Review: Fahrenheit 451

Set in a future where books are said to lead to depression, disharmony, and unhelpful idealism, the black-clad fire brigade are the dominant policing unit. Instead of putting out fires, they’re in charge of burning books. One such fireman is played by Oskar Werner, who lives a content, unquestioning existence with his wife, played by Julie Christie. But then he meets a local schoolteacher (also played by Christie) who encourages Werner to actually read the books he burns. And that’s where the trouble begins for Werner, who finds books so much more fascinating than his otherwise anti-septic, emotionally inert, brain-draining existence. How long until fellow firemen like Anton Diffring come looking for him? Cyril Cusack plays the rather creepy fire chief, most distressed by Werner’s recent behaviour.

 

Based on a Ray Bradbury novel (apparently the first to be adapted into a film), this 1966 sci-fi film from director/co-writer Francois Truffaut (“The 400 Blows”, “The Bride Wore Black”) may not be a snooty arthouse classic, but it is a highly entertaining film based on some classic and durable sci-fi themes. I had low expectations, and found my expectations wildly exceeded. Those who prefer Truffaut’s more latté-sipping, cigarette-smoking piffle might baulk at such a mainstream, English-language yarn, but I was certainly entertained (Even though Truffaut- and possibly Bradbury- seem to be favouring intellectualism and literacy over say, television).

 

There’s a lot of Orwell and a little “A Clockwork Orange” here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Stanley Kubrick found this film influential, as the scenes of the Gestapo-like fire brigade charging through the streets reminded me a bit of that film. And the societal view and book-burning certainly have a bleak, Orwellian feel to them. Classic stuff. It’s a fantastically weird film at times (keeping with the anti-reading sentiment, the opening credits are spoken!), though I actually don’t think the film is as far-fetched as some claim. It’s more that as I watched the film in 2014, the idea of burning books just doesn’t seem relevant anymore in this age of iPads and the like. But if you take out the books, the sentiment and themes at play here still definitely work (it’s more of a cautionary tale anyway), and there’s a dark humour at play here that I really enjoyed as well. I mean, a society in which firemen start fires themselves before putting them out?

 

Shot by one Nicholas Roeg (director of the haunting “Don’t Look Now” as well as “Walkabout”), it looks absolutely fantastic, too, with striking use of reds (no surprise there), and it’s all enhanced by a very good Bernard Herrmann (“The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Psycho”, “Vertigo”, “Citizen Kane”) score, that is quite a bit like some of his Hitchcock scores.

 

The cast is wonderfully eclectic too, with Julie Christie and especially Oskar Werner doing good work, and a scene-stealing, creepy Cyril Cusack walking away with the whole thing. The film is already creepy, and he simply adds to it. It’s a shame that the usually very fine Anton Diffring is dubbed here, especially since he’s perfectly capable in English (and doesn’t get much dialogue anyway), not sure what that was all about. He does get to appear in drag in one scene, though, so there’s that. Like I said, very weird film, if still more accessible than most Truffaut films.

 

I’m not sure Julie Christie’s dual role ever quite comes off and the central premise has its issues in the Internet Age, but otherwise, this is a terrific sci-fi effort for 1966, and still an intriguing, entertaining, and striking-looking film today. Co-scripted by Jean-Louis Richard (Truffaut’s “Day for Night”, and perhaps more importantly, the softcore classic “Emmanuelle”), in some respects, this is the film “The Book of Eli” tried and failed to be.

 

Rating: B