Strong and Moving!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

If you're reading this, then I'm sure that at some point in your life, you have either read William Golding's 1954 novel 'The Lord of the Flies' either as required school reading or for fun, or have seen the original adaption on film from 1963, which is currently part of the Criterion Collection. However, my first foray into this world was through this 1990 movie. It wasn't until a few years later that I read the book and saw the original 1963 film.'Lord of the Flies' has been referenced in countless books, magazines, television shows, and other films, where they're usually discussing a group of kids who are unruly and on a path of destruction and death. Needless to say, 'Lord of the Flies' has always been controversial, which it still is today, given the subject matter. This 1990 version is a bit different than its predecessors, as director Harry Hook wanted to give it a more modern appeal to younger audiences. Instead of a group of British choir boys surviving a plane crash in the ocean with no adults, and making their way to a deserted island, this 90's version has a group of young military cadets stranded with one gravely injured adult. It turns the tables a little bit as we get to see an assuming group of boys who might have some skills to survive in a dire situation along with a mental attitude for order and command, turn into something completely frightening and chaotic.It was a smart move on Hook's part here, as well as, making the young survivors American, rather than British. But the big story points are still there. Ralph (a young Balthazar Getty) and Jack (Chris Furrh) are the main leaders of the group of young survivors who turn into enemies, while Piggy (Danuel Pipoly) still acts as the collective groups moral and ethics board, trying to get these wild kids to survive and help, rather than become savage beasts with no rules. Hook wasn't bothered with telling a story with the amount of symbolism or depth here as in the original novel or even the original film. Instead, a captured the pure horror as these kids turned into monsters.The film succeeds in this aspect very well, because we can easily see nowadays that this kind of situation is far to real and hits close to home for most. Another interesting change is that this 1990 film was shot in color. The original film was in black and white, and painted a fairly bleak outlook from the get-go. But here, we have beautiful landscapes and luscious greens for miles, which is the place where these stranded kids go wild, which is an interesting notion in and of itself. How could these kids possibly become the murdering lunatics they are in such a rich and beautiful place? It's fascinating to watch.The young Getty, Furrh, and Pipoly all do a decent job here in their roles. Furrh is menacing for sure throughout, but also makes you believe he is still a scared little boy deep down, while Getty is constantly mixing a variety of emotions in order to stay alive. Then there is poor Pipoly, who does a great job of being the joke of the group who everyone picks on. It's still quite sad to see what that character goes through. Even a young James Badge Dale as Simon turns in a solid performance, however a few of the other kids still needed a week long acting class in certain moments.Still, this 1990 version of 'Lord of the Flies' is a very suspenseful and unyielding look at what pure chaos really is. The gut punch is that it's all young kids going through this and acting out these bizarre and violent behaviors. Needless to say after 25 years, this film still holds up quite well.

This film...This film really annoyed me.This film could've been great. It could've been amazing.But it was just...alright.Now being an alright movie isn't a bad thing.Unless it could've been much, much better.This film was so, so, so messy. I mean, this movie, it seemed like the film didn't really know what it was gonna be. The film was just so disorganized.On the other hand, the performances were pretty good. The kids are not bad actors.But this film was kinda dull. It seemed a bit meh.And when something did happen, it only happened because of STUPIDITY.I mean, this film could've been great if instead of killing off a couple characters, they'd slowly kill off the entire cast. That would've been fun.But we ended up with this.Lord of the Flies was a disappointment.I give it a 6/10. I'd give it a 6.5, but I'd have to round up to 7, which is too high, so I give it a 6.

a fan of the book, I also enjoyed the 1963 movie. But, watching this, it's seems very dumbed down. Much of they symbolism of the book is explained to the audience of this version of the movie and done poorly. The acting is sub par, the direction mediocre and the screenplay is just terrible.I would think that, with today's audience being more sophisticated and not was easily shocked as in 1963, they could stay truer to the book. But, the writers and director did what Hollywood usually does, ads symbolism of their own (military school) and removes the authors original intent.If you never read the book or saw the 1963 movie, you might enjoy it. But, if not, please stay away. It's just bad.

A shockingly terrible adaptation. All of the pieces might be there on screen, but nothing and I mean NOTHING that makes any sense translates onto screen. It's amazing how someone could miss all of the interesting themes. I'm pretty sure the child actors wrote the script without any understanding of the book. So it starts off with American Military Cadets, rather than prim and proper British Schoolboys. This is the first huge mistake as it completely craps on the transformation that every student goes through. Jack is reduced to a villain. We even here he was bad before getting to the island. The children don't fail at creating a society, they're all just a bunch of disgusting little twerps. Arguing at the slightest little thing. The kids also start with a grown up on the island...I can't even begin to explain how damn stupid that is. It adds literally nothing. The fighter pilot is excised, losing the irony of Piggy praying for a sign from the adult world, only to have an adult killed in war appear. As well as Jack being the villain, Simon's just a weirdo, with every nod toward religion now gone. So what's left? A bunch of horrible children stuck on an island and acting like turds, which they were before they got to the island. Pointless, painful and frustrating.