Lord of the Flies (1990)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Harry Hook

Writers (WGA):

William Golding (novel)
Sara Schiff (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 March 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

No parents. No teachers. No rules... No mercy.

Plot:

Stranded on an island, a group of schoolboys degenerate into savagery.

Plot Keywords:

Boy | Island | Savagery | Plane Crash | Reverse Footage

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Balthazar Getty	...	Ralph
Chris Furrh	...	Jack Merridew
Danuel Pipoly	...	Piggy
James Badge Dale	...	Simon (as Badgett Dale)
Andrew Taft	...	Sam, Twin #1
Edward Taft	...	Eric, Twin #2
Gary Rule	...	Roger
Terry Wells	...	Andy
Braden MacDonald	...	Larry
Angus Burgin	...	Greg
Martin Zentz	...	Sheraton
Brian Jacobs	...	Peter
Vincent Amabile	...	Patterson
David Weinstein	...	Mikey
Chuck Bell	...	Steve

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Norway:15 | Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Spain:13 | Finland:K-15 | Portugal:M/16 | Italy:T | Australia:M | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Canada:A (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

Hamakua Coast, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Balthazar Getty fell from a tree in Tarzana, California just a few weeks prior to beginning filming and broke both his wrists. The director still stood by him and decided to write his injuries into the script and have his character Ralph in an arm-sling for half of the film while Getty healed.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During one of the signal fire scenes shot at dusk the fire can be seen burning in reverse, flames backing in towards the fire instead of shooting out from it.

Quotes:

Tony: What are we gonna do with thieves when we catch them?
Ralph: We can't have kids stealing and just running wild. We're going to have to have stricter rules and hand out demerits... I guess.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

A Society Without Perspectives and Rules

After a plane crash in the ocean, a group of military students reach an island. The boy Ralph (Balthazar Getty) organizes the other kids, assigning responsibilities for each one. When the rebel Jack Merridew (Chris Furrh) neglects the fire camp and they lose the chance to be seen by a helicopter, the group split under the leadership of Jack. While Ralph rationalizes the survival procedures, Jack returns to the primitivism, using the fear for the unknown (in a metaphor to the religion) and hunger to control the other boys. His group starts hunting and chasing pigs, stealing the possession of Ralph's group and even killing people.

I found this impressive movie very scary, since it shows the behavior of children (and human beings) fighting to survive in a society without perspective and rules. My immediate association was with my and other Third World countries, where many children are abandoned by the Government in their poor communities, and without education, perspectives in life and laws, become very young criminals working in gangs of drug dealers and thieves. In this movie, it is exposed how primitive a kid can be without the authority and respect, and this sort of violence is in the headlines of our newspapers almost every day. There are many discussion presently in Brazil about juvenile criminality. I have never the chance of reading this visionary novel; therefore I can not comment is it is a good or a bad adaptation, but I found this movie a frightening study of characters and sociology. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Senhor das Moscas" ("The Lord of the Flies")