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(1963)

Film Study Worksheet for Adaptations from Novels

Read the questions before you watch the film so that you will know what to look
for while you watch. At breaks during the showing or at the film's end, you will
have an opportunity to make short notes in the spaces provided. If you make notes
while the film is playing, make sure that your note taking doesn't interfere with
carefully watching the film. You do not need to make any notes on the worksheet,
but after the film is over, you will be required to fully respond to the questions. 

Complete the assignment by answering each question in paragraph form. Answers

need to be complete and comprehensive, demonstrating that you paid attention to
the film and thought about what was shown on the screen. You may use more than
one paragraph if necessary. Be sure that the topic sentence of your first paragraph
uses key words from the question. All responses should be in complete sentences
using proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

QUESTIONS AND NOTES

1. Identify the novel you read and the film from which it was adapted:

A. Novel title, genre, author, and year published. “Lord of the Flies is a
1954 novel by author William Golding.”  The story clearly falls under
the fiction the genre but would also fall under the allegory genre. The group of kids
represents a lawless society of humans in any
setting.__________________________________

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B. Title of film adapted from the novel, director, year released. _  “The
Lord of the Flies” It was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook, and once more in
1990. The title is a reference to Beelzebub from the Hebrew name Baalzvuv, and
said to be a synonym for the Devil.  ________________________

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2. Describe any significant differences between the setting and time period in the
novel and the film. Do they change the story in an important way? _
In the final draft of Lord of the Flies, William Golding does not specify a time and
date when the novel takes place. One can infer that the novel might take place
around WWII. Golding was a veteran who served in the Royal Navy during WWII
and fought during the invasion of Normandy. The British school boys end up on
the island in the first place because their plane was shot down. Film: A group of
schoolboys are evacuated from England following the outbreak of an unidentified
war. Their aircraft is shot down by briefly-glimpsed fighter planes and ditches near
a remote island. In Lord of the Flies, the setting is on a deserted tropical island in
the middle of the ocean, where a microcosm is able to be established.

Three specific examples of how setting influenced the actions and attitudes of the
characters are: The isolation from a civilized world, the mysteries of an unfamiliar
place, and different social types being forced to live with one another.
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3. How well do the characters in the film reflect what is presented in the book in
terms of personality, appearance, action, and dialogue? Which did you like better,
the character in the book or the character in the movie? Why?

protagonist: ___ In the 1963 movie adaptation of Lord of the Fries, Ralph is played
by James Aubrey, who was fourteen when at the time and had brown hair. Ralph is
initially somewhat disdainful of Piggy as it was in the book. Ralph is noticeably
shorter and younger than Jack. Ralph asserts himself as wanting to be in charge
early on, prompting a brief election with him running against Jack, who is the choir
leader and Head Boy at school. He manages to win the election by a good margin,
but Jack never fully accepts it and eventually completely subverts him. This
version of Ralph adheres more closely to that of the book overall._ Ralph is
described as having fair (blond) hair in the book, but he has not had blond
hair in either of his film appearances.

In the book, Ralph is described as a boy about twelve years old with fair hair. 
"You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of
shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed
no devil."

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B) antagonist: ____ In the 1963 film adaptation, Jack is portrayed by Tom Chapin.
He leads the school choir, which lends him his early authority, and never takes
well to Ralph being voted as Chief instead of him. In this version of the story, no
one follows Jack at first when he declares he is leaving to form his own camp, and
he can be briefly seen struggling with himself as he walks away. Throughout the
film, Jack speaks in an elegant, dignified manner, even after leading the other boys
in a descent into savagery.___ Described to be physically unattractive but played
by Tom Chapin, Jack is the tallest out of the boys, bony, but strongly built, sandy
red-haired, freckled, and blue-eyed.

