Lord of the Flies (1963)

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Movie
German title Lord of the flies
Original title Lord of the Flies
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1963
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Brook
script Peter Brook
production Lewis M. Allen ,
Peter Newman
music Raymond Leppard
camera Tom Hollyman
cut Peter Brook,
Gerald Feil ,
Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
occupation

Lord of the Flies is a British film drama by Peter Brook from the year 1963 . It is the first film adaptation of the novel of the same name by William Golding .

action

After a plane crash, a group of English schoolchildren lands on an uninhabited island. None of the adults survived. Ralph and an overweight boy with glasses who has asthma and was always called "piggy" in school initially believe they are the only survivors. Ralph finds a horn clam on the beach and blows it. Suddenly numerous other boys of different ages appear. Shortly afterwards, a boys' choir joins the group, led by Jack. He was the choirmaster and class representative and would now like to become the group's chief. In the election, however, Ralph prevails. Jack, in turn, quickly names the choir members as the hunters of the group. They are supposed to provide food. After Ralph, Jack and the blonde Simon have explored the area, it is clear that the boys actually landed on an island that is uninhabited. In order to be found by ships or airplanes, they light a fire on the mountain of the island with the help of Piggy's glasses. Members of the hunters have the task of never letting the fire go out. A little later they build simple huts in which they can stay for the night.

One day the children discover a pig on the island. The hunters set a trap for the animal and can kill it. With songs of joy they return to the top of the mountain, where the fire went out unguarded. It is particularly tragic that in the meantime an airplane flew over the area. Ralph and Piggy blame the hunters and therefore Jack too. Jack hits the piggy and one of his glasses breaks. In the period that followed, the moderate Ralph was able to prevail less and less against the aggressive Jack. The meaning of the shell - whoever is holding it is allowed to speak without being interrupted - is also becoming less and less important. Ralph, Schweinchen and Simon are becoming more and more outsiders with a few smaller children. When one of the smaller boys believes there is a beast on the island, Ralph, Jack and the older Roger search an area of ​​rock that they had not yet explored. In fact, they think they see a monster in a crevice and run away screaming.

When Jack returns to camp, he's fed up with Ralph and separates from the group. He wants to form his own tribe with everyone who joins him. Soon the majority of the boys took Jack's side. He stylizes the beast as an evil spirit, to which he makes sacrifices with pig's heads. Simon in turn suggests that the group should climb the mountain again to get a closer look at the monster. Nobody accepts his suggestion and so he goes up the mountain alone. In the crevice he discovers the body of a parachutist. He returns to the beach. Here Jack's warriors have become intoxicated and scream more and more ecstatically “Kill the beast, kill the pig!” Suddenly Simon appears from the jungle, the boys rush at him and kill him. The next morning, Ralph is still appalled that Jack's group murdered Simon. Piggy protests that it was an accident.

Meanwhile, Jack rules like a despot. He lets Ralph's group destroy the fire and steals Piggy's glasses. As a result, he can't see anything anymore, so Ralph and Piggy go to Jack's cave. It comes to a duel between Ralph and Jack, which the other boys watch with hatred. One of the boys loosens a boulder, which falls down on the piggy waiting at the foot of the mountain and kills him. All the boys watch, frozen, as the pig's corpse drifts into the open sea.

Ralph is now the only one on the island who stands against Jack. Jack's group sets larger and larger parts of the island on fire and starts the hunt for Ralph. He is warned by two twin boys that Jack wants to kill him. Ralph is running for his life. When he finally stumbles over the beach, a man suddenly stands in front of him - the Navy has landed on the island in a small dinghy. Little by little, Jack's comrades-in-arms appear on the beach in elaborate "war paint". You seem disappointed; Ralph begins to cry inaudibly.

production

Lord of the Flies was filmed in 1961 in Vieques , Aguadilla and El Yunque National Forest (all belonging to Puerto Rico ) as well as in Tennessee and Jamaica . The film premiered on May 14, 1963 at the Cannes International Film Festival . In Germany, the television premiere took place on August 11, 1971 on ARD. The film was released in German cinemas on June 16, 1983 and released on DVD on October 10, 2007.

criticism

"Interesting and worth discussing on all levels of meaning - as a political parable, pessimistic utopia and psychological-anthropological study - because of the convincing interlocking of topics and motifs," wrote the film service . Cinema found Peter Brook filmed the literature as a "grim survival nightmare ."

This ... film shows what can happen when people with an authoritarian upbringing and fixated on leadership personalities find themselves in a situation that requires collective consciousness. Although at first you think you're under a flag ... when you take off your (school) uniform, morale goes down too. Rivalries between cruelty and murder spread, primal fears gain the upper hand, the democratic facade, which has only been cultivated but not internalized, crumbles. There are dictators and scapegoats, and the nimble forces of opportunism who immediately and viciously become active “in the shadow of the strong” ( FILMDIENST ), and later, when the situation has normalized again, the first to lay down their arms and do their deeds “Forget” ... (Brooks) does not need to hoard external tension; his little actors react unabashedly in front of a cautious camera - only what happens is important. " (FILMDIENST)

Hahn / Jansen, p. 234f.

Awards

The film was shown at the Cannes International Film Festival in the competition for the Palme d'Or . The National Board of Review was one of Lord of the Flies 1963 among the top ten films of the year.

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Lord of the Flies on Turner Classic Movies.
  2. ↑ Lord of the Flies. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ See cinema.de
  4. ↑ See Lord of the Flies Awards on imdb.com