Released in 1984, 1984 is a movie based on George Orwell’s novel of the same name. It is directed by Michael Radford and with John Hurt playing Winston Smith and Suzanna Hamilton playing Julia. It is filled with accurate details and really well-timed as the movie itself was released in 1984, signifying the novel’s name. Same as the novel, the movie is set in London with everything blackened and washed out to highlight the totalitarian government and the dark, horrible dystopian future society Orwell created on paper. But even though the movie set, the casting, and the cinematography were amazing, in my opinion, the movie shows a lot less than the novel as a lot of essential information is missing and it can be a rather hard movie to watch.
The film starts off with a famous quote from the novel: “he who controls the past, controls the future; and he who controls the present, controls the past”, and then it introduces the scene of Two Minutes Hate which is filled with hatred and despair. The scene gives me a spooky feeling overall with everyone shouting and angry. The director did such exceptional work in capturing the atmosphere and the mood that kept me anxious the whole time while I was watching the movie. The feeling builds up while the movie moves onto the street views of Oceania — dirty, old, and shabby, with explosions happening once while; Winston doing his work in the Ministry; Winston falling in “love” with Julia… But I was confused by how easily Winston gets around to buying the paperweight and the novel and how nothing happened to Julia and Winston while they sneak around when “Big Brother’s always watching you” as the director makes the scenes of Winston and Julia so happy and hopeful. And then I realize that it is just situational irony and in fact, Big Brother has always been watching them and it gives me the creeps just to think that actually none of the “rebellions” are actually successful. “We’re the Dead” is the most impactful line in the movie for me. It is expressed so well with the comparison of the prole lady singing while doing laundry and the close-up shots of Winston and Julia’s faces while they hear the speaker saying that “ [they] are the dead.”
As for the climax when Winston was dragged to Room 101 with O’Brien for torture, I covered my eyes before the rats came out because the sound and the atmosphere were so realistic, and at that moment I can feel what Winston is going through as his face shows everything. In my opinion, Hurt’s image of Winston is flawless. Either intellectually or physically, his performance is outstanding and the audience can feel sympathy for him. He acts out his hopelessness, the eagerness for rebellion perfectly, and his breakdown after the torture is epical. I truly admire the direction, the casting, and the visual effects in the movie considering it was filmed back in the 19th century, but I feel like the screenplay can be arranged better. The basic frame of the novel is still there but some important lines are left because there is no way to put them in the movie, such as the lines we see from the start of the movie. Also, the pace of the movie is quick for the audience to process everything in such a short time, and that results in a lack of understanding of the themes. For example, even though the Ministries are shown in the movie, there is no way for the audience to know what the Ministries are for as there is no explanation for it. The slogan of the party: ”War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” is a really important concept in the novel called Doublethink. It is shown in the movie but it is impossible for the audience to get the importance of it without reading the novel.
I feel like the movie will be better with proper narration or explanation of how society runs and the reason why Julia and Winston desire rebellion so the audience would get a better grasp of the themes. Moreover, it seems to me that there is a distortion of the character of Julia. In the novel, Julia, a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League was born under the influences of Big Brother, so unlike Winston, she has no idea of the world before the control of the Party. Her resistance to the party is more instinctive and emotional rather than political as she fell asleep reading Goldstein’s book, and her relationship with Winston can be seen as rebellion, but more intuitive than careful thinking. Winston, on the other hand, has experienced life before the Party’s control, and rebels in his fight for truth and humanity. His relationship with Julia is more like a rebellion after thinking rationally. But in the movie, Winston and Julia seem to be fighting for the same cause and their love for each other is real and rebellion was not only for the political cause and also for their love too.
To sum up, 1984 is a great movie for its cinematography and the actors’ remarkable acting, but some masterpieces are just better left on paper because a movie cannot possibly include every single piece of information and some just have to be left out for the movie to be played under a suitable time. The unique diction, and imagery that Orwell managed to illustrate cannot be fully shown in the movie and the audience may not get the same impact as they were to read the novel because the descriptions on paper are so well done. The audience can also get puzzled if some unique words of the novel pop up without proper explanations. It is still worth watching if you are looking for a quick refresher on the plot of the movie or a visual companion to understand the book better, but I would not suggest watching the movie on its own.
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