My Favourite Movies: Fahrenheit 451

This is a classic movie based on the classic novel by Ray Bradbury. In an unspecified future, reading books is illegal and firemen respond to incidents where books are burnt as simply too dangerous to the public. Inevitably there is a resistance organisation who horde every piece of literature they can find.

Enter the main protagonist, Montag (played by Oskar Wener). He’s a fireman on the rise, good at his job, unthinking, unquestioning of authority and deeply unhappy. One day he meets Clarisse on the monorail who looks surprising like his vacant drug addled wife Linda (both played by Julie Christie) and they begin a strangely intense platonic relationship. As Montag begins to question his life he takes home some of the books he should have burnt and begins reading. When his wife finds out and reports him to the authorities he must either run for his life or spend years in a re-education centre.

The first thing that strikes you about this 1966 film is that there are no opening credits. Details of director, actors and so on are spoken rather than written – in-line with the scope of the film. The style of the film is bleak with modernist architecture, giant view-screens on the wall (just like lots of people these days!) and strangely empty streets. Most people are zoned-out under the influence of bland TV and freely available tranquilisers. Only those who read seem alive – despite the risk of feeling sad or uncomfortable as they absorb new ideas or feel the emotions of tragic fictional characters. Far from subtle, this film is a polemic against authoritarian government and censorship. I do wonder what was happening at the time to prompt both the writing of the book and the making of the film. Historically it was deep in the Cold War but was that the only context behind both book and film? I have no idea. Obviously, from my point of view (as you might expect) this film is deeply disturbing. I mean… a world without books! I’m sure I’d be one of the first against the wall….. Despite being rather dated by now this film still has much to say about state control and the ‘dumbing-down’ effect of television. It also extols the written word which is never a bad thing. Overall this film is a deserved classic despite its few faults. Reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World and, no doubt, highly influential on such later films as Equilibrium and V for Vendetta this is definitely one for collectors of dystopian cinema.