Nineteen Eighty-Four was Burton's last screen appearance; it was released two months after his death and is dedicated to him.[7] The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 10, 1984, by Virgin Films. It received positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Art Direction, and won two Evening Standard British Film Awards for Best Film and Best Actor.
Plot
In a dystopian 1984, Winston Smith endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. He resides in London, the capital city of the territory of Airstrip One, formerly Britain, and works in a small office cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history as dictated by the Party and its supreme leader, Big Brother, who never appears publicly but instead appears only on propaganda posters, advertising billboards, and television monitors. Smith attends mandatory public rallies at Victory Square where the citizens are shown propaganda films of the current war situation as well as contradictory and false news stories about Oceania's war effort to unite the civilized world under Big Brother's rule. While his co-worker and neighbour, Parsons, seems content to follow the state's laws, Winston, haunted by painful childhood memories and restless carnal desires, keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus creating evidence of his thoughtcrime. However, he tries to do it out of sight of the telescreens, to maintain his safety.
His life greatly changes when he is accosted by fellow Outer Party worker Julia, a mysterious, bold-looking, sensual, and free-spirited young woman who works as a print machine mechanic in the Ministry of Truth, and they begin an illicit affair. During their first meeting in the remote countryside, they exchange subversive ideas before having sex. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop in the less restrictive proletarian area where they continue their liaison. Julia procures contraband food and clothing on the black market, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together.
Their affair comes to an end one evening, when the Thought Police suddenly raid the flat and arrest them both. It is later revealed that a telescreen hidden behind a picture on the wall in their room recorded their transgressions and that the elderly proprietor of the pawn shop, Mr. Charrington, is a covert agent of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are taken away to the Ministry of Love to be detained, questioned and "rehabilitated" separately. There O'Brien, a high-ranking member of the Inner Party whom Winston had believed to be a fellow thoughtcriminal and agent of the resistance movement led by the Party's archenemy, Emmanuel Goldstein, systematically tortures him.
O'Brien instructs Winston about the state's true purpose and schools him in a kind of catechism on the principles of doublethink–the practice of holding two contradictory thoughts in the mind simultaneously. For his final rehabilitation, Winston is brought to Room 101, where O'Brien tells him he will be subjected to the "worst thing in the world", designed specifically around Smith's personal phobias. When confronted with this unbearable horror–a cage filled with wild rats–Winston's psychological resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down; he hysterically repudiates his allegiance to Julia. Seemingly subjugated and purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses or personal attachments, Winston is restored to physical health and released.
Winston returns to the Chestnut Tree Café, where he had seen the rehabilitated thoughtcriminals Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford (themselves once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party) who have since been "vaporized" and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who was similarly "rehabilitated". They share a bottle of Victory Gin and impassively exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. In spite of everything they have gone through, they still reaffirm their bond and express desire to see each other again. After she leaves, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the large telescreen humbly and remorsefully confessing his "crimes" against the state and imploring forgiveness from the populace.
Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army's utter rout of Eurasia's forces in North Africa, Winston, appearing to have been deprived of his freedom to think and feel for himself and reduced to a mere shell of a man, soon to be deprived of his physical existence, looks at the still image of Big Brother that appears on the telescreen but then quickly turns away from it and looks in the direction of Julia with tears in his eyes as the words "I love you" are heard whispered in his voice.
