who a few years ago. He certainly would have been different.
I still think the Peter Brook film is a classic and I enjoyed watching it again- although it helps to read the book first.