Plot
In a gray, oppressive future, humanity is divided into three powerful police superstates (Oceania, Eurasia, and East Asia), all locked in endless military conflict. London, capital of a province of Oceania, finds itself caught in the iron grip of a totalitarian “Big Brother” that bans any form of free thought, labelling it “subversive”.
This tyrannical regime incessantly manipulates information, represses sexuality, and denies the value of emotions. With the help of omnipresent hidden cameras and microphones, Big Brother’s “Thought Police” obsessively monitor everyone’s behavior, reducing citizens to the rank of docile, productive automatons.
Against such a desolate backdrop, Outer Party member Winston Smith makes a futile attempt to fight the System, asserting his freedom of expression and plotting an impossible relationship with the beautiful young Julia.
How can I help saying what's in front of my eyes?
Critique
5Ashen, impersonal, devoid of any and all hope: that’s the anti-utopian London in this hypothetical 1984, a city oppressed by Big Brother’s dehumanizing regime. In this first film rendition of “1984” (an earlier BBC TV adaptation aired in 1954, supervised by the great British screenwriter Nigel Kneale), Michael Anderson remains fairly faithful to the literary source, but is unable to approach the tragic evocative power permeating the pages of Orwell’s cautionary work.
It should be noted there’s an alternate ending, but the better of the two is undoubtedly the American version depicting the blood-curdling “rehabilitation” of the rebellious couple, far more faithful to the angst and bitter reflections of the original text.
A later, superior adaptation of the classic novel will be directed by Michael Radford in (appropriately enough) 1984.
More Info
- Based on the novel "1984" (1949) by George Orwell
Quotes
- "How can I help saying what's in front of my eyes? Two and two are four" [...] "Sometimes they are four. Sometimes, if the State says so, they are five. How many fingers?"
Trivia
- Published in 1949, “1984” was itself strongly influenced by earlier dystopian novels such as Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” (1932) and the seminal “We” (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin, for which Orwell himself edited the English-language edition.
Products
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| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984: 75th Anniversary | |
 | 1984 |
| Nome del prodotto | Prezzo | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984. Ediz. integrale. Con Segnalibro |
| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984 (1956) ( Nineteen Eighty Four ) | |
 | 1984 (Deluxe Hardbound Edition) |
| Nombre del producto | Precio | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984 (Contemporánea) | |
| 1984 (1956) [Edizione: Stati Uniti] [Italia] [DVD] | |
 | George Orwell (pack con las ediciones definitivas avaladas por The Orwell Estate de 1984 y Rebelión en la granja): 26201 (Contemporánea) |
| Produktname | Preis | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984: Neu übersetzt von Jan Strümpel | |
 | 1984 |
| Nom du produit | Prix | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984 | |
| 1984 |
| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four | |
| 1984 |