Educational Media Reviews Online

This video from the Discovery Channel School’s Great Books series provides commentary and background information for classes reading The Lord of the Flies. The video discusses the novel and its central theme--evil in children--mainly with reference to gangs. Eminent sociologist James Q. Wilson discusses the phenomenon, and Los Angeles gang members shown the 1963 movie version of The Lord of the Flies give their fairly unenlightening reactions. An inner-city pastor, a police officer, and others also speak about the book. The video gives considerable attention to William Golding: his life, and his reasons for writing the book. Audio from Golding himself about The Lord of the Flies further strengthens this section, as does gruesome footage from the Holocaust.

The video fully recapitulates the novel’s plot, so it’s not strictly necessary to read the book before seeing the DVD. With its discussion questions and further development of the theme of the book, however, the video appears to be intended for classes who have read the work. The plot-summary portions of the video provide footage from an old movie version, so even these sections will hold students’ interest.

The “Video Index” and “Thematic Units” give the teacher the ability to play only a certain portion of the video. The pre-viewing and post-viewing questions (one each) that accompany the thematic units are appropriate for the intended audience (grades 6-12). “Teacher Resources” points to the Discovery Channel School Web site, and to the 12-page pamphlet of questions and activities that comes with the DVD.

This is a VHS from 1998 converted to DVD. The latest reference is to an episode of gang violence in 1996, and all the discussion of children killing children makes no reference to Columbine or any of the other school shootings of recent years. Although dated, the video is still an effective and relevant educational resource.