Lord of the Flies with girls.

[Lambert Simnel]

Will they give it a different ending? Perhaps they'll all be cannibals by week two, or maybe full co-op mode from the outset. Alternately maybe they'll start off differently because of societal gender conditioning but as this ebbs away there will be no innate gender differences and so the plots will converge.

Is it all PC gone mad? What do you think?

'Someone missed the point': Lord of the Flies 'all girls' remake spawns social media backlash

 

[EastEnder]

Depends on whether you consider the original story line to be specifically about the dynamic between boys, as opposed to girls or a mixed environment. If so, a remake would have to be a rewrite, resulting in a different story that might be described as being "inspired" by the original. Did the author write a story about what happens when boys are stranded together, or when young people are stranded together?

 

[ElizabethofYork]

Depends on whether you consider the original story line to be specifically about the dynamic between boys, as opposed to girls or a mixed environment. If so, a remake would have to be a rewrite, resulting in a different story that might be described as being "inspired" by the original. Did the author write a story about what happens when boys are stranded together, or when young people are stranded together?

It was specifically written about boys. Golding was exploring wider issues about masculinity.

 

[Yossarian]

I'd rather see them make a movie of John Dollar.

 

[Sirena]

There were two TV programmes four or five years ago with 13 year olds unsupervised for 3 or 4 days in a house with hidden cameras. One programme was a house full of girls. The other was a house full of boys.

In the boys' house, the place was wrecked within one day, then double-wrecked within two days and then, on the 3rd and 4th days, it was just a wrecked house full of rueful boys who did not even have beds to sleep on any more.

In the girls' house, there were rules and lists and rotas and organization and the only problem was with a solitary black girl who felt a bit isolated and lonely and who locked herself in the toilet to cry. But, even here, there seemed to be a rota of concerned white girls trying to talk to her through the door and, eventually, she came out and was happy.

I thought it was an interesting couple of programmes.

 

[JTG]

In the girls' house, there were rules and lists and rotas

Fascists

 

[Sirena]

In the boys' house, the place was wrecked within one day, then double-wrecked within two days and then, on the 3rd and 4th days, it was just a wrecked house full of rueful boys who did not even have beds to sleep on any more.
.

Dickheads

 

[mrs quoad]

Front Row expressed similar concerns.

Worth noting that this is Lord of the Flies, but with girls, written by two men.

Thumbs.

 

[Idris2002]

There were two TV programmes four or five years ago with 13 year olds unsupervised for 3 or 4 days in a house with hidden cameras. One programme was a house full of girls. The other was a house full of boys.

In the boys' house, the place was wrecked within one day, then double-wrecked within two days and then, on the 3rd and 4th days, it was just a wrecked house full of rueful boys who did not even have beds to sleep on any more.

In the girls' house, there were rules and lists and rotas and organization and the only problem was with a solitary black girl who felt a bit isolated and lonely and who locked herself in the toilet to cry. But, even here, there seemed to be a rota of concerned white girls trying to talk to her through the door and, eventually, she came out and was happy.

I thought it was an interesting couple of programmes.

I think we all know who had more fun, mind.

 

[nuffsaid]

There were two TV programmes four or five years ago with 13 year olds unsupervised for 3 or 4 days in a house with hidden cameras. One programme was a house full of girls. The other was a house full of boys.

In the boys' house, the place was wrecked within one day, then double-wrecked within two days and then, on the 3rd and 4th days, it was just a wrecked house full of rueful boys who did not even have beds to sleep on any more.

In the girls' house, there were rules and lists and rotas and organization and the only problem was with a solitary black girl who felt a bit isolated and lonely and who locked herself in the toilet to cry. But, even here, there seemed to be a rota of concerned white girls trying to talk to her through the door and, eventually, she came out and was happy.

I thought it was an interesting couple of programmes.

I saw that, and it was very interesting, and would seem to undermine this 'gender-balanced' Lord of the Flies, if it proposes the same outcome but with girls instead.

 

[Orang Utan]

It was specifically written about boys. Golding was exploring wider issues about masculinity.

He was also writing during a time of great disruption, with much of the world still reconstructing itself, less than a decade after WW2, about the breakdown of social order, the constant shifting of moral compasses in time of conflict, and the tensions between the demands of the group and the desires of the individual.
I can see how it could work, but if it's written by two men, I remain sceptical.
It could also be interesting if it depicted a mixed group, but would probably be a tad dark for Hollywood.

 

[EastEnder]

Good bit from that article:

Golding himself has said he focused his book on only boys, and not only girls, for two reasons. The first was that he was once a little boy, not a little girl, and the second was that a “a group of little boys are more like scaled down society than a group of little girls will be.

