FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Francois Truffaut Writer: Jean-Louis Richard and Francois Truffaut (from the novel by Ray Bradbury) Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack
Like works of film and literature such as "A Brave New World," and "1984," "Fahrenheit 451" deals with a bleak future. But while those films criticized politics and showed totalitarian states, this one shows a government that has outlawed books. And believe it or not, it's a nightmare world where people are arrested for having copies of any kind of literature, the daily comics are without captions, and the TV reigns supreme as the only outlet of entertainment, creating a shallow world. That's right: whether we like it or not, we need books.
So why are they outlawed? Well, as the fire cheif (Cyril Cusack) explains, they represent free thought, and if we are to live in a peaceful society, we can't have it, because free thought can insult someone out there. This is the price we have to pay for peace - no culture whatsoever, because no one can be different from the next.
So what they do is have firemen, instead of saving houses, which I guess they do too, they find out who is keeping books, then go to their house, get them, put them on a little pile, and burn them at 451 Fahrenheit (hence the title). The protagonist of the story is a highly decorated fireman (Oskar Werner), who lives with his shallow wife (Julie Christie), who watches way too much TV (even more than me) and takes some kind of government provided drug, often too much.
But Oskar meets a neighbor of his (also Julie Christie) who is an admitted book lover, and she turns him onto them (yes, books are outlawed, yet everyone knows how to read - it's not the point of the story). And soon he has developed sympathy for those he must hurt by burning their books. And we get a wonderfully constructed fable about how books are essential to keep up our culture.
The film is directed by the great French director, Francois Truffaut, and he does an amazing job with adapting Ray Bradbury's story for the screen (and also doing his what was his first outing in English). He creates tension in some of the fire scenes (mainly attributed by the awesome musical score by the greatest film composer of all time, Bernard Herrman) and even makes some of the more futuristic stuff (flying cops) look pretty cool for the mid 60s. He even as the ingenius idea to not show printed credits, but have someone name them as they role. The best scene is where this woman, who has an entire library up in her attic, choses to be burned with her books. It's a frightening scene that will stick in your mind afterwards. Hopefully.
The acting is also very good. Julie Christie is awesome, as ever, and Cyril Cusack is amazing as the fire chief. Oskar Werner is probably underrated in his performance as the lead fireman. He's soft spoken, but always has a different facial expression. He's in deep thought constantly, and he always looks that way without looking stupid.
If anything, "Fahrenheit 451" gives us a kind of ironic story of how books are much better than TV. All the while, we're thinking, "Hey, we're watching a movie about how TVs suck compared to books." But it's a totally intelligent film with a great message, wonderfully presented by Truffaut, with the upmost competence. Hey, maybe some day I'll even read the book.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
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