Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

6/10

Starring

John Hurt

Richard Burton

Suzanna Hamilton

Directed by Michael Radford

Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984) which awesomely was released in 1984. Is a British dystopian science fiction film, which Michael Radford wrote the screenplay and directed. It is based upon George Orwell's novel of the same name.

Before we dive into the movie plot I very much will like to appreciate the way Michael Radford adapted this movie. It is very clear after you have read the book to spot the differences and maybe not very much appreciate the way the two rebels were caught. But Radford penned it together well none the less. The conspiracy that led to the two leads being apprehended for their thought crime, is more deeper in the book than here in this movie.

The movie made a lot of grounds in the depiction of Orwell's world. The relationship shared between Smith (John Hurt) and Julia (Suzanna Hamilton) was well depicted and as we watch Smith dive into his diary writing down the doubts of the system, you are left to wonder how your system could be holding you captive.

Set in the future in the year 1984 (the book was written in 1949, and Orwell at that time was bathing a concept of a world divided into regions), the world has been divided into regions. This division led to each region going after another for dominance.

At that point most of the world population have become victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and heavy propaganda.

In order to keep the current region to which this movie is set Oceania in place, the history of the world as we know it is being re-written. The whole Oceania is under totalitarianism regime. The whole Oceania is under under constant surveillance of the Thought Police. The capital of Oceania is London, where Winston Smith works in a small office cubicle at the Ministry of Truth. His job is to rewrite history in accordance with the dictates of the Party and its supreme leader, Big Brother.

Smith’s job allowed him to see what is going on everywhere and he started to have doubts. Writing his thoughts in his diary. He noticed the attention on him from a female named Julia. Love relationships are not allowed in Oceania and somehow these two began a secret relationship in a place where they believed they could not be seen.

If you have read the book, you are already aware of how things went down, but if you have not? I advise you go see this movie to see how things unraveled.

The book introduced the term Big Brother (which has now been a big show). It also introduced the conspiracy of thought crime, Room 101 and 2 + 2 = 5. The movie opens your mind on how the world as we see it can actually be redefined. The book is very deep and I advise you give it a read.

I have not seen any other adaptation of this book, but I can assume adapting this book can be very hard and I applaud Michael Radford for his attempt.