1984
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VHS Movie Reviews of 1984
Movie Review: This movie is great(Buy it from DVDDistributors) for reliability
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is perfect. Top notch futuristic and excellent. This rare MGM DVD will never be re-released or come out again, so buy this from the seller DVDDistribuotrs for they are the nost reliable I've ever encountered in my many years at Amazon. They have this product brand new and in stock. Excellent.Movie Review: A fine adaptation, but not good enough to stand on its own. . .
Summary: 4 Stars
Like most reviewers, I read Orwell's novel long before I watched this film, and I think this is the crucial point. This is a film that clearly stands on the shoulders of the book, a film that lends visual authority and power, really, to many of the themes (and overall mood) developed in the book. If you watch this movie without first making any headway against the novel, I am afraid you will walk away with the impression that you have just watched a rather peculiar, (but on the whole) rather forgettable film about a time-worn man searching for a way out of an absolutely pulverizing totalitarian state. But if you watch this movie with the cheater's advantage of knowing what to look for, then the film, in my opinion, rates much better, because then you will be able to use it to sharpen and refine your appreciation of certain Orwellian themes.
What stands out about this film? To start, I was mesmerized by the film's masterful rendering of the tone and appearance of a totalitarian state. The air is cold and caustic, the buildings gray, cracked, and obliterated, the entire scene a rubble, like a society that awakens one day to nuclear fall-out. The only signs of human life in this smashed landscape are the ever-present telescreens that dispense state news alerts or triumphant reports of production goals for raw materials being met. Main character Winston Smith reflects the wider, societal degradation and decay in his deeply-lined face and burned out gaze, a twiggish man who coughs and hacks his way through daily, state-mandated calisthenics. In short, the visual aspect of the film was, to me, the obvious highlight.
Second, I think that, thematically, the film is rich and provoking. As with any film adaptation of a classic novel, the film has to condense its menu of ideas and its analysis of those ideas, and it is for this reason that people often mistakenly criticize a film for falling short of the book's grandeur. But the filmmakers here raise a bundle of interesting questions, and certainly they raise the questions that deserved to be raised. The film asks us to ponder 'By what means and measures does the state maintain its crushing grip on power?' 'How are people and society warped, physically and psychologically, when denied the power to choose?' 'How is the effort to preserve one's language and history relevant to the effort to sustain freedom and opportunity?' 'Are there any fissures in the edifice of the state, or any escape routes that provide hope for a different future?' 'Could this happen anywhere today?' Etc.
In the end, the film provides suitable depth for most of these themes but falters with others. Terrifyingly, the film suggests no route of escape for Winston Smith, nor anyone else. The school-age children are indoctrinated with the lies and false logic of the state, and their youthful, bouyant loyalty surpasses even that of their parents, some of whom seem to sense somewhere in the farthest recesses of their minds that they've been made to worship a false idol, though they will never admit it. And for those like Winston Smith, who suspect just this, the state employs ruthless techniques of coercion and re-conditioning.
One final note. I've read many reviews of the novel and of the film, and for some reason, many people feel compelled to discern striking similarities between what Orwell wrote and what the world looks like today. "Look at what's happening in the US right now," they'll say, or "This stuff is already happening" etc. Nonsense. Orwell's warnings demand our attention, sure, but I notice today that in the good old USA, I got up at a time of my choosing, ate what I wanted for breakfast, decided not to run in a local 5k race, booted up my computer instead, checked a baseball box score, then typed a review of a film about autocratic rule. Thanks, Big Brother!
Movie Review: I was disappointed ...
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a sci-fi nut and have an interest in dystopias ... but I must say I was disappointed with this movie. I really can dissect it enough but suffice it to say that I think it would be a bit hard to follow if you hadn't read the novel already. It is also a bit abstract at times. I am glad I saw it to satisfy my curiosity but I think I will put it up for sale. I thought THX-1138 was a better movie as well as the TV redition of Brave New World.Movie Review: AMAZING MOVIE
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing movie, and the thing that is really unfortunate is that these sellers are gouging the prices and keeping this movie's important message from the rest of the world. Despite this movie being out of print, it is ENTIRELY available through the United Kingdom AMAZON and you can purchase it regardless of where you are. I just bought mine for 7 dollars and with shipping it totalled 11 DOLLARS and 54 CENTS!! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY BUYING FROM THESE SELLERS! They are turning a profit on George Orwells work and keeping 1984's crucial message from the average viewer. Like I said before, they should be ASHAMED of themselves. Great, great movie and everyone needs to see. Once having the opportunity to watch, I highly recommend looking into todays politics and seeing how it relates to much of what is going on today (ie patriot act and the almost patriot act II) Very eerie. Nonetheless, everyone must also check out 1984LIVE dot com. It is mildly humerous yet at the same time daunting. REMEMBER, SHOP UK AMAZON and dont get sucked into buying from these money-hungry sellers in the United States. Movie Review: The best adaption to the book I've ever seen- Patriot Act its a posibility
Summary: 5 Stars
Indeeed, the movie is best viewed if you prior read the book . I remember I was every excited when it showed up because I was just finished reading the book and the concepts of "thought police", Big Brother, totaliatarian state, etc were developing in my mind.. I read in the paper that Orwell's window was very much into the production seeing that the true spirit of the book was held at all times... and the movie does that at perfection level.
In 1948 Orwell wrote the book to exptrapolate a world where fascism, comunism and other totalitarian forces gradually swept the world to create this dystopia... your thoughts are your own worst enemies.. they must be controlled by the message of the big-brothers and their sect of leaders in a hierarchical scale where beong a common citizen is the worst you can be .. uhmm any similarities with present state is purely coincidential
That 90% of the world's population has lived in a state no different than the medival ages, that concepts such as freedom, civility are completly alien, that the few nations that upheld such values are becoming totalitarian, this alone will tell you that we humans are build to live in a primitive state, that scientific progress has nothing to do with enlightment of the soul... that this progress can be ruthfully exploited to make harder conditions on this primitive state...those are the thoughts that this marvel of cinema show us, it is a perfect parallel to what is happening today, of our legacy to our grandchildren.
recursiveness, this is a theme xplored by Orwell that just barely now I have been able to see. The meticulous investigation into the control, manipulation and influence of human behaviour is a formidable task, yet, it is here that no resources are wasted to carry out this at unimaginable levels, this experiment works, the brutal repression is over the point of corporal punishment for those who deviate, it has evolved into a "humanitarian" method of assimilation.. at the end, we can be like Winston at the end of the movie, frighten, concerned at what is being shown in the tv, wondering if as a society we are able to come through, and then the barman, comes up to us and offers us a shot of gin, it will be alright brother-
I can understand why this movie is not available now; again call me a "conspiracy paranoid", but now is not the best time to question status-quo, now that hey are so focused on finding the enemy of terrorism within and abroad... I thought I never see the day that the USA would give up their freedom over to a group of neo-fascist, christian puritans to convert it gradually in a totalitarian state.. they go out agaist the taliban just as we are converting to a new talibanism... no civil rights if any suspision arises, I wait 4 hours in line trying to get in the US to spend my vacations there, to be considered; just by being a foreigner, as a terrorist threat.. while at the same time in my country the whole systems marches to a Castro like state.. Is there a place in the world for free thought now?? Is anyone out there??? helloooo... sure hope Australia is still a land of free thought.... terrorist indeed won over, they have taken away by our consent our right to freedom
I am amazed at the price and the fact that is not available here in Amazon, or is this part of the conspiracy as well!!
Strange enough we see Hurt as the leader of a totalitarian England in V for Vendetta (which you can see my "polemical review" as well)