Movie Named Insignificant

The movie Lord of the Flies should be renamed. It was a good movie, but a terrible film for the novel. The movie was insignificant in terms of the theme of the novel. The film was more modernized, and many symbolic meanings were extracted from the plot. It did not portray the savagism in people, and did not come across as something deep and thought provoking.

In the novel, it was about a group of well educated British boys escaping World War One conflicts back at home, while in the movie it was a group of American boys from military school. The book was more religion based due to the time it was written in. The American boys also had more technology in the film; they had matches and glow sticks to work with. The technology provided them with more ways to survive on the island.

The movie altered the plot of the novel, by placing the pilot on the island after the crash. This was a major change because the purpose of the adult-free island was to allow the boys to do whatever they want, with nothing to remind them of society and order. However, due to the adult on the island, the sudden release of independence and freedom was removed. Furthermore, the adult on the island was to explain the existence of the beast. On screen, it appeared only as an ironic result than an abstract symbol of mankind savagism.

One of the key symbolic meanings removed from the novel, was the conversation of Simon and the pig’s head. This is the scene that is used to explain the title Lord of The Flies. Due to technical limitations in the film, Simon only stares at the pig’s head in shock, the mental and emotional struggle he had in the novel was not there. In the book, life was given to the pig’s head and readers were able to sense the demonic figure that represented the beast within people. The fear that Simon and even some readers felt was removed.

The movie Lord of the Flies was modernized and altered, therefore taking out ideas that had the potential to be thought provoking. The audience would only observe the pessimistic view of humans, not seeing that the human beast was the whole point of Golding’s novel. Also, due to actually seeing the events on screen, the gruesome portion was enhanced and the symbolic meaning was either taken out or minimized. The impact made on the audience was due to the dramatic effect of seeing the deaths on screen, and not the reflection of society made by Golding.