Warner Brothers, apparently not having learned the lesson from last year’s remake of “Ghostbusters,” has hit upon doing a remake of “Lord of the Flies,” but in this case with a group of girls stranded on a Desert Island. The project, according to Deadline Hollywood, is running into a firestorm caused by identity politics and feminist ideology.
What is ‘Lord of the Flies?’
“Lord of the Flies” was a 1954 novel by William Golding that told the story of a group of British schoolboys who wind up stranded on a desert island after a plane crash, without any adults around.
Despite their best efforts to achieve a peaceful society the boys rapidly descend into barbarism. The novel has been made into two feature motion pictures.
What is up with an all-girl version?
One cannot tell what the thinking went into this project, but one imagines that the novelty of the idea was a factor in greenlighting it. The question is, will the girls be depicting as misbehaving in the same way as the boys did, or will they find new ways to ruin themselves before rescue arrives?
Little girls do not behave like that
The consensus among the project’s feminist critics is that little girls in the same situation as the boys would not behave badly. Girls, absent the influence of males, are peaceful, cooperative, and nurturing.
The idea, considering the capability of female children to bully and backbite, would seem to be a quaint one. Anyone who has been a parent or a middle school teacher knows that girls are just as capable of bad behavior as boys.
Two guys are developing the movie
The other objection stems from the fact that two men. Scott McGehee and Evan Siegel.
Are developing the project. Feminist critics suggest that this is unacceptable. Two men will never understand what drives girls, apparently since they seem to think that a group of female children would become barbarians if left to their own devices. In their imagination, the rescue party would find a calm, peaceful society in which everyone is worshiping Mother Gaia instead of fighting, torturing one another, and hunting down one another like wild pigs.
The problem with the project
The real issue with yet another remake of “Lord of the Flies” is that it has been done before. Changing the gender of the participants does not alter the notion that Hollywood has difficulty coming up with new ideas and tends to return again and again to well-worn material. The project may get made and, despite the controversy and the novelty factor, will likely not do very well.
