Movie Reviews: The Lord Of The Flies (Director Peter Brook - 1963)

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

Original title: Lord of the Flies

Director: Peter Brook

Country and year of production: United Kingdom, 1963

Running time: 90 minutes (approx. 1 hour and 30 minutes)

Main cast:

James Aubrey (Ralph)

Tom Chapin (Jack Merridew)

Hugh Edwards (Piggy)

Tom Gaman (Simon)

GENRE

The film primarily belongs to the following genres:

Drama

Adventure (with dystopian and psychological elements)

PLOT

Overall theme of the film

The rapid regression of human nature from a civilized state to barbarism and primordial savagery, explored through the behavior of a group of schoolboys stranded from the adult world.

Initial situation

During an unspecified nuclear war, a plane transporting a group of British schoolboys is shot down. The boys find themselves as the sole survivors on a deserted Pacific island, devoid of any adult supervision. Ralph, a charismatic boy, and Piggy, an intelligent but frail youth, find a conch shell and use it to gather all the survivors. During an initial assembly, Ralph is elected leader and establishes the first rules for survival, emphasizing the need to keep a signal fire burning on top of the mountain to alert passing ships.

Development

The initial order breaks down due to the growing rivalry between Ralph and Jack Merridew, the leader of the school choir, who rejects discipline and prioritizes hunting wild pigs over maintaining the signal fire. As time passes, an irrational fear of a hypothetical "beast" lurking on the island fuels superstition and anxiety among the boys.

Jack exploits this fear to gain the upper hand: he forms a separate tribe based on brute force, hunting rituals, and blind obedience. Most of the boys abandon Ralph to join Jack, regressing into a savage state marked by face paint and tribal dances. During a paranoid ritual, the group mistakes Simon—the only one who had discovered that the "beast" was merely the corpse of a dead parachutist—for the creature and beats him to death with their bare hands. Shortly after, Jack's tribe attacks Ralph and Piggy to steal Piggy's glasses, which are essential for lighting fires. 

During a confrontation, Piggy is struck by a boulder rolled down by one of Jack's followers, falling off the cliffs to his death.

Conclusion

Left entirely alone, Ralph becomes the target of a ruthless manhunt ordered by Jack to eliminate him permanently. The tribe sets the island's vegetation on fire to smoke him out. Exhausted and hunted onto the beach, Ralph collapses at the feet of a British Naval officer, who has landed on the island with his men after seeing the smoke from the wildfire. The arrival of the adults rescues Ralph and halts the violence, but faced with restored civilization, the boys burst into tears, fully aware of their lost innocence and the savagery they proved capable of. Between the beginning and the end of the story, several months elapse.

Origin of the story

Based on a book (the 1954 novel of the same name by Nobel laureate William Golding).

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES

Narrative structure:

Told in chronological order

Narrative timeframe:

Spans several months

CHARACTERS

Protagonist: Ralph

Demographics and physical traits: Around 12 years old, English, handsome, blonde, slim, and athletic.

Social and cultural background: Middle-class student, son of a Naval officer; well-mannered and accustomed to civil order.

Psychological profile: Represents reason, democracy, and civilization. He attempts to maintain order through shared rules and the hope of rescue, but struggles with the burden of leadership and the growing irrationality of the other boys.

Antagonist: Jack Merridew

Demographics and physical traits: Around 12–13 years old, English, tall, thin, with red hair and light eyes.

Social and cultural background: Head of the school choir, an authoritative figure accustomed to command and strict discipline.

Psychological profile: Represents raw instincts, violence, and totalitarianism. He holds democratic rules in contempt and manipulates the other boys' fears by offering protection and meat in exchange for absolute submission.

Other Key Characters

Piggy

Demographics and physical traits: Around 12 years old, English, overweight, nearsighted (wears thick glasses), and asthmatic.

Social and cultural background: Lower-class background compared to the others (raised by his aunt), highly educated, logical, and pragmatic.

Psychological profile: Represents scientific thought and intellect. Despite his intelligence, he is constantly marginalized and mocked for his physical appearance. He serves as the protagonist's (Ralph's) loyal helper and moral compass.

Simon

Demographics and physical traits: Around 11–12 years old, thin, dark-haired, with a frail build.

Social and cultural background: Student, member of the choir.

Psychological profile: A spiritual, empathetic, and introverted figure. He is the only one who understands the true nature of the "beast"—that it is not an external creature, but the inherent flaw inside human hearts.

FILMMAKING & LANGUAGE

The narrator is: External (the camera observes events in the third person with a near-documentary style).

The editing pace is: Fast and driving (particularly during hunting and ritual sequences, contrasted with occasional contemplative moments).

Special effects: Absent (the film relies on natural lighting and real locations).

The soundtrack: Original score (composed by Raymond Leppard, featuring heavy use of tribal percussion and choral chanting).

Filming locations: Shot outdoors on location (filmed almost entirely on the islands of Vieques and Culebra in Puerto Rico).

THEMES AND MESSAGE

Key Themes

The fragility of civilization: The film demonstrates that civil rules are merely a thin veil covering human primitive instincts.

The nature of evil: Evil is not an external entity or a mythical monster, but an inherent tendency within every human being.

The loss of innocence: Childhood is not depicted as a mythical state of pure innocence, but as a stage vulnerable to the same destructive impulses found in adults.

Democracy vs. Authoritarianism: A direct conflict between Ralph's cooperative leadership model and Jack's tyranny driven by fear.

The Film's Message

Peter Brook conveys a deeply pessimistic view of human nature: without institutions, laws, and a firm moral foundation, humanity rapidly slips into chaos and savagery. The ending is particularly tragic: the rescue by adults does not represent a true moral salvation, as the very adults rescuing the boys are themselves engaged in an equally destructive global war.