In winter 1983, the director Michael Radford asked his producer to try to obtain the rights to Orwell's novel, with low expectations that they were available. It turned out that the rights were held by Marvin Rosenblum, a Chicago lawyer who had been trying on his own to get such a film produced.[8] Rosenblum agreed to become an executive producer, and while producer Simon Perry raised the production money from Richard Branson, Radford wrote the script, inspired by his idea to make a "science fiction film made in 1948".[8] The script was finished in three weeks.[8]
Some sources claim that principal photography began on 19 March 1984, ending later the same year in October 1984.[7] The film was released that same month, however, and a title card at the end of the film explicitly states that it "was photographed in and around London during the period April–June 1984, the exact time and setting imagined by Orwell."[12] The budget was originally £2.5 million, but this rose during filming and additional funds were required.[13] The opening scenes of the film showing the Two Minutes Hate were filmed in a grass-covered hangar at RAF Hullavington near Chippenham in Wiltshire.[14] Some scenes set in Victory Square were also filmed at Alexandra Palace in London.[15]Senate House (University of London) was used for exterior shots of the Ministry of Truth.[citation needed]
The disused Battersea Power Station in Wandsworth served as the façade for the Victory Mansions, and the Beckton Gas Works in the Docklands of Newham was used as the setting for the proletarian zones. The pawnshop exterior, a pub scene and a scene with a prostitute were filmed in Cheshire Street, in London's East End, an area Orwell had visited and commented on in his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. The canteen interiors were filmed in a disused grain mill at Silvertown. In contrast, the idyllic, dreamlike "Golden Country", where Winston and Julia repair for their first tryst and which recurs in Winston's fantasies, was filmed in the southwest county of Wiltshire at a natural circle of hills called "Roundway", near the town of Devizes. The scenes on the train were shot on the Kent and East Sussex Railway. The film shared a number of locations with Terry Gilliam's Brazil, which was filmed the same year.[8]
Radford and cinematographerRoger Deakins originally wanted to shoot the film in black and white, but the financial backers of the production, Virgin Films, opposed this idea. Instead, Deakins used a film processing technique called bleach bypass to give a distinctive washed-out look to the film's color values. This technique was invented by Japanese cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa for Kon Ichikawa's film Her Brother (1960), in imitation of a more complicated process developed by Technicolor and Deluxe for the 1956 version of Moby Dick.[16][17][18] The process was recreated for this production by Key. The film is a very rare example of the technique being applied to every release print, rather than the interpositive, that was struck from the original camera negative, or the internegative (struck from the interpositive); as the silver is retained in the print and cannot be reclaimed by the lab, the cost is higher, but the retained silver gives a "depth" to the projected image.[citation needed]
Release and reception
Nineteen Eighty-Four made its theatrical debut on 10 October in London and on 14 December in New York City.[19] It was released in the United States for one week in December 1984 at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles to qualify for the 1985 Academy Awards and grossed a house record $62,121, despite stormy weather.[20]
Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5/4 stars, writing that it "penetrates much more deeply into the novel's heart of darkness" than previous adaptations, and describing Hurt as "the perfect Winston Smith".[21]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes has given the film a 75% approval rating, based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus states:
1984 doesn't fully emerge from the shadow of its source material, but still proves a solid, suitably discomfiting[sic] adaptation of a classic dystopian tale.[22]
Metacritic has given the film a rating of 67 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[23]
Virgin Films (formerly part of the Virgin Group), who financed the film, commissioned the British rock/pop duo Eurythmics to produce the music for the soundtrack after initially approaching David Bowie, who demanded a fee that Virgin deemed to be too high.[24] Radford objected to Virgin's insistence on using the more pop-oriented electronic Eurythmics music, as the traditional orchestralscore originally intended for the film had been composed entirely by Dominic Muldowney a few months earlier.
Against Radford's wishes, Virgin exercised their right of final cut and replaced Muldowney's musical cues with the new Eurythmics contributions. One Eurythmics song, "Julia", was also heard in its entirety during the film's closing credits. However, Muldowney's main theme music (particularly the state anthem, "Oceania, 'tis for thee") was still prominently used in the film.
In November 1984, Virgin Records released the Eurythmics soundtrack album, containing considerably altered versions of their music heard in the film, under the title 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother). The album reached number 23 on the UK Album Chart, and was later certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.[25] A song from the album, "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)", was released as a single just prior to the album and became one of Eurythmics' biggest hits, peaking at number 4 and was awarded a Silver disc for sales in excess of 200,000 copies.[25] The music video for the single made use of clips from the film. The track "Julia" was also released as a single which peaked just outside the Top 40.
