Last month I posted on Facebook that while discussing my new novel project The Lowest Animal with a friend, when I mentioned that I had structured an outline and was gathering materials and resources for reference, he suggested that I read Lord of the Flies—which, though I was familiar with the story, I had never actually read.
Then I discovered there’s a newer release of the novel that includes an introduction by Stephen King, so I bought that copy and read it…and then, coincidentally, Netflix released a 4-episode series this month—right on the heels of my finishing the novel—which I just finished watching last night.
So I thought I’d share my thoughts on the series:
I’d say the film follows the novel fairly closely. My main reservation is that it seemed to be filmed/produced in a rather strange way…I don’t know if they were trying to be artistic/atmospheric, or spooky, or just trying to fill time to extend the series. But much of the weird, static scene sequences could’ve probably been left out without taking anything from the storyline.
Also, in the beginning—the boys finding themselves stranded on a desert island after the plane crash—was missing the initial shock and terror that you’d expect, they all just seemed to calmly accept the new reality and start organizing, which IMO was unrealistic. They could’ve cut the aforementioned weird static scenes throughout, and instead added a segment at the beginning of the boys coming to grips with their situation, then moved on, and it would’ve been a little more believable going in.
Aside from that seemingly missing element at the outset, the rest of the storyline was fairly accurate of the novel. I did notice a few slight deviations—particularly toward the end—but nothing totally off-base or that altered the overarching theme or impact of the story.
As for the characters cast, I think Piggy was spot-on. Ralph and Jack were okay, though not really how I had envisioned them in the novel, especially Jack. But the secondary characters—Simon and Roger—were decently done, IMO.
That said, I think the new NF series did the novel justice, which seems to be unusual these days. So IMO, if you enjoyed the novel, you’ll likely enjoy the 4-part NF series.
Check out Lord of the Flies at Compass Bookstore:
Anyway, just my 2¢, for what it’s worth..
UPDATE: I just discovered and watched the one-hour documentary Making of Lord of the Flies on Netflix, and found it interesting, thought I’d include it here…
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