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Movie Description
Director Peter Brook's faithful adaptation of William Golding's 1954 novel stars James Aubrey and Tom Chapin as antagonists Ralph and Jack, respectively. When a plane carrying 30-odd British schoolboys out of a war zone crashes on an island, all the adults are killed. The boys organize for survival, naming Ralph as their chief, in charge of providing fire and shelter. Jack is designated to lead a group of boys to hunt the wild pigs that roam the island. Almost inevitably, as time passes, the two boys, representatives of civilization and savagery, begin a deadly struggle for dominance. The frequently invoked image of life as a "war of all against all," in which civility is merely another weapon in the battle to gain one's ends, is given a particularly disturbing twist because it is enacted by children. Brooks shot an enormous amount of footage, a documentary style ratio of 60:1, and used nonprofessional actors to achieve a raw, visceral realism. With a jauntily ironic score by Raymond Leppard, the film succeeds completely in suggesting the chilling malignity that can lurk beneath a bland exterior.
Industry Reviews
"...Brook's vérité approach allows the full force of Golding's allegory to assert itself..."
Sight and Sound - Matthew Leyland (12/01/2002)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[R]endered oddly, devastatingly convincing here....This looks starker, stranger and better than ever."
Uncut - Damien Love (09/01/2007)
5 stars out of 5 -- "Superb....A role model for successful novel adaptations."
Ultimate DVD - Jason Caro (08/01/2007)
"[T]he film had a roughness and authenticity that a polished Hollywood version would surely have lacked."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (03/01/2008)
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