Radford disowned Virgin's edit of the film containing the predominantly Eurythmics score and, during his acceptance speech at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, expressed his displeasure at Virgin's "foisting" the Eurythmics music on his film.[19] Radford withdrew the film from consideration at the BAFTA awards in protest of Virgin's decision to change the musical score. Eurythmics responded with a statement of their own claiming no knowledge of prior agreements between Virgin and Radford/Muldowney and that they had accepted the offer to compose music for the film in good faith.
In 1999, Muldowney's complete orchestral score (24 tracks in total) was released on a special limited edition CD album under the title Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Music of Oceania, to commemorate the film's 15th anniversary. The CD booklet featured previously unseen production photographs and artwork as well as liner notes by Radford.
As of today, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owns the film's rights worldwide since they own both the Atlantic Releasing Corporation and the Virgin Films catalogues, and on their DVD release in North America in 2003, the film's colour is restored to a normal level of saturation and the Eurythmics contributions to the score were removed entirely and replaced with Muldowney's musical cues as Radford had originally intended—although both Eurythmics and Muldowney are still jointly credited in the opening and closing titles. This DVD release was quickly discontinued and currently remains out of print. This version had previously been shown by Channel 4 in the UK in the late 1980s. However, while the MGM DVD release of the film in the UK in 2004 features the desaturated visuals, it has the mixed Eurythmics/Muldowney soundtrack on the English- and French-language audio tracks, but the purely Muldowney soundtrack on the German- and Spanish-language audio tracks.
In 2013 the film was re-released on DVD in North America by TGG Direct on a double feature with Megaville (1990), under licence from MGM. This DVD release also features the original mix of Eurythmics/Muldowney soundtracks, as well as the theatrical desaturated colour palette. In 2015 the film was released on Blu-ray in North America by Twilight Time in a limited 3,000 copy run, again, licensed by MGM. This release features the Eurythmics/Muldowney Soundtrack on one audio channel and Muldowney's orchestral score on another, as well as keeping true to the original colour scheme.
The version of the film which has been released on digital download services is the 2015 HD edition. It is available only with the original Eurythmics/Muldowney soundtrack.
The 2019 Criterion Collection release of the film contains both the Eurythmics soundtrack and the original score composed by Dominic Muldowney.
International Video Entertainment paid $2 million for North American home video rights, the fifth biggest deal ever at the time.[20] Their VHS release came out in 1985. Polygram Video later released the film on VHS in the mid-1990s. In 2003, MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD in North America and in the UK a year later, the American DVD only contains Muldowney's score while the UK DVD contains the mix of his and Eurythmics' soundtrack. TGG Direct re-released the movie on DVD in 2013 as a double feature with Megaville. The film has been released on Blu-ray twice, first by Twilight Time in 2015 as a limited 3,000 copy run and by The Criterion Collection in 2019. Both of these editions contain both the original theatrical Eurythmics score and the alternate Muldowney score.
In 2024, the film was released on 4K blu-ray in Germany.
↑ Distributed in association with 20th Century Fox through UK Film Distributors Ltd.
↑ Canby's New York Times review lists the film's running time as 117 minutes.[2]
Related Research Articles
In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, thoughtcrime is the offense of thinking in ways not approved by the ruling Ingsoc party. In the official language of Newspeak, the word crimethink describes the intellectual actions of a person who entertains and holds politically unacceptable thoughts; thus the government of The Party controls the speech, the actions, and the thoughts of the citizens of Oceania.
Eurythmics were a British pop duo formed in 1980, consisting of Scottish vocalist Annie Lennox and English musician and producer Dave Stewart. They were both previously in the Tourists, a band that broke up in 1980. They released their first studio album, In the Garden, in 1981 to little success, but achieved global acclaim with their second album, Sweet Dreams (1983). The title track became a worldwide hit, reaching number two in the UK Singles Chart, and number one in Canada and the US Billboard Hot 100. Eurythmics went on to release a string of hit singles and albums, including "Love Is a Stranger", "There Must Be an Angel " and "Here Comes the Rain Again", before splitting in 1990.
