Nineteen Eighty-Four (film)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes 1984) is a British film based upon the 1949 novel of the same name by George Orwell; the film was made in the year imagined by the author.
The film was shot in and around London between April and June 1984. Some scenes were shot on the actual days noted in Winston Smith's diary (for example: April 4, 1984). Nineteen Eighty-Four stars John Hurt as Winston Smith and Richard Burton as O'Brien, and was directed by Michael Radford. English actress Suzanna Hamilton was cast as Julia, the late Irish actor Cyril Cusack appeared as Mr. Charrington, and the Scottish comedian Gregor Fisher appeared as Parsons. O'Brien was Burton's last movie role and the film is dedicated to his memory.
Michael 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 little-known film processing technique called Bleach bypass to create the distinctive washed-out look of the film's color visuals.
Tagline:
Big Brother is Watching.
Plot summary Spoiler
Winston
Smith endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under
the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. The story takes place in London,
the capital of the territory of Airstrip One (Britain).
Winston works in a cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history in accordance with the agenda of the Party which rules Oceania under its supreme figurehead, Big Brother. A man haunted by painful memories and restless desires, Winston is a malcontent who keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus committing thoughtcrime — the crime of independent thought contrary to the aims of the Party.
His life takes a fatal turn when he is accosted by a fellow Outer Party worker — a mysterious, bold-looking girl named Julia — and they begin an illicit affair. Their first meeting takes place in the remote countryside where they exchange subversive ideas and enjoy a sexual encounter. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop where they continue their liaison. Julia, a sensual, free-spirited woman, procures contraband food and clothing for them, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together.
It all comes to an end when they are betrayed by Charrington, the elderly proprietor of the pawn shop, who reveals himself to be a spy. Without warning, the Thought Police raid the flat and arrest the two of them. Winston and Julia are then separated and taken away to be detained, questioned and rehabilitated. Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love, where he is systematically tortured and brainwashed by O'Brien, a high-ranking member of the Inner Party whom Winston had previously believed to be a fellow thoughtcriminal (particularly, a covert member of Emmanuel Goldstein's Brotherhood).
O'Brien gives Winston didactic instruction about the state's true purpose as well a kind of epistemological catechism involving the theory and praxis of doublethink — i.e., the holding of two contradictory thoughts at the same time. Doublethink entails the subtle, willful denial or suppression of all self-evident truths, memories, and/or physical proofs which run contrary to the absolute political (and personal) reality dictated by the Party. Through the agency of the Ministry of Truth and the Thought Police — which enforces, and operates in tandem with, the private orthodox application of doublethink — the Party may endorse, redact or eradicate entirely all public and private knowledge of history as it sees fit. 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". When confronted with this unbearable horror, Winston's resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down, and he 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 — once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party — who have since been "vaporised" and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who has also been brainwashed and rehabilitated. They share a bottle of Victory Gin and unemotionally exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other.
After Julia leaves, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the telescreen, effusively confessing his "crimes" against the state and imploring forgiveness in the humbled and remorseful manner of a prodigal son come back to the fold.
Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army's utter rout of the enemy Eurasian forces in North Africa, Winston silently and tearfully professes his gratitude and love for Big Brother as he anticipates the date of his execution. Having been deprived of his freedom to think and feel, and reduced to a mere shell of a man, Winston is soon to be deprived of his very physical existence as well; and he now welcomes his final subjugation to the absolute power and supremacy of the state.
Differences from novel
The film features a salute, or gesture of devotion,
which does not appear in the novel. It is done by holding one's arms up and making
the wrists cross each other in the shape of a small V.
In the book, the Ministry
of Plenty is called miniplenty in the Newspeak; in the film its Newspeak name
is miniprod, which suggests that its full name is "Ministry of Production".
Also, Winston's working place, which is called the Records Department (recdep)
of the Ministry of Truth in the novel, is referred to as minirec ("Ministry
of Records") in the Newspeak language of the film.
In the film, Inner
and Outer Party members call each other "brother" or "sister"
instead of "comrade" as in the novel.
