Review: 1984

Set in a ‘future’ 1984 where what used to be called Britain is now called Oceania. Oceania has long been engaged in war with East Asia of vaguely reported details. In Oceania, the all-seeing, all-knowing figurehead ‘Big Brother (Bob Flag) keeps the citizens’ every thought and action in line with the totalitarian Government propaganda. Meals are rationed, and ‘thought crimes’ and ‘sex crimes’ are heavily punished by the State. Wilbur Smith (John Hurt) is a humble clerk at the Ministry for Truth, whose job is to rewrite historical documents to paint a favourable view of the Government. However, Wilbur’s acquiring of a diary and an ‘I love you’ note he receives from co-worker Julia (Suzanna Hamilton) lead him to dangerous, illicit, and rebellious behaviour that soon has them on the radar of the ‘Thought Police’. Richard Burton plays O’Brien, a Ministry officer, Gregor Fisher plays one of Wilbur’s co-workers, whilst Cyril Cusack plays a small but pivotal part of a nature I’ll leave mysterious.

On the list of films I really ought to have seen by now is this adaptation of the 1949 George Orwell novel by writer-director Michael Radford (co-director of “Il Postino”). Hell, the only Orwell novel I’ve even read is Animal Farm. Released the same year as the title of the novel the themes, although well-known and well-trodden in the years since both the novel and film were released, still resonate in 2017. Like “Fahrenheit 451”, this is classic Dystopian sci-fi stuff.

The film grabs you from its genuinely disturbing opening scene of hysterical, seemingly cult-like anger and frenzy. This is a bloody frightening and well-captured worldview here, though if you’re looking for subtlety this isn’t your movie. Its themes (inspired by Orwell’s then fears of Stalinism and Nazi Germany’s national socialist oppression) are very blatant, but also effective nonetheless. The production design and deliberately muted palette of  cinematographer Roger Deakins (“The Shawshank Redemption”, “Jarhead”, “Prisoners”, “Sicario”) are absolutely pitch-perfect, and The Eurythmics contribute one of the rare good synth scores (Their participation in a story like this makes perfect sense, by the way). It’s an impressively drab-looking film, and that’s right for the story.

Although popcorn entertainment is far from the film’s intent (this is serious sci-fi, folks), it’s interesting to watch Wilbur Smith’s character slowly move towards becoming a radical dissenter and ‘thought criminal’. John Hurt gives an excellent performance as Smith, one of the actor’s best-ever. Richard Burton seemed to become a bit erratic and stiff in his later years, but in what was his final film performance here he goes out on a fine note in what is a chilling and cold-blooded performance. A brilliantly moody actor when motivated, he’s not in the film all that much, but when he is the film benefits from his grim, dour presence. Cyril Cusack also gives a terrific performance calling back to his participation in an earlier film adaptation of a dystopian sci-fi classic, Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” (a film I probably slightly prefer). I was a bit less impressed with leading lady Suzanna Hamilton, who is a bit of a cold fish in a warm-blooded role. She looks splendid naked, but it’s hard to buy into the central romantic coupling too much when one half is seemingly a bit frigid. I also have to say that she and Hurt enact the most frightfully unsexy sex scene of the 1980s, it’s both laughable and anti-climactic.

Although the first half isn’t without humour, the last half is really, really grim stuff and the first half is still pretty grim too. It’s really good, just…awfully depressing. Some might not want to take the journey, but for me this is one of the better examples of this type of sci-fi story, and I found it a rewarding experience.

Rating: B