What happens when order breaks down, and civilization descends into chaos? That’s the central theme in William Golding’s still-disturbing classic novel Lord of the Flies, now turned into a new, BBC-produced miniseries, streaming on Netflix.
While I was guest-teaching freshman theology in my first parish placement, a student decided to ask a provocative question.
He said “Do we really need priests and bishops [implying the teaching authority of the Church] to interpret the Bible? What would happen if we didn’t have them?”
Without hesitating, I replied, “It would be a theological Lord of the Flies.”
My answer drew out chuckles and laughter.
“You know the reference?”, I asked.
“Yes, we’re currently reading that in English class,” a young female student said.
Then a silent collective pall descended upon us, as we each seemed to soberly ponder what theological order and clarity would look like, if it descended into chaos and confusion. Not a pretty picture, to say the least.
Lord of the Flies –- in Full Color
In 1963, Peter Brook chose black and white film to depict the harrowing events of Lord of the Flies. The choice made palpable the disturbing tale of English schoolboys stranded on an island who resort to barbarism.
The slight artistic abstraction works –- the film rotates through the esteemed Criterion Channel’s streaming service curation of outstanding cinema.
A 1990 version, which changed the boys from British to American, is in color, but the 2026 TV miniseries takes it up another notch.
Series creator Jack Thorne and director Marc Munden use bold hues to give the island (actually a location in Malaysia) an otherworldly feel,
As tragic as a plane crash stranding 40 English schoolboys and leaving no adult survivors is, when you add in saturated color, we see them stumble upon Eden. Leaves are bright green. Ocean water becomes an even more intense blue. Other unique foliage is the hottest of oranges and reds.
For a split-second, the cinematography led me to think whether this updating of the story might yield a more optimistic view of humanity (and by implication suggest human nature has progressed from Golding’s original bleak outlook).
From the opening episode of the four-episode miniseries, we understand human nature, touched by original sin, does not change over generations.
How Boys Become Barbarians
Unsupervised by authority figures, older boy Jack (Lox Pratt) lies at his first opportunity and blames others when things go awry because of his original lie.
A telling moment arrives when Jack curses out the dead pilot, still strapped in his seat, then, with two other boys, pushes him off a cliff.
The other boys find it within themselves to offer a committal prayer of sorts. But Jack, unrepentant, stays mum.
Using Visual Elements to Illustrate the Internal World
The colors of costume design and makeup convey well the descent from the heights of air travel to the plumbing of the depths of human depravity on the island.
In the introduction of Jack and his companions, we see them clothed in robes and berets of dark blues. One might mistake them for “junior Catholic cardinals,” where, in a hypothetical church, blues are swapped out for reds upon reaching theological maturity.
In a sense, the older boys, at age 12, should have made a better accounting of themselves. The “big ‘uns” are indeed older, more schooled, more trained in the music of Christian hymns than the “lil ‘uns,” as young as five and six, who are yet to reach the age of reason.
Unsurprisingly though, divisions emerge between Jack and Ralph (Winston Sawyers), the most sensible of the boys, the son of a naval officer, and a symbol of order and discipline.
By story’s end, Ralph maintains his discipline. With the exception of his weary eyes, Ralph looks much the same as he did when he began the story.
Most of the rest of the boys fare far worse. They’ve shed their robes for shorts (a sign of being a child, in English culture). Their faces are an undecipherable mixture of charred skin, dried blood, and crude face paint.
It makes for a bit of a child version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, where the darkening of the children’s souls through sins of cruelty, pagan idolatry, and even murder, manifests itself in the phantasmagoria of the makeup design.
Is There Redemption in Lord of the Flies?
This latest adaptation of Golding’s tale, while unrelentingly realistic of the human condition, offers the most hope.
Two sailors of the Royal Navy land on the island and direct the youngest of the schoolboys to board the rescue raft first. The youngest, again, at an age prior of reason, are innocent of the proceedings.
The older ones, especially Jack, wait an uncomfortable distance from their salvation. The way the young ones run to the boat bring to mind Jesus’ descent to the dead and plucking souls out of Sheol.
A final shot shows a bird flying high above the island, likely symbolizing how far the boys have fallen literally and morally. But as I write this on the feast day of the Ascension, it also stands as a spiritual destination for the boys whose souls are not yet fully compromised.
There’s potential for them to reach the Lord of the Heavens and thus, the living.
I feel more and more people are coming to the truth of that, as they did in my class of freshmen from years ago. I pray they stay on that path and avoid the Lord of the Flies, which, after all, is the English translation for the Hebrew word for Beelzebub, the Devil.
NOTE FOR PARENTS
While a worthy adaptation of Golding’s still-disturbing tale, Netflix’s Lord of the Flies is beautiful to look at but also bloody and intense. Commonsense Media gauges it for age 14 and up.
I concur, recommending high-school freshmen as the minimum age for watching the series, as that is typically the age that the novel is read in school. The violence scenes tend to cut away from graphic violence, and we see the aftermath of what has happened.
The story is about the loss of faith (and, in a few cases,regaining it at show's end), so there's isn't overt spirituality for most of the four episodes.
Netflix also has a documentary about the making of the series.
Here's a deep dive into the making of the series:
Image: Netflix
Father Vince Kuna, C.S.C., is a Holy Cross priest, and a 2016 graduate of USC's film school.
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