Author Archives: vilmahil

Lord of the Flies is English author William Golding’s first novel which was published in 1954. Lord of the Flies is William Golding’s best-known book, but he has wrote many others too and has won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. At the time when Lord of the Flies was published it wasn’t a great success but later it became a best-seller. Two films have been done based on the book, in 1963 and 1990. The name ”Lord of the Flies” is a literal translation of Beelzebub which means Satan.

Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of English school boys who end up on an uninhabited island when their airplane crashes there. The world is in war and the plane was in evacuation mission. The only survivors of the plane crash are smaller and older schoolboys, ”biguns” and ”littluns” as book calls them, but there is no adults. At first boys enjoy the situation and the fact that there isn’t any grown-ups bossing them. But then boys understand that they need a leader to keep order and they have to decide a chief among them. A boy named Ralph comes elected but Jack, other bigun, isn’t happy about that because he would have liked to be in charge too, which later leads to rebellion. In the beginning boys’ life in the island is pretty easy and they all live in agreement. They develop a social system on their own, where others are hunters and others take care of the fire or drinking water. However, things start to change and little by little those innocent schoolboys began to behave like savages and they forget how to behave in civilization. Killing pigs for dinner becomes a routine for hunters and nobody follows the rules they have settled. I won’t tell you if the boys get rescued from the island or not, you can find out that by yourself by reading the book, which I highly recommend.

I admire the way Golding describes the thoughts of the boys; he knows precisely what is in boys’ heads. There is some quite horrible events in the book, too, and Golding tells about them very realistically. It’s interesting to see how boys turn from sophisticated citizens to animalistic savages in raw nature and in such a short time. The book hooks the reader to continue reading; you have to know what happens next.

Lord of the Flies is absorbing description about how dramatically people can change in a new and strange environment and all the learned norms are forgotten just like that. Man is capable to do terrible things in lust of power and it’s shocking to see how even little kids are so greedy for power.

Lord of the Flies was published over 60 years ago and its language is a bit difficult. Reading the book took a lot of time because there were so many unfamiliar words and phrases and I had to use translator pretty often. I think the book was very interesting and well done but I might have gotten more out of it if I had read it in Finnish some other time. I liked the book very much and it was instructive and thought-provoking.

I heard the theme song of the Schindler’s list in a violin concert and I thought it was the most beautiful melody I had ever heard. That is why I had to see the movie, to see if it was as good as its theme. Composer of the soundtrack in Schindler´s list is John Williams and deservedly he won an Oscar from his work.

Schindler’s list is a historical drama movie directed by Steven Spielberg and it premiered in 1993 in USA. Schindler’s list is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel ”Schindler’s ark” which was published in 1982. Leading actors of the film are Liam Neeson who plays Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. The film is almost entirely black and white except few little things are colored, for example in some scenes one little girls’s red jacket. Its purpose was to draw attention to that little girl. Spielpberg has told about the symbolism of black and white presentation as follows: ”The Holocaust was life without light. For me the symbol of life is color. That’s why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black-and-white.”

The film is set in the World War II in Kraków and it tells a story about a German businessman Oskar Schindler who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. At first, Oskar Schindler seems to be only after money but when he sees the liquidation of one Polish ghetto he begins to employ more Jews to save them from ending up to concentration camps. Those Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler are called ”Schindlerjuden”. Oskar’s accountant is Jewish Itzhak Stern who almost gets transferred to concentration camp from the ghetto. Itzhak is the one who suggests to Oskar that he could use Jewish slave labour to staff his factory to save money and Itzhak starts to forge documents for Jews who would most likely have been killed. Ben Kingsley is very persuasive as restrained Itzhak Stern. Amon Goeth is a cold-blooded SS officer who sometimes kills Jews only for fun. That is hideous to watch because Ralph Fiennes plays the role so convinsingly. Oskar Schindler is a member of the Nazi party and he has great relations with Amon Goeth who he bribes to have Jews on his factory’s staff. Language in the film is interesting because the actors speak English with German accent.

Schindler’s list is a shocking description of the Holocaust but still it’s not as dreadful as it could be. The film’s only idea is not to show the Nazis horrible terror against the Jews but to show that even in the crowd of the cruellest people there is someone who is capable of good deeds. Despite the fact that Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party and a loyal friend for many SS officers he set to his goal to save as many Jews as he could. Movie shows how Oskar Schindler evolves from Nazi supporter and hardcore businessman to kind-hearted rescuer. Oskar is also quite the ladies’ man and he likes drinking in good company. A touching moment is in the end when Oskar collapses to tears when he has to leave the Jews he had saved after Germany’s surrender in war. Oskar blames himself of not doing all he could, that he could have saved one more life. Itzhak comforts Oskar by showing the over 1000 saved Jews around them and saying: ”Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Schindler’s list is oppressive, tragic and sorrowful description of the evil of humankind but at the same time it’s touching and beautiful story about surviving and goodness. Even though Steven Spielberg is maybe best known from his scifi and adventure movies and has increased his reputation with E.T. and Jurassic Park and many others, Schindlers’s list is said to be the Spielberg’s best movie. Schindler’s list won 7 Oscars, for example Spielberg won Best directing and Best Picture Oscars, and many other awards. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes won Oscars from their acting too.

Schindler’s list is quite heavy to watch and it evokes a wide range of emotions. It makes you continually ask the same question: how anything so horrible could happen? The film manages to  capture the viewer by its breathtaking scenes and brilliant actors. While watching the movie you can’t avoid the tears and yes, I wept like a baby. Schindler’s list is a film that everyone should watch at least once in their lives because it’s an important reminder of the terrible events in our history and at the same time it shows how one act of goodness can affect on so many people. This film became one of my favourites and I hope it becames one of yours too.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb