George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel (aka 1984) is grim and bleak but a super important tale that some have described as a prophetic warning of what society could become.
Above is the original trailer for the Michael Radford directed film version of Orwell’s book released in cinemas the same year as the title.
You can watch the trailer by clicking the play button at the left of the feature image above.
British actor John Hurt (pictured further below) plays Winston a low-level civil servant who works as a propagandist at the so-called Ministry of Truth.
But Winston secretly hates Ingsoc (a syllabic abbreviation for English Socialism) the ruling party of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania. It’s a land void of compassion or empathy.
The party — led by Big Brother — tries to control all aspects of society including everything in a person’s life, even their thoughts. People in Oceania can even end up in the custody for talking in their sleep.
It’s a world where everything is about the party, it’s a place where people can’t have close relationships and that ends up being Winston’s undoing when he has an illegal love affair with Julia who is played by Suzanna Hamilton. In her Winston also finds someone who hates the party as much as he does, and when the Thought Police catch them they’re both forced to denounce each other.
The torture sessions at the Ministry of Love are hard to watch (or read) and it’s in the dreaded room 101 where Winston is finally broken and ‘rehabilitated.’
“In the face of pain there are no heroes,” Orwell wrote in his book.
Richard Burton plays O’Brien a high-ranking party member who becomes Winston’s chief torturer. The film was the legendary Welsh actor’s last role.
1984 was also earlier adapted into a film plus two other versions made for TV during the 1950s.
Orwell’s book was based on his thoughts about life in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. 1984 was published in 1949. Orwell died the following year. Earlier he wrote the allegorical novella Animal Farm which was published in 1945. Orwell’s real name was Eric Arthur Blair.
The film — which included a soundtrack by pop group Eurythmics — was mostly well-received by critics. See Julia, one of the songs from the soundtrack, below.