It's fascinating to listen to the production woes Peter Brook's Lord of the Flies (1963) faced in the early stages as he teamed with Hollywood producer (and family friend) Sam Spiegel to create, what he wanted to be, a low budget adaptation of William Golding's novel. Instead, as time went on, Spiegel took it upon himself to change the story. As a producer of films such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai, it was simply not in Spiegel's nature to make a cheap film. The budget began to balloon, art directors were flown around the world to look at islands and even girls were introduced into script rewrites done behind Brook's back as Columbia (whom were initially set to distribute the film) felt the budget had gotten too big for a film about kids. In essence, it was no longer "Lord of the Flies...
- 8/12/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Chicago – Nearly every student has to read William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” at some point and film goers of the right age might remember Harry Hook’s 1990 version of the classic tale with Balthazar Getty, but the best adaptation of the timeless allegory is Peter Brook’s 1963 version, recently upgraded to Criterion Blu-ray and re-released on Criterion DVD with a new, restored 4K digital transfer.
Peter Brook’s theatre-crafted style of natural acting and improvisational character-building make for a film that’s devastatingly genuine, as if we’re on the island with these boys as their mini society collapses in flames. The Criterion version is loaded with special features and the film remains remarkably engaging.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Everyone knows the story of “Lord of the Flies.” If they don’t, they know one of the many narratives that ripped it off over the years. Lost boys with no structure...
Peter Brook’s theatre-crafted style of natural acting and improvisational character-building make for a film that’s devastatingly genuine, as if we’re on the island with these boys as their mini society collapses in flames. The Criterion version is loaded with special features and the film remains remarkably engaging.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Everyone knows the story of “Lord of the Flies.” If they don’t, they know one of the many narratives that ripped it off over the years. Lost boys with no structure...
- 7/26/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 16, 2013
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
A group of British boys attempt to govern themselves on an uninhabited island in Lord of the Flies.
The 1963 adventure-drama Lord of the Flies is the first film adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding’s 1954 debut novel.
In the hands of the renowned experimental theater director Peter Brook, Golding’s legendary novel on the primitivism lurking beneath civilization becomes a film as raw and ragged as the lost boys at its center.
The novel famously concerns a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results, marking the end of the children’s innocence…and then some.
Taking an innovative documentary-like approach, Brook shot Lord of the Flies with an off-the-cuff naturalism, seeming to record a spontaneous eruption of its characters’ ids. The resulting masterwork earned Brook a nomination for...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
A group of British boys attempt to govern themselves on an uninhabited island in Lord of the Flies.
The 1963 adventure-drama Lord of the Flies is the first film adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding’s 1954 debut novel.
In the hands of the renowned experimental theater director Peter Brook, Golding’s legendary novel on the primitivism lurking beneath civilization becomes a film as raw and ragged as the lost boys at its center.
The novel famously concerns a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results, marking the end of the children’s innocence…and then some.
Taking an innovative documentary-like approach, Brook shot Lord of the Flies with an off-the-cuff naturalism, seeming to record a spontaneous eruption of its characters’ ids. The resulting masterwork earned Brook a nomination for...
- 4/24/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
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