Forty years on since a year otherwise known for Reagan landslides, boycotted olympics, the ascendancy of Apple and also AIDS…here we talk about the apropos movie adaptation from then of a book still referenced, quoted, misquoted, and discussed to this day, for some very good reasons currently. If you want a picture of the future, imagine lines taken out of context repeated—forever. Here’s my take on Nineteen Eighty-Four.
There is a tendency for people to appropriate George Orwell’s seminal novel this way and that—it was hardly the only dystopic vision from the 20th century, as Huxley will attest, but it is probably the one that sticks in the zeitgeist for its easy quotability. Some people say it’s about socialism—not quite, as Orwell himself identified as a socialist, albeit one who got most disillusioned with the USSR, unlikely many of his peers. Some insist it’s all to do with censorship, especially if it’s something to do with another social media palaver. At least in my reading, censorship while certainly a thing in the book is rather incidental next to the much bigger themes at play here, like what decides factuality in the first place.
But let’s first talk more on Michael Radford’s adaptation here—and it’s a pretty darn solid one. John Hurt stars here as our protagonist Winston, a minor flunkey in the totalitarian state of Oceania, dominated by the singular Party and its IngSoc ideology, which has remade at least Britain in its vision. Hurt for me is a great choice for the role—he captures so well that rather despondent feel of the character, albeit one that still is able to summon just enough willpower to rebel in his own way. Suzanna Hamilton is our Julia here, another thumbs up in casting for me, and most of the secondary characters all do their part here in capturing a reasonably loyal adaptation.
For me, by far the best part of this one is capturing atmosphere. Airstrip One here, our totalitarian London, is a decaying mass of concrete and posters, as if it made only a half-hearted effort to arise from the destruction of the old world. Everything is an amalgamation of the worst of dictatorships—children are marshalled into Hitlerjugend-like cadres, while tele screens drone economic statistics like many a voice under red banners. As someone who let’s just say knows many a relative who experienced actual one-party states, many of the details here feel all too true to life. There is no beauty to inspire in this Oceania, only overbearing concrete and blaring voices.
The real themes of Orwell are met head on here—it’s not just about policing thought or going after saying the wrong things, but redefining how that can even happen. Doublethink, how the mind can adapt even in the face of reality…and the worst part of it all, we can see it unfurl easier than ever. People can justify anything if they really want to, much like how people chose to just ignore what they saw out of their windows under Hitler, Stalin, and more dictators you may not have heard of. We see it now, how any side of politics can simply decide that something doesn’t count even when reality screams in the face.
For all the things that were written in 1949 that were a product of their time, more feel all the more chilling. It’s easier than ever to have a Two Minute’s Hate in the palm of your hand. It’s easier than ever to yield your thoughts to the screen. Whether it’s in the book or Radford’s version, there’s a taste of the future alright…
Comments
Post a Comment