Lord of the Flies is a 1963 British film directed by Peter Brook based on the 1954 novel by William Golding. Both the book and movie of Lord of the Flies represent popular culture in the fact that the book started out being popularized by the working class and would later become a best seller and even move into the category of high culture by becoming required reading in many schools across the world as well as wining the Nobel Prize. The Lord of the Flies and book and movie demonstrate many of the traits that are often reproduced in various form media and often imitated in other works of film, television, and reading. Lord of the Flies was remade into another film in 1990 but the 1963 film is considered to be closer to the book and is the one that is used by this paper.
The 1963 Lord of the Flies film is a black and white British film that is presented in the form of a third person narrative in which the audience is a outside party looking in on the cast of the film. The film is about a group of young pre-teen to teenage boys who crash land on an island somewhere is the specific ocean as a result of their plane being shoot down. In the background of the movie there is some type of war but the film never mentioned which war is taking place. With the film being based on a book from the 1950s and the film taking place in the 1960 it can be assumed that the war in question is either World War II or perhaps a future war.
In the film the overall theme is that violence and hate are inherently a part of human nature and even without outside interference from society or adults teaching the next generation those traits still have a way of overtaking our better natures. The film does one of the best jobs of demonstrating this concept which can be attested by its popularity and continue reference in other similar works. You can see how this theme develops based of viewing how the children go from being fun loving democratic children to violent, fear driven people by the end of the movie. We also see the theme of violence and hate taking over as we view the children turn from there selected civilized better natured leader Ralph to the harsher, brutal, more savage leader Jack.
The way the movie was produced effected the content only in the way that it effected the audience. The black and white gave the movie a feel of absolute and historical realism; as if the audience was viewing a history of real events and not a fictional story. The use of actual children and not young adults or adult playing children also gave that a feeling of horror as the children turned violence and really hit home the point that inside all of us there is a potential for violence and evil. By using young and adult there can always be that illusion that its just a story and entertainment but to watch actual children perform the acts we get a feeling of realism that cannot be reproduced by adults.
The first major significant scene is at the beginning in which the children meet for the first time. In this scene when see the children as young and innocent with their laughter at the child called “piggy” and how they greet each other with open arms. We also see the social themes of power and segregation as the boy Jack tries to assume power trying to become the leader of the group and we see the beginning of segregation as piggy is isolated from his new friend Ralph because Ralph as become leader and piggy is viewed as fat and weak. The treatment of the boy called Piggy also demonstrates the social aspects of people trying to dominate one another as he gets laughed at right away and is given a job separate from the other children because of the perception of his weakness.
The major substantive point in this movie is the study of human nature and to question people’s beliefs of how people viewed that nature. The other point of the movie is the ideas of the welfare of the individual of the group. One of the secondary points of the movies is a demonstration of how effective society is compared to the effects of human nature. We also see the themes of leadership with Ralph being of strong moral character but in the end loosing leadership of the group to Jack who instilled fear.
The strongest issue within this film is the issue of human nature. While many people are of the school of thought that we as a people are inherently good on the inside and that violence is a learned behavior but in the movie the ascents of adults on the island remove the concepts of learned behavior and we see that the violence of the children come from within their nature and without. The weakest points of the story are societal influences on the children through most of the story the reasoning behind the violence are not often ones of malice but of survival and while they may appear as evil choices we get the impression of just how much is evil and how much is a matter of survival for these children.
The leading pop culture theme within this movie is the idea of Nature vs. Nurture. This is not just a popular culture theme in general but is often used within popular culture to meet a certain point or get a specific message across within popular culture. This is demonstrated as the main message of the movie as violence and evil being an inherent part of human nature. One of the most popular issue in popular culture today is bulling and this theme can be seen throughout the movie with the treatment of Piggy in the movie. There is also the theme of separate social groups or “cliché” within the movie as being demonstrated by Ralphs civilized group and Jacks hunters that work together but eventually turn on each other which is a theme that is demonstrated in many forms of media and entertainment in the form of high school movies were we see the jokes versus geek and similar themes in other movies.
Within the movie one of the most apparent sociological/cultural concepts is the social classes. Even though they are children they quickly separate themselves into separate groups or classes with Ralph representing the group of reason and civilization and Jack group of hunter representing a lack of civilization and more primal nature of humans. The concept of masculinity are also viewed through the movie as the hunter attempt to dominate the other boys and force them to join there group through force. Within the movie the hunter view the other children who refuse to kill as weak and timid. As stated before Nature versus Nurture also plays a major cultural concept throughout the film as the characters demonstrate their true natures the longer they are on the island. The concept of innocence is also viewed thorough the movie as we watch the children go from watching the children play a laugh and eventually move to the point where they lose all innocence with the death of Piggy and the hunting of Ralph.
Many of the same themes of human nature can be scene with movies such as “Enders Game”. In Enders Game, the theme of human nature is reveled in the movie as the main character Ender is forced to comment evil in order to survive. However; unlike Lord of the Flies in which the author shows that violence is inherent within are nature and that society brings it out the author of Enders Game shows that goodness in inherent within are nature and that society forces out the evil. Another film that demonstrate the inherent evil with human nature is the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale we once again see the inherent violence within human nature as menstruated by Japanese School children who are forced into a government experiment were they are required to kill each other in order to survive.
The theme of Nature versus Nurture can be seen in almost every form of media as well as in numerous forms of science, religion, and philosophy. Scientist and doctor often try to debate the concepts of Nature versus Nurture in studies of twins separated or determining the root cause of criminal behavior. Today the theme of masculinity is often challenge due to the prevalence of homosexuality and blinding of gender roles within American society. The theme of innocence and the loss of innocence is covered in nearly every coming of age movie, book, and television show today. Class distinction and social class separation like in the movie can be seen in various forms today from the viewing of political parties during elections to bickering of various groups on social media web sites.
What began as one man book on the counterpoint that human nature is inherently good to the movie created based on its popularity; the Lord of the Flies remains a testament to popular debate of nature versus nature. While the movie came out in the 1960’s the themes and argument made in the movie are completely viable today and demonstrate the knowledge that we as a species still do not fully understand ourselves.