Lord of the Flies - Differences between the book and the film
The film follows the book very faithfully, but there are a few differences:
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When they first light the fire on the hill, the fire doesn't spread over the jungle and thus the
child that died from this fire is not shown.
The killing of the mother sow is not shown, only the boys stabbing at something off-screen.
Similarly, the dead parachutist mistaken by Sam and Eric for the beast isn't shown, only their
reaction to seeing it but they do see the parachute flapping in the wind behind the mountain.
Piggy does not make an emotional speech denouncing Jack and imagining a confrontation after
the theft of the glasses.
Ralph does not insult Piggy as much as in the novel.
Piggy hardly ever cleans his spectacles.
The boys spot a plane instead of a ship.
Simon has very few lines throughout the film.
Simon does not actually talk to the pig head, instead staring at it for a long period of time, as
the flies' buzzing grows increasingly louder.
When Jack leaves the tribe, the whole re-election scene is left out, instead, he just leaves the
tribe and asks who wants to come with him.
In the film, Piggy tells a story to the littluns about Camberley, a town not even mentioned in the
book.
At the end of the book, Ralph talks to the navy officer and tells him about the deaths of Simon
and Piggy; in the movie, it is left out.
In the book, Simon is said to have black hair and a dark complexion; in the movie, he has blonde
hair and is very fair. Golding's point in the book was to make him a Christ-like figure, and as
Christ was from Jerusalem, he would have looked like this. However, in the film, he's made to
look like the modern, westernised view of a Christ figure.
In the book, it is said that Ralph is slightly taller than Jack; in the movie, Jack is taller.
In the book, Jack's hair is said to be red. In the movie, though it was filmed in black and white,
his hair is clearly brown.
Simon's death is less violent.
Samneric were not painted when Ralph went to see them after they were forced to join Jack's
tribe; in the movie, they were.
Ralph is said to have "fair hair" in the book; however, in the movie it is clearly brown. (Golding
7.).
Many parts of the book are excluded from the movie.