1984 (1956)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

George Orwell (novel)
Ralph Gilbert Bettison (writer) ...

Release Date:

September 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Will Ecstasy Be a Crime ...In the Terrifying World of the Future?

Plot:

George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

Plot Keywords:

Future | Big Brother | Brainwashing | 1980s | Dystopia

Cast

Edmond O'Brien	...	Winston Smith
Michael Redgrave	...	Gen. O'Connor
Jan Sterling	...	Julia
David Kossoff	...	Charrington the Junk Shop Owner
Mervyn Johns	...	Jones
Donald Pleasence	...	R. Parsons
Carol Wolveridge	...	Selina Parsons
Ernest Clark	...	Outer Party Announcer
Patrick Allen	...	Inner Party Official
Ronan O'Casey	...	Rutherford
Michael Ripper	...	Outer Party Orator
Ewen Solon	...	Outer Party Orator
Kenneth Griffith	...	Prisoner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anthony Jacobs	...	Telescreen (voice)

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Holiday Film Productions Ltd.

Trivia:

Donald Pleasence also appeared in the 1954 television version, playing the character of Syme which in the film is amalgamated with that of Parsons.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Fairly OddParents in: Channel Chasers (2004) (TV)

A failure

The first half of the book contains practically no dialogue. Just chats with the Parsons and with Symes. But aside from that Winston Smith's total isolation.

Rendering this cinematically required more subtlety and intelligence than was shown in this Cold War propaganda piece. In the '80s version a voice-over rendered Winston's thoughts. In this version he prattles them nonstop.

SPOILER...

Well, we've all read the book so hardly a spoiler. Do you remember the part in the book where Winston finds himself holding in his hand an old clipping that proves that three recently purged and executed party members were actually in London when they were charged to have been meeting with Eurasian agents in New Jersey ? Now, in a totalitarian state of the murderous Hitler/Stalin/Mao variety, where a careless remark can get you shot or sent to a concentration camp, you learn to very, very carefully watch what you say. Spontaniety must be completely eradicated from your character. Well in this movie Smith enthusiastically goes running up to his superior waving the picture, babbling like an imbecile, "Look ! Look ! See what I've found. Proof that those three traitors were innocent !" No one who lived in a society as terrifying as Oceania would ever be that stupidly naive.

This movie was so unimaginative that it insisted on making Winston Smith a conventional movie hero but the constant furtiveness necessary to survive in a society as crushing as 1984 Oceania is not heroic so it made him a fool.

And by the way, do all the people rating this comment negatively understand that it is about the 1956 movie that virtually no one has seen in 30 years, not the John Hurt movie in the '80s ?