“This has nothing to do with equality at all,” he continued. “I think women are foolish to pretend they’re equal to men – they’re far superior, and always have been. But one thing you can not do with them is take a bunch of them and boil them down into a set of little girls who would then become a kind of image of civilisation, or society. That’s another reason why they aren’t little girls.”

 

[Orang Utan]

Golding's views are rather old-fashioned though. It could play well if the film focussed on how girls are socialised so differently from boys, but still have potential for the cruelty and aggression which are popularly depicted as masculine traits

 

[EastEnder]

Golding's views are rather old-fashioned though. It could play well if the film focussed on how girls are socialised so differently from boys, but still have potential for the cruelty and aggression which are popularly depicted as masculine traits

Yeah, but it's his story!

I've no problem whatsoever with a conceptually similar story being tried with girls instead of boys. I just wonder whether it would still be "Lord of the Flies" or a different story...

 

[Orang Utan]

Yeah, but it's his story!

I've no problem whatsoever with a conceptually similar story being tried with girls instead of boys. I just wonder whether it would still be "Lord of the Flies" or a different story...

So what if it's his story? Others can retell it and interpret it any way they want.
You could always call it Dame Of The Flies

 

[Orang Utan]

It's already been filmed well enough by Peter Brook, and badly enough by Harry Hook, so if they're going to remake it again, it deserves a more radical treatment

 

[DotCommunist]

the '63 version is utter gash, just so wooden

 

[Orang Utan]

the '63 version is utter gash, just so wooden

i thought it was great!

 

[EastEnder]

So what if it's his story? Others can retell it and interpret it any way they want.
You could always call it Dame Of The Flies

My point is, when does a story change so much that it cannot realistically claim to be based on the original? I don't know how this film will play out, so I'm not making any assumptions. But, for example, if the girls all pull together and everything goes swimmingly, I'd argue it's no longer "Lord of the Flies" - so why call it that?

 

[Orang Utan]

My point is, when does a story change so much that it cannot realistically claim to be based on the original? I don't know how this film will play out, so I'm not making any assumptions. But, for example, if the girls all pull together and everything goes swimmingly, I'd argue it's no longer "Lord of the Flies" - so why call it that?

I agree that it should not be a harmonious film about the wonders of cooperation, but I doubt that would be anyone's aim.

 

[Sirena]

I agree that it should not be a harmonious film about the wonders of cooperation, but I doubt that would be anyone's aim.

They'll probably turn it into some blokey lesbo thing in skimpy costumes and mud wrestling.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It's already been filmed well enough by Peter Brook, and badly enough by Harry Hook, so if they're going to remake it again, it deserves a more radical treatment

Peter Hook's version is dreadful though.

 

[bemused]

I'm not sure what extra it brings to the story?

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm not sure what extra it brings to the story?

We won't know until we see it. It could bring a brilliant extra dimension.

 

[bemused]

We won't know until we see it. It could bring a brilliant extra dimension.

I hope so, I love a great movie. My concern when I read reports like this is that the writers are more bothered about how novel the casting is rather how good the writing is.

 

[Orang Utan]

I hope so, I love a great movie. My concern when I read reports like this is that the writers are more bothered about how novel the casting is rather how good the writing is.

well i think there is mileage, as I said, in examining how girls are socialised to resolve conflict and tension - they may not resort to the brutal violence that boys do (though they can and do), but they can certainly construct a dysfunctional and cruel regime that might be worth depicting (especially if constructed as a critique of patriarchy in the world that's been left behind in the plot).

 

[bemused]

well i think there is mileage, as I said, in examining how girls are socialised to resolve conflict and tension - they may not resort to the brutal violence that boys do (though they can and do), but they can certainly construct a dysfunctional and cruel regime that might be worth depicting (especially if constructed as a critique of patriarchy in the world that's been left behind in the plot).

I think the brutality of the tribe is what underpinned the original story. I'm not paying for it so hopefully, they've make something people will enjoy.

 

[Orang Utan]

I think the brutality of the tribe is what underpinned the original story. I'm not paying for it so hopefully, they've make something people will enjoy.

i think it would be a mistake to stick too much to the original story. That's often a mistake adaptations make.

 

[Chilli.s]

A lame unoriginal idea that should have never made it out of the student common room.

 

[Sirena]

well i think there is mileage, as I said, in examining how girls are socialised to resolve conflict and tension - they may not resort to the brutal violence that boys do (though they can and do), but they can certainly construct a dysfunctional and cruel regime that might be worth depicting (especially if constructed as a critique of patriarchy in the world that's been left behind in the plot).

So, yes, support a film about this. But don't try to make this sort of film out of 'Lord of the Flies which, as one person in their tweet wrote, is about "the replication of systemic masculine toxicity".

Is this central theme of the whole work the subject you are trying to avoid?