Crossdressing for Lady of the Flies

Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies

A number of people are getting upset about the planned new film based on “Lord of the Flies.” The backers say they plan to stay faithful to the book, but with one big twist: the cast, all boys in the book, will be all female.

I can’t get too upset. If these guys go ahead and do it, heaven will sent their punishment all on its own. They will lose their investment. The film will not interest audiences. Men and woman, boys and girls, are not interchangeable but for the dangly bits. They will react differently in the same situations. Have women do men’s roles, and it will all come across as stilted and not believable.

It might be quite interesting to imagine how girls would react faced with a similar situation. But that would take work. And talent.

And who is the audience? The theme, survival on a desert island, is one that would tend to interest men, not women so much. But it will interest men less with girls in the roles, while this will do nothing to draw women in.

Bottom line: Hollywood moguls are stupid.

More generally, I hate the conventional and unimaginative idea of taking a familiar work and gimmicking up the setting: Romeo and Juliet in modern dress, a black Human Torch, that sort of thing. It is like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa. It is a type of vandalism.