Nineteen Eighty-Four
1984

The curse of the dreaded "faithful adaptation of the book" plagues Michael Radford's film of George Orwell's iconic novel about a totalitarian future society. Radford was so intent on literal fidelity to the author's text that he shot as much of this movie as possible in the exact locations Orwell wrote about on the exact days the fictional events took place. That may make for a good behind-the-scenes story, but it doesn't translate to effective storytelling. Terry Gilliam's Brazil, released just one year later, is a far more effective cinematic version of many of Orwell's dystopian ideas because Brazil uses satire to tell an engaging story, whereas Nineteen Eighty-Four labors to render Orwell's narrative as cinema, inevitably causing the minimalist plot to overshadow the book's complex tapestry of themes and ideas. Radford's screenplay makes a valiant effort to include as much actual text from Nineteen Eighty-Four as possible, but when it's all played out in the context of a movie, it feels didactic rather than subversive or eye-opening. Still, there's a surprising amount about this flawed picture that works.

John Hurt stars as Winston Smith, a low-ranking civil servant in the war-torn London ruled by a totalitarian superstate. Smith struggles to maintain his sanity as the regime's overwhelming power and influence persecutes individualism on both a political and personal level. Winston's job is to rewrite history as dictated by the Party and its supreme leader, Big Brother, who never appears in public but is everywhere on propaganda posters, advertising billboards, and television monitors. While his co-worker (Gregor Fisher) is content to follow the state's laws, Winston, haunted by painful childhood memories and restless carnal desires, keeps an illegal and personally dangerous secret diary of his private thoughts and becomes sexually involved with fellow worker Julia. Suzanna Hamilton (best known for playing the non-verbal quadriplegic adult daughter of Denholm Elliott and Joan Plowright who gets raped by Sting in the 1982 film of Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle) is excellent as the mysterious free-spirited young woman who works in the Ministry of Truth.

Winston and Julia begin an illicit affair in a room above a pawn shop rented to them by the elderly shop owner (Cyril Cusack). After the Thought Police catch them, Smith is systematically tortured by a high-ranking Party member named O'Brien. Giving his final performance before his death in August of '84, Richard Burton is an outstanding choice for O'Brien. His sonorous speaking voice conveys Orwell's verbatim dialogue in ways that feel both credible and terrifying. The torture scenes go on and on and on, yet Burton's presence makes them palatable and riveting. While Radford can not fully transform this cerebral material into visceral storytelling, he's able to keep this grim, oppressive story engaging for much of the film's 110-minute running time. Part of this is due to the film's incredible old-world-future production design by Allan Cameron, captured by Roger Deakins' impressive cinematography.

This picture's principal financial backer was Virgin Films, part of Richard Branson and Nik Powell's Virgin Group, which this year also backed music Video director Steve Barron's A.I. sci-fi rom-com, Electric Dreams—a light, silly, music-oriented movie that was perhaps more in their wheelhouse. Virgin executives commissioned the great British rock/pop duo Eurythmics to produce the music for the Nineteen Eighty-Four soundtrack, but Radford balked at the idea of using contemporary synth-driven pop music, opting for a traditional orchestral score by Dominic Muldowney. Virgin exercised their right of final cut and replaced some of Muldowney's cues with the Eurythmics tunes for the initial release, which Radford disowned. A soundtrack album, released under the title 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother), was a commercial hit. The film is now available sporadically with various versions of the soundtrack, some mostly Eurythmics, some no Eurythmics, and some that mix Eurythmics and Muldowney compositions (the credits in all versions read, Music by Eurythmics and Dominic Muldowney). Both times I've seen the film, it's been with the Muldowney only, which feels authentic to the film's aesthetic.