1984 is a 1984 British dystopian science fiction film based upon George Orwell’s 1949 novel. Starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, and Cyril Cusack, the film follows the life of Winston Smith, a low-ranking civil servant in a war-torn London ruled by Oceania, a totalitarian superstate. Smith (Hurt) struggles to maintain his sanity and his grip on reality as the regime’s overwhelming power and influence persecutes individualism and individual thinking on both a political and personal level.
Plot
In a dystopian 1984, Winston Smith endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. Smith resides in London, the capital city of the territory of Airstrip One, formerly England. Winston works in a small office cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history in accordance with the dictates of the Party and its supreme leader, Big Brother. Haunted by painful memories and restless desires, Winston keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus creating evidence of his thoughtcrime. However, he tries to do it undercover of the telescreens, to maintain his safety.
His life takes a major turn when he is accosted by fellow Outer Party worker Julia and they begin an illicit affair. Their first meeting takes place in the remote countryside where they exchange subversive ideas before having sex. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop in the less restrictive proletarian area where they continue their liaison. Julia procures contraband food and clothing on the black market, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together.
Their affair comes to an end one evening, with the sudden raid of the Thought Police; they are both arrested. It is later revealed that their transgressions were recorded by a hidden telescreen in their room and that the proprietor of the pawn shop Mr. Charrington is a covert agent of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are taken away to the Ministry of Love to be detained, questioned and “rehabilitated” separately. There O’Brien, a high-ranking member of the Inner Party, systematically tortures him.
O’Brien instructs Winston about the state’s true purpose and schools him in a kind of catechism on the principles of doublethink — the practice of holding two contradictory thoughts in the mind simultaneously. For his final rehabilitation, Winston is brought to Room 101, where O’Brien tells him he will be subjected to the “worst thing in the world”, designed specifically around Smith’s personal phobias. When confronted with this unbearable horror — which turns out to be a cage filled with wild rats — Winston’s psychological resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down, and he hysterically repudiates his allegiance to Julia. Now completely subjugated and purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses, or personal attachments, Winston is restored to physical health and released.
Winston returns to the Chestnut Tree Café, where he had previously seen the rehabilitated thought criminals Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford (themselves once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party) who have since been “vaporized” and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who was similarly “rehabilitated”. They share a bottle of Victory Gin and impassively exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. They act indifferently towards each other. After she leaves, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the large telescreen confessing his “crimes” against the state and imploring forgiveness from the populace.
Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army’s utter rout of the enemy (Eurasia)’s forces in North Africa, Winston looks at the still image of Big Brother that appears on the telescreen, then turns away with tears in his eyes as the words “I love you” are heard whispered in his voice.
1984 Production
In winter 1983, the director Michael Radford asked his producer to try to obtain the rights to Orwell’s novel, with low expectations that they were available. It turned out that the rights were held by Marvin Rosenblum, a Chicago lawyer who had been trying on his own to get such a film produced.[7] Rosenblum agreed to become an executive producer, and while producer Simon Perry raised the production money from Richard Branson, Radford wrote the script, inspired by his idea to make a “science fiction film made in 1948.”[7] The script was finished in three weeks.[7]
For the role of O’Brien, Paul Scofield was originally contracted to play the part, but had to withdraw after sustaining a broken leg while filming The Shooting Party.[7][8] Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery and Rod Steiger were all then considered.[7] Richard Burton, who was living in Haiti, joined the production six weeks into its shooting schedule[7] and insisted on his costume of a boiler suit being hand-made for him in Savile Row.[9][10]
Some internet sources claim that principal photography began on 19 March 1984 and ended in October 1984.[6] However the film was released that same month, and a title card at the end of the film explicitly states, it “was photographed in and around London during the period April–June 1984, the exact time and setting imagined by the author.”[11] The budget was originally £2.5 million but this rose during filming and additional funds were required.[12] The opening scenes of the film showing the Two Minutes Hate were filmed in a grass-covered hangar at RAF Hullavington near Chippenham in Wiltshire.[13] Some scenes set in Victory Square were also filmed at Alexandra Palace in London.[14] Senate House (University of London) was used for exterior shots of the Ministry of Truth.
The disused Battersea Power Station in Wandsworth served as the façade for the Victory Mansions, and the Beckton Gas Works in the Docklands of Newham was used as the setting for the proletarian zones. The pawnshop exterior, a pub scene and a scene with a prostitute were filmed in Cheshire Street, in London’s East End, an area Orwell had visited and commented on in his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. The canteen interiors were filmed in a disused grain mill at Silvertown. In contrast, the idyllic, dreamlike “Golden Country”, where Winston and Julia repair for their first tryst and which recurs in Winston’s fantasies, was filmed in the southwest county of Wiltshire at a natural circle of hills called “Roundway”, near the town of Devizes. The scenes on the train were shot on the Kent and East Sussex Railway. The film shared a number of locations with Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, which was filmed the same year.[7]
Radford and cinematographer Roger Deakins originally wanted to shoot the film in black and white, but the financial backers of the production, Virgin Films, opposed this idea. Instead, Deakins used a film processing technique called bleach bypass (originally created by Technicolor and Deluxe, but recreated for this production by Key) to create the distinctive washed-out look of the film’s colour visuals. The film is a very rare example of the technique being applied to every release print, rather than the interpositive, that was struck from the original camera negative, or the internegative (struck from the interpositive); as the silver is retained in the print and cannot be reclaimed by the lab, the cost is higher, but the retained silver gives a “depth” to the projected image.[citation needed]
Release and reception
Nineteen Eighty-Four made its theatrical debut on 10 October in London and on 14 December in New York City.[15] It was released in the United States for one week in December 1984 at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles to qualify for the 1984 Academy Awards and grossed a house record $62,121, despite stormy weather.[16]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times said the film was “admirable, bleakly beautiful”, although “not an easy film to watch”.[2]
Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5/4 stars, writing that it “penetrates much more deeply into the novel’s heart of darkness” than previous adaptations, and describing Hurt as “the perfect Winston Smith”.[17]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes has given the film a 74% approval rating, based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site’s critical consensus states:
“1984 doesn’t fully emerge from the shadow of its source material, but still proves a solid, suitably discomfiting adaptation of a classic dystopian tale.”[18]
Metacritic has given the film a rating of 67 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.[19]