Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies (1963)

Timing: 1:32 (92 min)

6.715/10
496

7.208/10
5318

6.8/10
22000

All about film

Video 5

Photo 17

Actors and characters

Release date

1963-08-13

Country

United Kingdom

Production

Two Arts Ltd.

Genre

Thriller, Adventure, Drama

Budget

$250 000

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Peter Brook

Actors

James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin, Tom Gaman, Roger Allan, David Brunjes, Peter Davy, Kent Fletcher, Nicholas Hammond
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Peter Brook

Producer

Lewis M. Allen, Al Hine

Operator

Tom Hollyman

Composer

Raymond Leppard

Artist

Audition

Michael MacDonald, Terry Fay

Editing

Gerald Feil, Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Lubtchansky
All team (17)

• When casting the film, director Peter Brook reviewed more than 3,000 boys.
• 11-year-old Hugh Edwards landed the role of Piggy by writing a letter to the director, which read: 'Dear Sir, I am fat and wear glasses.'
• At the beginning of filming, Peter Brook largely did without a script, encouraging improvisation skills in his young actors.
• The director shot over 60 hours of footage, from which the 90-minute film was subsequently edited.
• Tom Chepin (Jack) completely lost his English accent within a year, and for this reason, another boy voiced some of Jack's lines.
• American distributors insisted on reducing the film's length to 90 minutes, and these demands had to be met. One episode with fire and several episodes developing Ralph's storyline were cut.
• William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies,' a 'dark Robinsonade' on which the film is based, was conceived as an ironic commentary on R.M. Ballantyne's 'The Coral Island' (1858) – a coming-of-age adventure story that celebrates the optimistic imperial views of Victorian England.
• In 1996, thirty-five years later, the BBC television company filmed a documentary about the making of the film, reuniting all the key actors and crew members on the same beach on the Caribbean coast where filming took place. Among other things, it told about the subsequent fate of the child actors who starred in the film – of all of them, only James Aubrey, who played Ralph, was tempted by an acting career.
• The film received an X rating from British censors, according to which none of the child actors could attend its premiere, although they all participated in the filming and were, in one way or another, familiar with the footage.
• The main part of the film was shot on the coast of the island of Puerto Rico and the nearby island of Vieques from April 17 to August 1961.
• William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," upon which the film is based, was conceived as an ironic commentary on R.M. Ballantyne’s "The Coral Island" (1858) – an adventure story for young people that celebrates the optimistic imperial views of Victorian England.