Lord of the Flies (1990)
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Lord of the Flies Movie Review
Lord of the Flies is a 1990 drama film directed by Harry Hook and starring Balthazar Getty and Chris Furrh. It’s a pretty solid, very underrated cinematic adaptation.
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“Whoever holds the conch gets to speak“
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I personally found this movie of the similar quality and maybe even better than the 1963 version. It certainly remains inferior to the book, but still it’s not bad at all and is perfectly solid and serviceable. The themes remain its biggest problem as it doesn’t really explore the darkness of the human mind and what happens when people are isolated. It never properly explores those themes and it’s mostly just a straight retelling of the story with no higher purpose.
But I did absolutely love that ending as it was quite climactic and so well executed action-wise with the finale naturally being powerful. I also really liked how the film was modernized for 1990 audiences by portraying the kids as more violent than before and more coarse in their behavior. And I did love its adventurous elements and the exploration of the island itself.
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Yes, this Lord of the Flies is beautifully shot. It is a glorious color production filled with memorable scenery and a wonderfully utilized island with both plants and animals having their purpose in the story itself. The cinematography is strong with some fine camera angles and the entire film looks very good and pleasing in its spirited adventure.
Balthazar Getty is quite good as Ralph and rather moving. Chris Furrh is definitely the highlight acting-wise as he really portrayed Jack menacingly and with a lot of momentum. Piggy and Simon are okay and others are solid, but in terms of the acting, these two easily stand out. But I would still say that the overall acting from all kids is much better than in the previous movie which I appreciated. And I just found their character interactions really solid and effective.
There isn’t too much divergence in this movie from the source material as many would say. Yes, the titular pig head isn’t present too much which was unfortunate, but overall the point came across and the story was mostly immensely faithful in my opinion. The addition of one surviving adult only furthered the tension in my book and it was a great choice for me.
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I found the score pretty good and the dialogue is mostly solid and serviceable. I would have liked to have seen more from the dialogue, but what was there was fine. And the emphasis on adventure was definitely quiet welcome for me as I love me some adventure, especially on a beautiful location such as a remote island. Overall, the movie is pretty good, but for a 1990 film, it needed much more violence to differentiate it from the previous film version.
1990’s Lord of the Flies is a very underrated cinematic adaptation that might just be better than the previous, better regarded version. Yes, it has its weak points and it still fails to explore its themes properly, but it’s so well shot, the adventurous elements are quite good, some of the child acting is pretty strong and the overall story is well told and mostly faithful to the book.
