Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Harry Hook's adaptation is not as faithful to the William Golding novel as you'd wish (they excised the Lord of the Flies dialogue with Simon!) and because of it, the movie is less allegorical and less resonant. A group of young men from a military academy are stranded on an island. The group quickly becomes fractious with a passive section led by Ralph, trying to get rescued, and a hunter faction, led by Jack, trying to procure meat and "have fun." Peter Brook's 1963 filming seemed to get closer to the Darwinist sense of this cultural disintegration. Here, the hunter faction seems more like Peter Pan's Lost Boys than the bloodthirsty murderers they are. The performances, particularly young Getty, don't quite carry the weight of the situation. It's still, however, sobering to slowly watch the school uniforms traded for war paint, and the little boys turn into little savages. --Keith Simanton

Director(s): Peter Brook
Production: Nelson Entertainment
  3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.4
Rotten Tomatoes:
63%
Unrated
Year:
1990
90
3,543 Views

Ralph:
The reason I'm calling this assembly is, too much people are screwing around when they should be working. I mean there's a bunch of things. Some kids don't even know when to use the bathroom.

Tony:
Yeah. There's this one kid, the other day he took a sh*t in his pants and then sat in it! I'm not naming names because it's possible, Mikey couldn't help it!

[The boys laugh and tease Mikey]

Piggy:
Everybody shut those goddamn mouths! Ralph's got the conch!

Ralph:
All I mean is we have to have more discipline, and more spearfishing. We've gotta have real food.

Rapper:
[Offscreen] We should be hunting pigs

Ralph:
That's all I got to say. Anyone else want the conch?

Luke:
Some jerk-off stole my pocketknife.

Steve:
Yeah, things are disappearing all over.

Will:
What are we gonna do with thieves when we catch 'em?

[The boys all start all shouting out their opinions]

Tony:
Shove their dick in the conch!

Sam:
Put a stick up their butt! Ram it in there!

Ralph:
OK, OK! We can't have kids stealing and just running wild. We're gonna have to have stricter rules. And hand out demerits, I guess.

[The boys scoff and joke at the idea]

Roger:
Demerits?

Rapper:
Demerits for grand larceny?

Will:
Eat sh*t and die!

Jack:
[Pumping a fist in the air] YEAH!

[The boys all continue laughing out of excitement. Peter goes up to Ralph, and the boys all stop]

Peter:
Sir?

[Ralph looks at Peter]

Peter:
Are we ever going home?

Ralph:
Of course we are. As soon as they see our signal.

Peter:
Jack says that we're never gonna be rescued.

Ralph:
No, you misunderstood him, that's not what he meant.

Jack:
That's exactly what I meant. There's eight million islands out here. Why should they find this one?

Ralph:
[To Peter] Don't listen to him. We will be rescued, Peter, honest.

[Ralph and Piggy walk to Castle Rock together to retrieve Piggy's glasses. Ralph with a spear, and Piggy with a stick to help him walk]

Roger:
Halt! Who goes there!

[Will whistles, and Tex joins him and Roger to look down the cliff at Ralph and Piggy]

Ralph:
Don't be stupid, you know who we are! We brought the conch and I'm calling an assembly! Where's Jack?!

Jack:
What do you want now?!

Ralph:
You heard me! We brought the conch and I'm calling an assembly!

Jack:
Why don't you two just f*** off?! This is my end and my tribe! Keep to your own end!

Ralph:
You're the one that won't keep to your own end! Tearing up our camp and stealing Piggy's glasses! You've gotta give 'em back!

Jack:
Got to?! Who says?!

Ralph:
I do!

[Jack walks towards Ralph with his spear]

Ralph:
Piggy can't see! If you wanted to have a fire all you had to do was ask!

Jack:
I don't have to ask!

[Jack whacks his spear onto Ralph's. The two start fighting. The boys standing on the cliff slope cheer on for Jack. Ralph jumps right at Jack, and the two continue fighting without the spears. Piggy watches them, still currently sightless. Ralph kicks Jack, and the conch blows, ending the fight. Jack and Ralph look at the blower:
Piggy, who then blows again]

Piggy:
I've got the conch! Let me speak!

Tony:
Get out of here, Piggy!

[Jack pushes Piggy's arm, and walks back to the slope. Above, Will and Roger are chucking stones]

Ralph:
Stop that, Roger! Let Piggy speak!

[Will wolf-whistles. All the boys on the slope start simultaneously berating Piggy]

Piggy:
Please! This is serious!

Tony:
Get out, fat ass.

Luke:
Go away.

Tony:
Go back to your own camp!

Piggy:
[As the other boys are still berating him] What I wanna say is...if we don't get rescued...we might have to live here for a long time!

Tony:
Shut up!

Piggy:
Maybe the rest of our lives!

[Roger put his spear to one side]

Piggy:
If we are stuck here until we get old, then we can't go on acting like kids!

[Ralph looks up at Roger]

Piggy:
We've gotta be sensible and make things work!

[Roger pushes the boulder off the cliff]

Ralph:
NOOOO!!!!!

[The boulder smacks Piggy in the head, and blood appears. His stick and the conch both fall out of his hands. He falls back onto the ground. Ralph looks down at Piggy, then at Jack, then up at Roger, and then back at Piggy. Piggy lies still on the ground, head covered in blood, and his wide open eyes have gone from unseeing to sightless. Ralph feels his chest. Piggy's heart doesn't beat. Ralph looks at Jack, very anxiously]

Ralph:
[To Jack] You're not gonna get away with this.

Jack:
Yeah? And what are you gonna do? Huh? What are you gonna do about it?

[Ralph still looks at Jack, shocked as he does so]

Jack:
You're out of it pal, you're on your own!

[Jack picks up a rock and chucks it towards Ralph. The other boys on the slope do the same, as does Roger. Ralph runs away, as Will chucks a stone towards him. Ralph dodges them all as he runs]


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