After watching the 1990 version of Lord of the Flies, I decided that the next film for the EYG Halloween Horror Bingefest would be the original version from 1963,
The 1963 version was directed by Peter Brook and was shown in black and white. The use of the black and white always creates a more interesting dynamic of the film, and this is not the exception.
However, I was surprised how consistent the two versions were, with the 1990 version being larger in shots but not much different besides that.
One difference was that in the 1990 film, the kids were all from a military academy whereas this version had them separate. The group introduced with Jack (Tom Chapin) were from a military school, but Ralph (James Aubrey) and Piggy (Hugh Edwards) were British school boys. That difference between them make the eventual turn more effective.
There also seemed to be that the start of the movie had the world involved in a nuclear war, leaving everything up in the air about what might be around in society outside of the island.
Those were all basically character moments that altered the manner in which the characters would react, but the basic structure of the plot was fairly close to the 1990 movie.
The child actors here do a fine job as well, though we still only really get development among the three main characters, Ralph, Jack and Piggy.
This feels as if the innocent lost theme is stronger than in the 1990 version. I would be interested in reading the original novel and seeing where they fall after that.
