Episode of Piggy’s Death in the Novel ”Lord Of The Flies”

During this episode, Piggy and Ralph set out to castle rock to retrieve Piggy’s glasses from Jacks half of the tribe. Once they arrive jack begins to fight with Ralph and thwarts his attempts to retrieve the glasses. A huge rock is launched at Piggy’s head and sends him hurtling off the cliff and into the sea. Ralph is deeply disturbed and runs back to his camp in a state. In this essay I will attempt to explore the way the two films and novel of LORD OF THE FLIES come across to us as a reader and to describe in detail the decisions made by the director in the two films.

1963 film

In my view this film does the novel a lot more justice than the newer film as it follows the plot and dialogue from the novel almost word for word.

I really enjoyed this film a lot more than I enjoyed the second, newer film because the characters represented those in the novel a lot more realistically than those in the film from the 1990’s. The character this worked best with was definitely Ralph as his character was very well portrayed by the actor that played him, evidence of this is shown when they first arrive into Jacks part of the island and Ralph catches his first sight of the savages. His facial expression remains unmatched to this day. Overall this film would be the best to watch if you did not want your understanding of the novel to be clouded.

1990 film

This film to me was a disappointment, as it did not show very clearly the morals and symbolism and general theme of William Golding’s novel.

There were a series of background differences and plot changes and this is clearly shown by the sheer modernism of the film. The director did not even try to recreate the setting or original scenario, but instead took the basic plots and worked from there. There is little more I can say about this film as it failed to reproduce the same feeling of anxiety that the original film and novel did.

MAJOR CONTRASTS IN THE TWO FILMS

There are many contrasts between the film and book versions this is because they were made in completely different eras. For instance the book was written in 1954 and the first film was released in 0000. The second film is completely different, as it has been adapted to modern day children’s film requirements. The newer film is about a group of air cadets on their way home from training whereas in the traditional film, the boys are from a posh boarding school in England. There are probably hundreds of differences between the two films. In my opinion the older film is the best as it is accurate practically word for word.

I didn’t like the second film very much because it did not portray a clear picture of what the book/plot was about. The adaptation didn’t show clear symbolization of all the things I saw as symbols. For instance, the conch was a symbol of democracy and the freedom of speech, the fire the boys made was a symbol of the boys will to live and confidence that they will be rescued, when the fire goes out we can clearly see the group deteriorating this is because any hope being rescued is completely extinguished. In the first film on the other hand Piggy’s death is not taken lightly and is put across to the audience with greatly capturing acting. For example in the book Ralph and Jack engage in a fight because Ralph called Jack a liar. This fight is put across very well and captures the imagination and this fight (in the film) is exactly how I had pictured it in my mind whilst reading the book.

THE DIRECTORS CHOICE

1. When Ralph and piggy arrive at he savages territory there is a lot of sweet harmonious music to build up a false sense of security. Here, a long shot is used to very good effect as it captures every aspect of the surroundings.

2. The boys are suddenly very aggressive towards one another and some coarse language is used. This is unnecessary and is quite shocking Here close ups are used o Ralph and Jack back and forth.

3.Ralph and Jack at once engage in combat and beat each other quite violently with sticks. The savages suddenly start cheering and begin to throw stones at Ralph and piggy. Lots of medium close ups are used here to see groups of savages perched in the crevices of the cliff face

4. Piggy blows the conch and the boys are silenced by the familiar deep sound. Piggy tries to explain as best he can that if the boys were to work together they would stay alive a lot longer rather than trying to compete with each other. MCU and CU are used in this part to show piggy and the savages reaction to what he has to say.

5.this only angers them and causes roger to spring a rock onto piggys head and instantly kills him. Here an extreme close up is used to capture piggys face in the last remaining moments of his life.

6. Ralph becomes very distressed at this point and begins to run away, and the savages showing no remorse for what they had done resumed throwing rocks at Ralph. Again a long shot is used here to show the stretch of beach that Ralph runs along.

CONCLUSION

I have discovered from this investigation that the original film and the novel are probably the best sources to go by as they follow each other almost perfectly. I have also discovered that the second film is a very rude adaptation of the original and should not be taken as a proper source.