Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

Ray Bradbury (novel) and
Jean-Louis Richard (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 November 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Drama

Tagline:

Aflame with the excitement and emotions of tomorrow!

Plot:

In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task.

Plot Keywords:

Resistance | Betrayal | Redemption | Faked Death | Person On Fire

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Oskar Werner	...	Guy Montag
Julie Christie	...	Clarisse / Linda Montag
Cyril Cusack	...	The Captain
Anton Diffring	...	Fabian / Headmistress
Jeremy Spenser	...	Man with the Apple
Bee Duffell	...	Book Lady
Alex Scott	...	Book Person: 'The Life of Henry Brulard'
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Noel Davis	...	Cousin Midge - TV Personality

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | USA:Unrated | Singapore:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Anglo Enterprises

Trivia:

According to producer Lewis M. Allen, François Truffaut spoke virtually no English, and the cast and crew mostly operated in French. Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, cinematographer Nicolas Roeg and associate producer Michael Dalamar all spoke French. Allen had high school French, but editor Thom Noble did not speak the language at all.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Montag gets in the boat to hide from the flying cops, you can see the rope still tying the boat to the bank. Montag subsequently rows away with out untying it.

Quotes:

The Captain: Listen to me, Montag. Once to each fireman, at least once in his career, he just itches to know what these books are all about. He just aches to know. Isn't that so?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Watching the Alien (2003) (V)

yes, there is something wrong between Montag and the poll...

Montag, with the help of the beautiful neighbor, had just started reading novels and the poll at the fire department he worked for refused to take him up. Because the poll accepts only those who obey with the law: Burn any book you find. Books are enemies, books are bad, books may cause suffering, distraction, chaos, disorder, rebel...Books make people anti-social. They'd better watch TV (numbing and dumbing interactive shows mostly). So, some time in the future, the government bans any kind of reading, and firemen are from that moment in charge of putting fire on the books, not putting fire out.

So what are the consequences? People lose identity: they are similar to each other with nothing to distinguish oneself from the other, they live in their unreal and artificially happy(!) little worlds, alienated and detached from one another, they lack love and passion, they lack emotion...they rub their cheeks against the fur of their coats continuously, feeding their need for love probably...they have very short memories, they take sedatives daily to keep their emotions under control... This is the reason for all this. They think humanly emotions are the main sources for humanly suffering and unhappiness. So, to avoid this, they ban books which have proved to wake emotions, to convey the most intriguing, challenging feelings to people. TV is harmless, of course without much complexities. After all, TV can change people, too, so they keep it simple, allowing for people to become as robotic and as cold and as dumb as possible. So that their memory together with their intelligence (especially emotional intelligence) is disabled. Memories make people unhappy, too. The wife does not even remember when she first met Montag...

And on the other hand, there are the ''book-people''. Each is a book him/herself, having memorized his/her whole book verse by verse, trying to survive illegally in the woods. They are so few, and so sad...

Truffaut's cinematography is immensely good. Especially in the first half of the movie there are great shots. Reverse movements, cleverly used close-ups, jumps, great editing...The decoration is kept as simple and cold as possible, with straight lines dominating, pale colors and all are well in line with the theme. And of course the credits with words and no writing -that was perfect! Also, as the credits were being told, the focuses on the TV antennas on the roofs of the houses were very cleverly done.

A 10/10 for me. I watched each moment of the film, amazed.