The start of the film shows the audience what happens before the boys land on the island. This is not only useful for people watching the film for the first time but also for the people who have read the book and are curious about what happens before the boys suddenly find themselves on the island. Brook cleverly uses still pictures to show what the boys were like when they were ‘civilised’. These still pictures can then be used in comparison with real life because they show that the boys are both the fantasy of the author as well as a portrait of real life.
The still pictures that Brook uses are obviously there to paint quite a few different pictures. The first set of pictures that he uses are all about boys. It shows boys in different schools, boys resting, boys singing in the choir. Brook also shows the boys in different lessons with different teachers. We see still pictures of this big old fashioned school, which is obviously a school for middle-class boys like Piggy. We then see pictures of another school, which appears to be a private school, probably a school which Ralph and Jack would attend. In the midst of all these pictures of school boys, the music suddenly changes and we see the picture of a missile on a launch pad ready to be launched. This missile come all of a sudden and without any warning, it represents the war that is about to take place. We then see a picture of Big Ben, which is the centre of London and we see a group of boys being evacuated. This is the heart of the country as well as the heart of civilisation; this is also the place where Britain gets attacked. The music at this point is quite up beat and there is a great deal of tension that is gradually built up. We then see a series of quick flicks between the missile and a cricket match that seems to be going on. This shows that nobody has any warning about the war that is about to unfold. We then observe this big dark cloud, which represents the nuclear explosion that has taken place. This is a cause of what happens when the evil inside humans is unleashed.
After this explosion a map of the Pacific Ocean appears with still images of a plane. This plane is shown from many different angles and camera effects are used successfully to indicate how the plane crashed and at some point I am not sure if the plane clips are images or a movie. As the plane is about to crash the music changes and the tempo increases a fair amount, this is like drums being played in a tribe and is usually associated with savagery. After the plane has crashed the movie starts and the first noise that we hear is that of bees buzzing. All of the film is in black and white and it takes a while for the audience to get used to it. The black and white is obviously there to paint a clearer picture of what the film is about: Good and Evil. This is a theme that is consistent throughout the full film and the novel. It is one of the main reasons that Golding wrote his book; to find a cause for the evil that was going on around him i.e. World War 2. He starts to explore the root of evil, of the fact that there is evil inside humans, which leads onto greater evil.
Golding’s novel is not very clear about what happens to the boys before they reach the island. He opens the novel very out of the blue and starts giving descriptions of ‘a boy with fair hair’ and ‘an athletic build’ who could have been a ‘boxer’. At first Golding doesn’t give any names of the characters that he describes. This shows that the names of the boys do not matter because the novel is not about the boys’ names but something more universal, some evil which is present in all humans, regardless of their names. Golding shows very early on in the novel that the boys are alone on this island; there are no ‘adults’. In this way he describes the boys in their natural state of minds without any superficial discipline. Golding cleverly chooses an island to put the boys on because this is a place that is completely away from any civilisation. But even this island is not perfect, there is a major flaw on this island; it has a huge scar on it where the plane lands and destroys its perfection. Golding’s novel is the classic good vs. evil story, but there is far more to the story than that which is shown on the surface.
I think that the fact that Brook shows the audience pictures of potential schools and school boys gives us a brief picture of what the boys are like in a civilized society. The fact that Golding chooses the choir boys to become hunters is also significant because the choir boys are supposed to represent religion and instead they are the first boys to become savages. This shows that the religion that they appear to pretend on the outside is just superficial, because inside they feel completely different as they are the first ones to become savages.
The start of Brook’s film and the start of Golding’s novel are both different, yet powerful in their own unique way. Brook uses still pictures and sounds as dramatic devices to build up tension and to tell the audience what happens before the boys land on the island. However, Golding does not feel any need to explain how the boys actually get on the island; he just gets straight into the story and starts to explore the many different roots of evil. He goes through many aspects of how evil enters even the most ‘civilised’ of people. In the end he decides and convinces the readers that evil is inside every person. The way that the characters turn out to be is because this is the way that Golding wants their outcomes to be. Golding wants to show that the choir boys are the first to become savages even though they are meant to represent the religious side of society. He wants to find a character that would be able to view his opinions and he finds that character in Simon. Simon was the first one who discovers the ‘beast’ that they were all scared of is actually the beast that is in each and every one of them. In this way Golding puts forth his thoughts and opinions about the evil which consumes every human being.
After reading the novel and watching the film, I have come to the conclusion that if you really want to understand the reasons that Golding wrote this novel you have to read the novel in full detail. Even though Brooks’ film fills in gaps for the audience about what happens to the boys before they actually land on the island, but it does not actually convey the exact same message that Golding wants to put across. Golding wants to show how the boys change during their stay on the island, regardless of what they are like in a ‘civilised’ society. The opening scenes of the film show what the book does not, but the opening pages of the book show what the film does not.
