1984It is not enough to win a war through force--the real battle for dominance is fought on the battlegrounds of people's minds. Deprive a people of the ability to think differently, and they become prisoners of a tyranny of the highest order, where independent thought is a crime. 1984 is an adaptation of the celebrated dystopian novel of the same name by George Orwell. It depicts a society so completely overtaken by totalitarianism and overarching government control that it has become nothing but a soulless husk of its former self. People conform to the hive mind, scurrying about like ants and upholding the will of the party like mindless automatons. The world has become a place where any semblance of free thinking is smote--a boot forever stamping on the faces of the outliers.
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The source material that inspired 1984 has become so entrenched in popular culture as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked government, that phrases like "Big Brother" and "Orwellian" have become commonplace. 1984 emphasizes that it is more disturbing that thought itself is treated as a crime than even a world where tyranny flourishes. "1984" is frequently taught in schools because of its crucial message about the dangers of "groupthink" or sacrificing individuality for normalcy, even if it seems unthinkable as a child. In later years, maturity and the benefit of hindsight makes recognizing shifts in values and popular opinion all the more chilling as the years roll on, making "1984" always seem prescient. "1984" was written in 1948--as communism spread after World War II--and the film depicts the world as a bombed-out shell of former civilization. The residents of Oceania--or at least in the crumbling ghetto where Winston Smith (John Hurt) resides--fill their days staring into television screens; this includes mandated recreation and physical exercise alongside propaganda videos, used to rally citizens into allegiance. Even the workstations where Winston and his colleagues literally create fake news from existing articles, is constantly under surveillance--under the unblinking gaze of "Big Brother" (Bob Flag), and one another, courtesy of transparent screens separating their cubicles. Winston's job has him editing the English language into oblivion, creating "newspeak" for his society. Language is scapegoated as the tool of the "enemy", a man vehemently denounced as a "traitor" named Emmanuel Goldstein (John Boswall), whose Jewish-sounding name is meant to underscore comparisons between Oceania and Nazi Germany. The high-ranking members in this oligarchy--including Winston's superior, O'Brien (Richard Burton)--purport that when the plague of language has been stripped down to be less "eloquent", that only then will the people be "free". Words like "free" are used with contradictory definitions as part of the government's commitment to "doublethink", which is designed to undermine the individual's ability to choose for him or herself and thus be completely reliant on the state--not just for food and shelter, but more insidiously, for what to think.
Winston confesses via a voice-over that he is guilty of "thoughtcrime", evidenced by a secret journal he maintains. He archives his inner thoughts within its pages--perhaps the last remnants of diction yet to be deleted by men like himself. Winston recalls with a mixture of nostalgia and disgust a brief moment where he sneaked away to have sex with a prostitute one night. (Orgasms are all but illegal in this bleak future.) With the memory of his act of defiance fresh in his mind, Winston begins a relationship with a younger comrade named Julia (Suzanna Hamilton). The two lovers must maintain an air of neutral--even aloof--indifference in public, and resort to delivering secret messages through pneumatic tubes and within pens to coordinate their affair. Winston and Julia describe their fornication as "corrupt" to one another, as though they are more interested in disobeying the "nanny state" than one another's caresses. Winston dreams about how his ongoing tryst isn't his first act of disobedience, recalling a traumatic episode from his past where he stole a chocolate bar from his sister, fled the apartment, and returned to find himself without a family. Winston--and those like him--are conditioned to respond with shame and fear to any act of independent desire, suggesting that even this event may have been carefully orchestrated to reinforce this in him at a young age. Children in 1984 wear uniforms resembling a cross between the Boy Scouts of America and the Hitler Youth, complete with the party's "Ingsoc" symbol for "victory" on their necks. Winston and his associates are kept busy with menial tasks and pointless bureaucracy to make them feel that their lives have purpose--even if that purpose is ironically to give their lives less purpose, deleting any information deemed threatening by the state. They all wear uniforms and address one another as "brother" or "sister", critiquing political brainwashing that forces those people to convert their behavior to the will of the collective, or risk being alienated or worse. 1984 is bleak to the extreme; streets are littered with rubble from a war that may have raged for decades, and citizens have been conditioned to respond with enthusiasm at seeing "enemies of the state" prostrate themselves on television for crimes they may (or may not) have committed--and where executions invoke adulation from the crowds. There are brief moments of verdant light set against this grim backdrop; they exist within Winston's imagination as he contemplates what beauteous secrets lurk behind the infamous "Door 101" in the "Ministry of Love"--a name that proves to be wildly inappropriate. This bliss is a bittersweet oasis perpetually encroached upon by the engine of annihilation that is Big Brother, fueled on the blood of those who resisted its diabolical grasp.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling and grim adaptation of George Orwell's cautionary tale about the dangers of a self-serving government unfettered by morality, willing to turn its people into slaves to sustain its own toxic existence. The musical score by the Eurythmics lends an ethereal and dreamlike quality to 1984, and its nightmarish vision of a dystopian future.
Winston confesses via a voice-over that he is guilty of "thoughtcrime", evidenced by a secret journal he maintains. He archives his inner thoughts within its pages--perhaps the last remnants of diction yet to be deleted by men like himself. Winston recalls with a mixture of nostalgia and disgust a brief moment where he sneaked away to have sex with a prostitute one night. (Orgasms are all but illegal in this bleak future.) With the memory of his act of defiance fresh in his mind, Winston begins a relationship with a younger comrade named Julia (Suzanna Hamilton). The two lovers must maintain an air of neutral--even aloof--indifference in public, and resort to delivering secret messages through pneumatic tubes and within pens to coordinate their affair. Winston and Julia describe their fornication as "corrupt" to one another, as though they are more interested in disobeying the "nanny state" than one another's caresses. Winston dreams about how his ongoing tryst isn't his first act of disobedience, recalling a traumatic episode from his past where he stole a chocolate bar from his sister, fled the apartment, and returned to find himself without a family. Winston--and those like him--are conditioned to respond with shame and fear to any act of independent desire, suggesting that even this event may have been carefully orchestrated to reinforce this in him at a young age. Children in 1984 wear uniforms resembling a cross between the Boy Scouts of America and the Hitler Youth, complete with the party's "Ingsoc" symbol for "victory" on their necks. Winston and his associates are kept busy with menial tasks and pointless bureaucracy to make them feel that their lives have purpose--even if that purpose is ironically to give their lives less purpose, deleting any information deemed threatening by the state. They all wear uniforms and address one another as "brother" or "sister", critiquing political brainwashing that forces those people to convert their behavior to the will of the collective, or risk being alienated or worse. 1984 is bleak to the extreme; streets are littered with rubble from a war that may have raged for decades, and citizens have been conditioned to respond with enthusiasm at seeing "enemies of the state" prostrate themselves on television for crimes they may (or may not) have committed--and where executions invoke adulation from the crowds. There are brief moments of verdant light set against this grim backdrop; they exist within Winston's imagination as he contemplates what beauteous secrets lurk behind the infamous "Door 101" in the "Ministry of Love"--a name that proves to be wildly inappropriate. This bliss is a bittersweet oasis perpetually encroached upon by the engine of annihilation that is Big Brother, fueled on the blood of those who resisted its diabolical grasp.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling and grim adaptation of George Orwell's cautionary tale about the dangers of a self-serving government unfettered by morality, willing to turn its people into slaves to sustain its own toxic existence. The musical score by the Eurythmics lends an ethereal and dreamlike quality to 1984, and its nightmarish vision of a dystopian future.