Fahrenheit 451

In a future where books have been outlawed, firemen are paid to burn books instead of put fires out. However, one fireman realizes that what he is doing is wrong and decides to go against the degenerate society he lives in.

I have read reviews of this movie calling it "boring" and "outdated," and frankly I am amazed by how ignorant some people can be. Calling "Fahrenheit 451" outdated simply because the set designs look old and because there are no flashy computer effects shows that you have completely missed the point. The people who made this were not trying to give you a spectacle, they were trying to give you a message - a message that is even more important today than it was when this movie came out.

"Fahrenheit 451" is a fine adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic novel about censorship. The movie changes many of the book's events, but the spirit of the book is preserved. The cinematography is truly great and the score is quite powerful. The acting is also great. Oskar Werner is right on the money as Montag the fireman. Julie Christie is wonderful playing dual roles as yin and yang: Montag's zombie-like wife, Linda, and Montag's friend, the young and energetic Clarisse. Cyril Cusack is also memorable as the evil Fire Captain Beatty - he isn't a cartoon villain, but a very realistic and human character.

You may think that "Fahrenheit 451" delivers an irrelevant message. You may think that book burning is a thing of the past, a relic of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Look around you - book burning happens every day! How do you feel about people trying to ban "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" because the word "nigger" is used in it? How about whole sections of "Doctor Dolittle" being rewritten so that they are politically correct? Did you know that school textbooks may not make any mention of Mount Rushmore because it is offensive to a certain Indian tribe? Meanwhile, we are watching our giant-screen TVs and listening to our Walkmans (two inventions that were predicted by Bradbury). We are constantly "plugged in" and never take any time to just sit and think. Look around you - Ray Bradbury's story is coming true. I advise you to watch this movie, and to read the book. (Read the book first. You will appreciate the film more.)

I hear that a remake is in the works. No doubt it will be filled with gaudy special effects and silly Hollywood cliches. I guess I should hold off judgment until I actually see it, but I doubt that it will contain any of the genius that can be found in this sadly underrated gem. It will be interesting to see what they do with the mechanical hound, though....

As an avid reader and lifelong book lover, there's no way this movie couldn't affect me personally! A world without books??? NEVER!!! Whether paper, online or audio, they'd better be here to stay!!!!

The movie gets off to a good start, by showing the firemen off to what at first you may think is to fight a fire, when actually they're going to start one, by searching for and burning books! In this society, they're banned (why make people think and learn, when the soulless robots on what passes for TV can do your thinking for you and teach you enough to live in their one-dimensional society?)

The number 451 pops up all over: at the fire station, at the address of the fireman-turned-rebel, Montag (Oskar Werner), and of course, it's the temperature that paper from those outlawed books will burn! You see conflagration after conflagration of precious volumes and titles set to flame, all for your own good, of course!

Oskar does a good job as a dedicated servant of this braindead society, who comes to realize how wrong it is, and starts fighting back, even if it means committing an unforgivable crime.

Julie Christie also does good in a dual role; as Montag's wife, Linda, who listens more to the "family" on the TV screen than to her husband, and as Clarisse, a nonconformist schoolteacher that Montag gets to know while commuting to and from work. Through her, he learns there's more to life than he's been living, and much of that can be learned through those volumes he keeps destroying. When Clarisse asks if he ever read any of those confiscated books, he soon finds himself looking through a volume of "David Copperfield", and nothing's the same after that.

It's worth noting how something as simple as a hairstyle can enhance characterization. As Linda, Julie's hair is long and stylish (as are her clothes) and she gives a fashion model appearance. Her character, however, is vapid and bland. Aside from her addiction to TV and pills, she seems soulless and unfeeling. Even her seduction of Montag (not long after getting her stomach pumped) comes across as mechanical, without any real desire. She can't even remember when they first met, which gives you an idea of her true feelings for her husband!

As the short haired, plainly dressed Clarisse, Julie really becomes a whole other person, one who thinks for herself, feels strongly, and cries when a little boy at the school from where she's been fired (Mark Lester, two years before "Oliver") runs away from her. Unlike all the other modern, fireproof structures, she lives in an older building, that may be flammable but has a lot of character.

What stands out most is the solution a group of nonconformists found to the problem of destroyed books, a way to ensure they live on!! It gives what could have been a dismal film an upbeat ending.

Well worth watching!

Ray Bradbury's disturbing vision of a possible future comes vividly alive in this film adaption of Fahrenheit 451. Reading for pleasure is now banned although I imagine you must have a certain degree of literacy to read food can labels and directions to operate all kinds of machinery. But read for enjoyment or for education about the world beyond the small space of earth you frequent, that's a big no-no in this future America.

Oskar Werner stars in Fahrenheit 451, he plays a fireman who have a different function in this society. Buildings and such are now fireproof so fireman have become the enforcers of the ban against books. They seek and burn books in whatever quantities they find. A good job in a police state, but not a good one if you have an inquiring mind such as Werner has.

Julie Christie plays two roles, Werner's pleasure driven wife and a schoolteacher whose unorthodox for that society's teaching methods have brought her under scrutiny. She does a good job in both characterizations.

Bradbury's themes are grounded in reality. Looking at American history it was a crime in many slave holding states to educate a slave. Let them be happy in their ignorance and they might not get ideas about a better life and won't rebel.

But this is a society that's beyond that kind of formal slavery so the answer is the old Roman one of bread&circuses. The circus in this case is television which has evolved into an interactive medium. The vast wasteland that Newton Minow characterized television as back in the day has gone beyond anything Minow was having visions about. Entertainment has really dumbed down and the circuses aren't too far from what used to entertain the Romans.

In the supporting cast you will remember Cyril Cusack as the fire brigade captain who functions as the spokesman for this new world and Bee Duffring as the book lady who martyrs herself for knowledge in an unforgettable scene.

The ending is not Bradbury's, but one written by director Francois Truffaut. It is very much however in the spirit of the novel and a tribute to mankind's unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Don't miss Fahrenheit 451 when broadcast.

The Firemen take the knowledge, they won't permit, those with power make the rules, it's their remit, books are burned and turned to ash, as sparking kerosene arcs flash, if you're caught with contraband, they will commit. Montag works the fire, erasing texts, since meeting Clarisse he's increasingly perplexed, she's opened up a door, that's taken him to hidden floors, now he knows the flames he throws are all pretext.

It's not the greatest piece of filmmaking you've ever seen, and you can pull a wagon through some of the holes in the logic, but for its time, and as an example of how the few can control the many, it's still worth an exploration to benchmark where the world is all these years later.

After reading several whinny comments about how the movie is so different from the book I just had to add my two cents. Hello people! These are two different mediums here, like comparing Katherine Hepburn to Audrey Hepburn. They are two different entities which stand alone on their own merits.

I read the book years and years ago, and frankly, I don't remember much about it. I'd seen the movie in years past, and it never knocked my socks off. But upon viewing it last night, I have to say I found myself thoroughly engrossed in it. The scene in the monorail where all the passengers are trying to stimulate themselves through their sense of touch is quite moving. As is the neighbor who declares, "They aren't like us, are they?"

It's never going to be a movie in which you want to see over and over again (like the fluffy Wizard of Oz, again a book that is totally different from the movie, where are the complaining people now?) but it's a movie that should be seen. I also wonder how many people will complain when the new version comes out? I can hear them now, "The first movie was so much better!"