Burn baby burn! (Fahrenheit 451 (DVD))

Member Name: theblackstar

Product:	Fahrenheit 451 (DVD)
Date:	26/10/04 (211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: At least it may make you want to read the book., Hopefully it may make you want to read any book!

Disadvantages: The book is so much better., Very dated, even though its set in the future.

Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie

Director: Francois Truffaut

Release: 1966

NB: This film / book is to be remade, and due for release in 2005.

Firstly in reviewing this film I had to do what many had failed to do, and separate it from the book by Ray Bradbury. The book is a true masterpiece which many film reviewers seem to confuse with what is not the best film in the world. Maybe its their disappointment at a less than perfect cross-over from text to film, but hopefully that maybe put right by the release of a new version of the film next year.

Now to get back to the actual 1966 version of the film that this review is supposed to be about. Now Truffaut a giant of French cinema took a book that was set in a future place not unlike that of the occupied France of World War 2. Strong overtones of a fascistic world, with democracy gone crazy and state control permeating every aspect of our lives. Here firemen burn books, Fahrenheit 451 being the temperature at which book paper burns. Taking the Bradbury book, Truffaut was obviously commenting on French life through the use of an English book, written about a future fascist state, and in so making a quintessentially French film, but in English! Confused?! Well quite! So it seems is this film. I understand that film was difficult to make, and almost never got made, and you can tell. The film feels uncomfortable with itself, and unfortunately takes away from the viewers feeling of discomfort with the subject matter.

The premise, (which is better covered in my review of the book) is a future society when all printed materials like books are banned. Free thinkers, in fact just simply people who dare to think for themselves are seen as a threat to the state. Conformity is the way forward, and the individual is hounded to the point of extinction. People watch huge screen TV’s and interact with their favourite soap-opera (sound familiar?)

It is the job of the firemen to burn books, quite obviously turning our society on its head. They sniff out subversives who maybe hiding books. In the book they actually have sniffer dogs that hunt down those who possess books, this element as are many others are missing from the film. Montag (Werner) is married to Linda (Christie), he is a fireman and she spends everyday taking state provided drugs and watching TV. He comes across Clarisse (also Christie), a younger free-thinking version of his wife. She sparks something that he’d hidden within himself, and soon he finds himself taking books instead of burning them, and even eventually reading them! There are consequences to this and Montag’s secret is not kept for very long, betrayal follows, and the whole machine of state control looms over Montag for his crime of reading and subsequently having thoughts that are not those of the state.

One of the notable things about this film which is slightly clever and a little un-nerving, is the lack of text. The titles are read out loud, when Montag picks-up a newpaper it is all pictures. The only text in the whole film is a glimpse when you catch a book burning, and right at the end when you see the words The End.

Summary: