https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360556
This movie review will not hold you to final word suspense. It will not dilly dally on its way to its ultimate opinion. Rather, the truth will be revealed expeditiously. Immediately. Now, in fact. Ta Dar—the movie is great—a true and correct cinematic interpretation of Ray Bradbury’s 1953, short novel, the dystopian masterpiece “Fahrenheit 451”.
I first read the novel in high school, where I am sure many others also first read of the terrifying and wilfully illiterate world of the protagonist, Fireman Guy Montag. I also recall seeing at about that same time the 1966 film version by François Truffaut. This was a movie adaptation approved of by the author. Sadly, Bradbury is no longer with us, but what is there about this new version of his novel that renders it successful?
The reason for my approval is that the novel’s mood and theme of anti-intellectualism and alienation are successfully transmitted into a near future, all too possible, world. A future where some form of (undescribed) totalitarian government has abolished most text and replaced it with images, emojis (sorry emos), and endless visual news. A world in which we are told repeatedly by a powerful and persuasive Fireman Captain Beatty that books and ideas cause chaos and misery, and had provoked an undescribed “Second Civil War”. The reinforcement is not accidental, the key facts of the movie are repeated, but done so skilfully, dare one say ‘organically’ in such a way that the apparent normality of the future anti-book ideology appears convincingly real and cautionary.
In this future world, the key to personal contentment and a successful society is to reject ideas that question, to avoid introspection, and to indulge in endless entertainment. In the post-WWII, Cold War era Bradbury used wall sized and interactive TV screens that endlessly mesmerised viewers in order to convey this abstract. I recall wondering at the time if this was even technologically possible. Indeed! In 2018 this technology is all too apparent and chillingly portrayed in the movie in the form of total surveillance, ubiquitous AI, and self-administered ‘eye-drops’ that sooth troubled thoughts.
The protagonist and hero is at first a dedicated “Fireman”, a fireman whose job it is to track down and burn books, both physical and electronic. He is the leader of the pack, mentored to become captain. At first, his is content in his life, but the destruction and death he causes eventually chills his gung-ho mentality, and presses him to steal, privately read, and attempt to understand the very books he publicly destroys. A pretty resistance girl also helps in this process.
The movie denouement is the McGuffin of the movie successfully escaping—flying away in the form of a bird encoded with all of human literature. Montag gives his life for this happen, burnt to death by the hand of his former mentor and Fireman captain. Redemption, but at a high price.
On one level, the movie is cliched. The use of futuristic terminology, of high computer tech, and the ills of social media are not new and have been a staple of dystopian SF for decades, however, the movie pulls all of these tropes successfully together and tells the story well.
The movie is fast paced but includes details that emphasise the moral issues the two leading men face. The Captain leads two lives. In his public guise, he is the unquestioning and highly competent face of the system, tersely reflecting questions and doubt back into ideological certainty, however, hidden in seclusion we see him composing and then destroying forbidden ideas and questioning thoughts written to himself. In comparison the drift of Montag away from acceptance is progressive and reasonable.
A worthy interpretation of Bradbury. Hopefully one we will only ever see on the silver screen.
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