Masterful.Ībout the only misstep in the picture may be the music by Eurythmics (well, it was 1984…), which replaced the original score by Dominic Muldowney, although with the various versions released on home video and in different regions, I’m not really even sure which version I’ve seen. The visual look of the film is courtesy of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, bleaching out the negatives during processing. That prohibition works wonders for the enduring quality of the film – it looks like it could have been made any time in the past 50 years or the next 20. The film rights to the novel were given by George Orwell’s widow (Sonia) only upon assurance that the picture wouldn’t be a big special effects display. Richard Burton is predictably great in his last film role. Hers is a masterful performance, even in a film teeming with them. Why did she never become a huge star? She had a good career, but based off of this film, should have been given more work. Suzanna Hamilton is the actress who plays Julia. John Hurt is absolutely perfect in the role of Winston Smith. The acting is plusskillful, and needed to be for this material to work so well. The picture has such a slow pace, but it’s just the thing for this story. Writer/director Michael Radford constructed an absolute masterpiece. It’s hard to imagine how this adaptation could possibly be any better. One of the ugliest scenes ever put to film. The Two Minutes’ Hate at the beginning of the film is savagely heartbreaking. Who controls the present controls the past.”
“Who controls the past controls the future. It’s not the obvious stuff, the big displays, it’s the complete acceptance of the horrible state of affairs by the people – explosions happen and no one even looks up. With a surplus of dystopian tales out there now, nothing touches this one.
A perfectly realized vision of the absolute terror of the source novel. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a truly disturbing film. It says a lot about how amazing this film is that I have willingly put it on many times, because it is anything but enjoyable to watch. Actually, I only missed finishing my review on time – I most certainly watched the film. Not that it really matters – the film is timeless. What with one thing and another, I missed the 30th anniversary of Nineteen Eighty-Four this past December. “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”
#1984 john hurt review movie
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984): Nearly perfect adaptation, by which I mean it’s just as eye-opening, visceral and difficult to enjoy as the source novel.