William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is one of a very rare breed of modern classics: namely, a classic that readers still recall, viscerally, years after first encountering it. The book’s staying power is hardly surprising, though; Golding’s tale packs a wealth of searing imagery and indelible passages into a remarkably slim, 200-page masterpiece. There’s the vivid struggle between the two boy leaders Jack (who thrills at the prospect of anarchy) and Ralph (who strives to maintain order). There’s hapless Piggy, the smashed conch and one seemingly innocent but ultimately harrowing phrase, “a stick sharpened at both ends.” And, of course, there’s Roger — Jack’s loyal lieutenant, enforcer and designated sadist.
In director Peter Brooks’ uneven but deeply affecting 1963 adaptation of the book, Roger (played, like most of the characters, by a nonactor — a boy named Roger Elwin) is an unforgettably malignant brute. Surrounded by nothing but other castaways on a desert island, released from any societal bonds he might have formed in his short life, Roger unhesitatingly indulges in tormenting, torturing and ultimately murdering fellow castaways. Elwin, by all accounts, never made another movie. But playing Roger, he ensured that his only screen role would be hard to forget.