Jack is the only character in any version of the story to have his first and last name
given; all the other boys are known by first names only, or by a nickname in
Piggy's case

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C) any minor or ancillary characters you care to comment on: __ Hugh Edwards
portrays the character of Piggy in the 1963 film adaptation. Ralph is dismissive and
even somewhat disdainful of him at first, but gradually, Piggy becomes the only
loyal follower Ralph has left. Piggy is the most logically intelligent child of the
group, while Simon is the most spiritually intelligent. He is overweight, and also
suffers from asthma. His "ass-mar" causes him not to be able to run or swim. He is
unable to see without his glasses due to his severe myopia, and has been wearing
glasses since he was three. Before the island, Piggy lived with his "auntie" who
owned a sweetshop.
In all versions of the story, Piggy is generally ignored by the other boys, or treated
disdainfully when they do pay attention to him. His intelligence and reasoning is
mocked and dismissed, and like Ralph he fails in his efforts to impose civilization
and order on the island.

In the 1963 film adaptation, Roger is portrayed by Roger Elwin. Like Jack, Simon,
and several others, he is a member of the school choir. He almost never speaks,
and virtually ignores Ralph and Piggy as they try to create a semblance of civilized
order on the island. He joins Jack soon after the latter leaves to form his own camp
and regularly participates in hunts for the wild pigs that live on the island.

While all the other boys, even Jack, are content to laugh and jeer at Piggy while he
calls on them to return to following Ralph and behaving in a civilized manner,
Roger takes his spear and starts wedging it under a boulder high above Piggy. He
succeeds in pushing it over the side and silences Piggy forever. Soon afterward,
Roger follows Jack in setting fire to the jungle, and is among those chasing after
Ralph when the Royal Navy lands.

Roger is Jack's most loyal follower, following all orders without question. He starts
out bullying some of the other boys, such as kicking over a sand castle on purpose,
but gradually he realizes that he is not at school or in civilization at all anymore,
and there is no one left to stop him from being as cruel as he wants.

Unlike most of the boys, Roger enjoys causing pain and requires no conditioning
to be able to kill. He was always held in check before by the authority figures and
constraints of civilization, but on the island, Roger can finally do as he pleases.
Following Jack simply gives Roger an excuse to do what he has always wanted to.

Roger never shows mercy. He is the only one who intentionally kills another boy
on the island - Piggy. He obtains sadistic pleasure from torturing the sow
and Samneric. The book notes that Roger sharpened a stick at both ends, planning
to behead Ralph and put the head on the point.

Roger is symbolic of all the irredeemable sadists and murderers in civilization,

those that are held in check only so long as civilization exists and will do as they
please the moment it disappears.

Simon. He is described to be short, black-haired and dark-skinned. In the 1963 film

he is pale with blonde hair,

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4. What is the major lesson that you took from the novel? Does that change in
the film? If so, describe the change. _______  Golding is reminding us that
mankind needs to learn to be good, evil is instinctual. After watching the movie,
nothinh has changed.
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5. How is the conflict in the film presented in comparison to the novel? Describe
significant differences and similarities. What did you think about these changes?
___ The main conflicts in Lord of the Flies include Man vs Nature, Man vs Self,
and Man vs Man. Nature causes conflicts because of the difficulty of island life.
Self conflicts include the propensity for each boy to unleash his inner beast and
destroy the community. Interpersonal conflicts include those between the people
loyal to Jack or Ralph.________________________________
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6. Describe any subplots that have been added to the film or removed from the
story told in the book. What did you think about these changes? _ There are a
few:

-The Beast
-The Conch Shell
-Jack's Hunter's
-Roger's sadism
-The fire
In the film there were no hallucinations of Simon and his conversation with the
sow. _______________________________________________
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7. Compare and contrast the resolutions to the conflicts presented in the novel and
in the film. Both in the book and in the film, boys were rescued by officers. But in
the book they spoke to boys and were surprised how English boys could have
come to savagery. The officers were silent in the film.
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8. In terms of making the novel’s lesson clear from the resolution of the conflict,
how does the film compare to the novel?
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9. Determine whether the novel or the film is better in terms of its ability to hold
the interest of the reader/viewer and to present an important life lesson. Defend
your point of view with specific references to the book and to the film.
 ____________i think the book is because it describes everything in detail,
especially scenes of cruelty. ________________________________________
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10. Describe four elements or devices of fiction, such as motif, symbol,

foreshadowing, flashback, foil, opposition, irony, or language choice (diction) that
were used in the book and carried over to the movie.
Motifs
Natural Beauty  Biblical Parallels  Outward trapping
    The main setting of the novel, which     Simon acts as Jesus. He is one of the     The boys change fro
is a tropical island. Also, Simon's kindest boys on the island, has a bond with school-boys to savages
special nature place.  nature, and died an unnatural death at the paint, totems, and chan
hands of savages. 
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11. What might you add to the film that would better enable viewers to appreciate
the story told by the novel?

