After The Atomic War the world is divided into three states. London is the capital of Oceania, ruled by a party who has total control over all its citizens. Winston Smith is one of the bureaucrats, rewriting history in one of the departments. One day he commits the crime of falling in love with Julia. They try to escape Big Brother`s listening and viewing devices, but, of course, nobody can really escape...
Review :
Taking on this book must have been daunting for Radford. After all, it isn`t the easiest book to put on film. It`s intensely philosophical, very personal and not exactly filled with film-able scenes. In other words, Orwell was not writing with cinema in mind at the time.
But this movie transfers that book to screen admirably. Of course, the cast doesn`t hurt that process at all, but it is the direction that really shines here. The way the scenes are filmed and edited together really does leave one with a sense of what the book is about - one mans journey from being a cog to a human.
That is not to say that it is perfect - far from it. There are points where, simply put, nothing could be done with the essential difficulties that the book presents. A large part of the book is concerned with exposition which is simply impossible to convey onscreen. And the apparatus behind the ideas presented goes without being explained much to the detriment of the story.
In short, this is a handsome if somewhat flawed translation of the book to screen.
