Going Back in Time to 1984

I have heard a lot about the book “1984”, I’ve been told that it is amazing and a good read. Now I never read the book, been meaning to, but I decided to watch the movie. I know that generally movies never do a good job at retelling the book, but I am here to tell you about the movie. Click more to read what I thought.

The story takes place in London, Oceania after the Atomic War has taken place. The government has taken total control of its citizens, controlling what they eat, drink, hobbies, etc. Basically a totalitarian society, and with this the government also watches over all its citizens to make sure that no one is committing treason. This is where we meet Winston Smith (John Hurt) as he is one of the bureaucrats that are rewriting history from English to Newspeak (the new language issued by the government). Winston is part of a rebellion group, the same group where he finds his new lover, Julia (Suzanna Hamilton). The two try to develop their forbidden love behind the watchful eye of the government.

The first thing I really liked about the movie is the story, and of course it should be, the book is a largly enjoyed by many. The story really interests me because it kind of plays with a hypothetical situation and develops a world that, as different as it is, not impossible. So it is interesting to see the different social order, and how differently society reacts as a whole.

Winston and a poster of the Leader behind him

Sadly, this was the only real thing I liked about the movie. Overall, I found this movie to be a drag and boring. As cool as the story is; nothing really happens at times. But at other times I could barely follow along what was happening through the movie. The scenes would decide to change with no particular chronological order. And the overall appearance of the movie is depressing; all the colours were washed out. Though it seems that this was done to make the movie’s atmosphere, it makes me sleepy rather than make it feel depressing.

Another thing I found really irritating is the acting. I thought the characters could have been portrayed better, and most of the dialogue was whispered. But the characters felt bored and uninspiring, like if they did not care about their acting career. Also, this is a side note from the acting, but there are a lot of sex/nude scenes which I generally don’t complain about, but I do in this movie. But I had to bring this up, I was rather disgusted, I don’t know why but it might have been because of the scenes. They were not done well, and the nude scenes were very unnecessary at times. You get full frontal of Julia numerous of times, and I tell you razors were not popular in the 80’s.

To sum it all up, I think you guys can see that I was not a fan of this movie one bit. Actually I really hated this movie, this movie was so terrible! I found it was boring, dragged on way too long and could have been better in many ways. I really cannot think of one redeeming quality. I wish I read the book before I saw this, because now I have no intention to read this book. I am quite sure that G. Orwell rolled over in his grave if he saw this contraption.