Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 17, 1990 TAG: 9003172324
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It begins with a group of uniformed military school students struggling to stay afloat and to save an injured adult in a beautiful turquoise ocean. They manage to make their way to a lush tropical island - the film was made in Jamaica - where they struggle to set up some kind of society. One boy, Ralph (Balthazar Getty), is thrust unwillingly into the position of leader.
This group, by the way, is blatantly contrived to touch every racial and ethnic group imaginable. There's a black kid, an Asian, one wears a crucifix, another a Star of David; there's even a set of twins.
Also, this group could have used a little of the famous VMI discipline, because they start going native before the first coconut falls.
Most of the story is told visually; dialogue is kept to a minimum because these young actors are all amateurs. At rare moments, notably in the more rambunctious play scenes, they come across as real kids. In other scenes, they're asked to recite some atrocious dialogue, from a script by Sara Schiff (actually Jay Presson Allen who had her name removed from the film). Then they suffer. So does the audience.
Most of the time, though, these boys, who have the looks and haircuts of fashion models, are called upon to pose in artfully arranged groups before the camera. Director Harry Hook and cinematographer Martin Fuhrer have put together a collection of stunningly beautiful shots: sunset over the ocean as seen from a peak, the dimly lit entrance to a cave, the blue of the ocean cut diagonally by the green of a grassy hillside. Those are such pretty compositions that Hooks, who also edited the film, stops to linger over them.
When he goes back to the story, he never tries to get beneath the surface of Golding's narrative. The conflicts, hunts and the final chase are exciting enough on their own, but the necessary depth that would give them meaning has been sacrificed to a glossy glamour that could have come from MTV. The contemporary refererences to things like "Alf" and "Rambo" move the story even farther away from the kind of primal atmosphere that Golding was trying to create.
Though I haven't seen Peter Brook's 1963 film since its original release, I still remember its strong black-and-white images, and its use of language, either through dialogue or voice-over. I suspect that audiences who haven't seen that film and are not familiar with Golding's story may appreciate this version simply because it is so handsomely staged.
But there is still a lot more to "Lord of the Flies" than Harry Hooks put on the screen.\ `Lord of the Flies' A Columbia release playing at the Valley Cinema (389-0444) and the Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219). An hour and 27 minutes. Rated R for strong language and violence.
by CNB