In the novel, both Winston
and Julia visit O'Brien at his private residence in the Victory Mansions for information
about joining the Brotherhood. In the film, only Winston meets with O'Brien. In
the film, the purpose of their meeting remains ambiguous, and O'Brien does not
explicitly reveal his affiliation with the Brotherhood as he does in the novel.
The film also omits the real reasoning why "Aaronson, Rutherford, and
Jones" were exposed as traitors and counterrevolutionaries.
In the film,
there is also no mention of Neo-Bolshevism or "Death-Worship". In the
book, these are described as the respective ideologies of the two rival totalitarian
superstates, Eurasia and East Asia.
In this film version (and in the 1954
television play), Goldstein's illegal book is given to Winston disguised as a
Newspeak dictionary by O'Brien during their meeting in O'Brien's apartment; in
the novel it is handed to him in a briefcase resembling his own amid the hubbub
of Hate Week, after the alignments of the war had changed (or not changed, according
to doublethink).
Production
Sonia Brownell, Orwell's widow, owned the
film rights to her late husband's famed novel. Shortly before her death in 1980,
Brownell eventually agreed to allow the film to be produced only under the condition
that no futuristic special effects be used.
The glowering, ever-watchful visage of Big Brother was provided by Bob Flag, a non-professional who was cast in the role after answering an open-casting call by the filmmakers in London.
For the role of O'Brien, Paul Scofield, Anthony Hopkins, and Sean Connery were all previously considered. Richard Burton joined the production six weeks into its shooting schedule.
Production on the film occurred in and around London
from April to June 1984 — the actual locations and dates mentioned in Orwell's
novel.
Filming locations
As locations for a contemporary vision of
totalitarian Britain, the practical use of famous historical sites around London
like Alexandra Palace and the Battersea Power Station appears to have been intended
in a somewhat satirical manner. The monumental ruins of Alexandra Palace in Muswell
Hill, Haringey were used as the location for the Two Minutes Hate rallies. Originally
built in 1873 as a "pleasure palace of the people" and named after the
Princess of Wales, Alexandra Palace was destroyed by fire a fortnight after opening.
The present building was constructed in 1875 and survived for a century until
it was gutted by fire in 1980. The remaining roofless shell provided the structure
for Victory Square.
The famous disused Battersea Power Station in Wandsworth served as the façade for the Victory Mansions, and the Beckton Gas Works in the vast, decaying Docklands of Newham — an area that had withstood the Blitz during World War II and which has changed little since that time — was used as the setting for the proletarian zones.
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 "The Roundway",
near the town of Devizes.
Nineteen Eighty-Four was a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in the winter of 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. In a 2000 poll of industry experts conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four was ranked in seventy-third position.
Cast and crew
The leading role of Winston Smith was taken by
the young Peter Cushing, in one of his first major roles. Cartier cast him after
having been impressed with his performance in a BBC production of Anastasia the
previous year. Cushing would later go on to become a major star of the cinema,
as would his fellow Nineteen Eighty-Four actor Donald Pleasence, who played the
role of Syme in this production. Pleasence was the only member of the cast to
also be present in the 1956 feature film adaptation of the story, playing an amalgamation
of the characters of Syme and Parsons with the latter's name.
Other cast members included the actress Yvonne Mitchell as Julia, who had starred in the Kneale / Cartier Wuthering Heights, and André Morell as O'Brien. Wilfrid Brambell, later famous for his roles in the 1960s sitcom Steptoe and Son and as Paul McCartney's grandfather in A Hard Day's Night, appeared in two roles, as the old man Winston speaks with in the pub, and as a prisoner later on when Winston is imprisoned. Nigel Kneale, who had briefly been an actor in the 1940s before turning to scriptwriting, had a small voice-over role as an announcer. The face of Big Brother was in fact that of Roy Oxley, a member of the BBC design department whose inclusion was something of an in-joke on the part of the production team.
The
composer of the incidental music for the programme was John Hotchkis, who insisted
on a larger than usual orchestra to perform the incidental music for the piece.
As well as this, Kneale hated music off disc, so the score was conducted live
to the performance by Hotchkis from Lime Grove Studio E, next door to where the
play was being acted out, with Hotchkis and his orchestra following the action
on a closed-circuit screen to synchronise their own performance.
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