It seems to me that if I had not read the book before, I would not have liked the
fact that events in the film develop very quickly and without knowing the plot and
context, some points I might not understand.
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The film does not include the appearance of the young boy with the birthmark on
his face, and his subsequent disappearance in Chapter 2. While this may seem like
a minor alteration, in the book it signals the first sign of a danger that will become
ever present as the story continues. Overall, nevertheless, Brook’s film is faithful
to the novel; there is little difference in the events that occur, and much dialogue
from the book is reproduced.

Plot : The main character, Ralph, is seen walking through a tropical forest. He
meets an intelligent and chubby boy with glasses, who reveals his school nickname
was Piggy, but asks that Ralph not repeat that. The two go to the beach where they
find a conch shell, which Ralph blows to rally the other survivors. As they emerge
from the jungle, it becomes clear that no adults have escaped the crash. Singing is
then heard and a small column of school choir boys, wearing dark cloaks and hats
and led by a boy named Jack Merridew, walk towards Ralph and Piggy.
The boys decide to appoint a chief. The vote goes to Ralph, not Jack. Initially,
Ralph is able to steer the boys (all of whom are aged between about six and
fourteen) towards a reasonably civilised and co-operative society. They meet in
regular assemblies during which the conch is passed around, signifying which boy
may speak. The choir boys make wooden spears, creating the appearance that they
are warriors within the group. Crucially, Jack has a knife, capable of killing an
animal.
The boys build shelters and start a signal fire using Piggy's spectacles. With no
rescue in sight, the increasingly authoritarian and violence-prone Jack starts
hunting and eventually finds a pig. Meanwhile, the fire, for which he and his
"hunters" are responsible, goes out, losing the boys' chance of being spotted from a
passing aeroplane. Piggy chastises Jack, and Jack strikes him in retaliation,
knocking his glasses off, and breaking one lens. Ralph is furious with Jack. Soon
some of the boys begin to talk of a beast that comes from the water. Jack, obsessed
with this imagined threat, leaves the group to start a new tribe, one without rules,
where the boys play and hunt all day. Soon, more follow until only a few,
including Piggy, are left with Ralph.
Events reach a crisis when a boy named Simon finds a sow's head impaled on a
stick, left by Jack as an offering to the Beast. He becomes hypnotised by the head,
which has flies swarming all around it. Simon goes to what he believes to be the
nest of the Beast and finds a dead pilot under a hanging parachute. Simon runs to
Jack's camp to tell them the truth, only to be killed in the darkness by the frenzied
boys who mistake him for the Beast. Piggy defends the group's actions with a
series of rationalisations and denials. The hunters raid the old group's camp and
steal Piggy's glasses. Ralph goes to talk to the new group using the still-present
power of the conch to get their attention. However, when Piggy takes the conch,
they are not silent (as their rules require) but instead jeer. Roger, the cruel torturer
and executioner of the tribe, pushes a boulder off a cliff which falls on Piggy,
killing him and crushing the conch. Piggy's body falls into the ocean and gets
washed away.
Ralph hides in the jungle. Jack and his hunters set fires to smoke him out, and
Ralph staggers across the smoke-covered island. Stumbling onto the beach, Ralph
falls at the feet of a naval officer who stares in shock at the painted and spear-
carrying savages that the boys have become, before turning to his accompanying
landing party. One of the youngest boys tries to tell the officer his name, but
cannot remember it. The last scene shows Ralph sobbing as flames spread across
the island.
If you read the book and saw the movie, you should have noticed the differences.

Simon is dark in the book and fair in the film.

Book--a ship passes. Film--it's a plane.

The officer at the end does not speak.

Other than these minor differences (not enough for an essay, even), this film
follows the novel more closely than any other I have seen.