1984 (1956)

Posted by HJ

I read the book back in the late 1950s just before entering my teens, and was really impressed! The one item that has stuck with me throughout the years was "Newspeak," where words were limited, and seemed to be expressed in terms of a positive connotation. Therefore,instead of "terrible," one would say "double plus un-good."

But I must rate the 1956 version of the movie as at least "plus good." Its Noirness is debatable, although the very concept of 1984 as such a tightly-controlled society is quite Noirish.

I'm not going to use a lot of verbiage in explaining the film itself, other than to say that Edmond O'Brien was a very competent Winston Smith and Jan Sterling was convincing as his illicit girlfriend Julia. The obligatory weasel was well-portrayed by Donald Pleasence.

If you're looking for a colorful flick, this ain't it! The drabness of Winston Smith's existence both on and off the job is profound. And his realization that the Ministry of Truth is propounding nothing but a constantly-shifting pack of lies and revisionist history in support of whatever Big Brother's current needs demand is well-handled, IMO.

If I may digress somewhat here, you can find at least SOME elements of 1984 in real life now, depending on your political leanings.

The monitoring of people's lives by the government is somewhat of a fact nowadays, though not in quite such a malevolent way as in the movie.

The revisionist history (which I really despise!) is also a fact of life in our lives today, though employed more in a political propaganda way than a governmental way.

And the drab lives are lived every day in Third World countries by most of their citizens, as drab lives always have been and will probably continue to be for millennia to come......

This is a novel (and movie) that flirts with conventions of Film Noir while not actually being a Noir, IMO. That said, to me it's very well worth a watch!

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