Rent Lord of the Flies (1963)

3.5 of 5 from 71 ratings
1h 27min
Rent Lord of the Flies Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Following a plane crash a group of schoolboys find themselves on a deserted island. They appoint a leader and attempt to create an organised society for the sake of their survival. Democracy and order soon begin to crumble when a breakaway faction forms and quickly regresses to brutal savagery with horrifying consequences. Peter Brook's classic adaptation of William Golding's novel has lost none of the impact it made when given an 'X' certificate on its 1963 release. Shot with a raw style the film has a chilling air of realism and still retains the power to shock.
Actors:
, , , Roger Elwin, Tom Gaman, Roger Allan, David Brunjes, Peter Davy, Kent Fletcher, , , Alan Heaps, Jonathan Heaps, Burnes Hollyman, , Richard Horne, , Peter Ksiezopolski, Anthony McCall-Judson, Malcolm Rodker
Directors:
Producers:
Lewis M. Allen
Writers:
William Golding
Studio:
Second Sight Films Ltd.
Genres:
Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama
Collections:
Children & Family, Children's Books On Screen: Best Adventure Films, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Kenneth More, New waves of Latin American Cinema, Top 10 Films By Year, Top Films of 1990: Vol. 2, What to watch by country
BBFC:
Release Date:
23/07/2007
Run Time:
87 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles:
None
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
B & W
Bonus:
  • Commentary by director Peter Brook, producer Lewis Allen, director of photography Tom Hollyman, and cameraman/editor Gerald Feil
BBFC:
Release Date:
28/08/2017
Run Time:
90 minutes
Languages:
English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
B & W
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Audio commentary featuring director Peter Brook, producer Lewis Allen, director of photography Tom Hollyman, and Feil
  • Audio recordings of William Golding reading from his novel Lord of the Flies, accompanied by the corresponding scenes from the film
  • Deleted scene, with optional commentary and Golding reading
  • Interview with Brook from 2008
  • Collection of behind-the-scenes material, including home movies, screen tests, outtakes, and stills
  • Excerpt from a 1980 episode of The South Bank Show featuring Golding
  • New interview with Feil
  • Excerpt from Feil's 1975 documentary The Empty Space, showcasing Brook's theater methods
  • Living 'Lord of the Flies', a piece composed of never-before-seen footage shot by the boy actors during production, with new voice-over by actor Tom Gaman
  • Trailer

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Reviews (1) of Lord of the Flies

Arthouse dystopia. - Lord of the Flies review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
10/09/2023

Unusual dystopian allegory adapted from the classroom classic by William Golding. A group of English public schoolboys are washed up on an uninhabited island in the Pacific during a nuclear war. Isolated from the normal control of civilisation, they revert to a state of tribal savagery. The influence of society is superficial and soon abandoned.

Theatre director Peter Brook took 30 children to Puerto Rico during their summer holidays and improvised the action. The amateur performances are sometimes laboured, but effective. Tom Chapin is well cast as the leader of the hunters, and Tom Gaman has a little awkward, mystical magnetism as the most enlightened of the boys.

It's experimental cinema, but more appealing than that sounds. While the film explores philosophical concepts, there is still narrative realism as the group divides into factions founded on their degree of self-interest or the waning pull of reason. So it's natural to take a side. In their primitive state, the boys still reflect normal social and political hierarchies.

The location photography makes a huge contribution to the ultra-realistic style. It would be tempting to call this film unique, except it was remade in 1990... But the '63 version is more faithful to the novel and gets closer to the primal state. There are many desert island films which explore the isolation of the human animal from society. This is the most pessimistic.

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