Telescreens are two-way video devices that appear in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Omnipresent and almost never turned off, they are an unavoidable source of propaganda and tools of surveillance.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the 1949 novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. It starred Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence and André Morell.
In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell, the Two Minutes Hate is the daily period during which members of the Outer and Inner Party of Oceania must watch a film depicting Emmanuel Goldstein, the principal enemy of the state, and his followers, the Brotherhood, and loudly voice their hatred for the enemy and then their love for Big Brother.
In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, the Thought Police are the secret police of the superstate of Oceania, who discover and punish thoughtcrime. Using criminal psychology and omnipresent surveillance the Thinkpol monitor the citizens of Oceania and arrest all those who have committed thoughtcrime in challenge to the status quo authority of the Party and of the régime of Big Brother.
Michael James Radford is an English film director and screenwriter. He began his career as a documentary director and television comedy writer before transitioning into features in the early 1980s.
Julia is a fictional character in George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Her last name is not revealed in the novel, but she is called Dixon in the 1954 BBC TV production.
1984 is an opera by the American conductor and composer Lorin Maazel, with a libretto by J. D. McClatchy and Thomas Meehan. The opera is based on George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It premiered on 3 May 2005 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in a production directed by Robert Lepage.
1984 is a 1956 British black-and-white science fiction film, based on the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, depicting a totalitarian future of a dystopian society. The film followed a previous Westinghouse Studio One adaptation and a BBC-TV made-for-TV adaptation. 1984 was directed by Michael Anderson and starring Edmond O'Brien as protagonist Winston Smith, and featured Donald Pleasence, Jan Sterling, and Michael Redgrave.
1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) is a soundtrack album by the British pop duo Eurythmics. Released on 12 November 1984 by Virgin Records, it was the duo's fourth album overall and contains music recorded by Eurythmics for the film Nineteen Eighty-Four, based on George Orwell's dystopian novel of the same name. Virgin Films produced the film for release in its namesake year, and commissioned Eurythmics to compose a soundtrack.
"Sexcrime " is a song written and performed by the British duo Eurythmics. It was released as the first single from their album 1984 , which served as the soundtrack to the film Nineteen Eighty-Four, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell. The song was produced by Dave Stewart.
"Julia" is a song performed by British pop duo Eurythmics. Written by group members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart and produced by Stewart, the song was the second and final single released from their album 1984 , which served as the soundtrack to the film Nineteen Eighty-Four, an adaptation of George Orwell's political novel of the same name. It plays during the film's ending credits. The band were controversially chosen alongside the Dominic Muldowney orchestral composition.
References to George Orwell's 1949 dystopian political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four themes, concepts and plot elements are also frequent in other works, particularly popular music and video entertainment. While the novel is technically public domain under United Kingdom copyright, it is still copyrighted in the United States and as such most uses of it are as non-infringing metaphors.
"1984" is an episode of the American television series Westinghouse Studio One broadcast September 21, 1953, on CBS. Starring Eddie Albert, Norma Crane and Lorne Greene, it was the first adaptation of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
George Orwell's 1949 dystopian political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, has been adapted for the cinema, radio, television, theatre, opera and ballet.
Winston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel also being born in 1945-46 according to the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with."
Emmanuel Goldstein is a fictional character and the principal enemy of the state of Oceania in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell. The political propaganda of The Party portrays Goldstein as the leader of The Brotherhood, a secret, counter-revolutionary organization who violently oppose the leadership of Big Brother and the Ingsoc régime of The Party.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by English writer Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under the pen name George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, it centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours within society. Orwell, a staunch believer in democratic socialism and member of the anti-Stalinist Left, modelled the Britain under authoritarian socialism in the novel on the Soviet Union in the era of Stalinism and on the very similar practices of both censorship and propaganda in Nazi Germany. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated.
The Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty are the four ministries of the government of Oceania in the 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell.
The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
↑ "Obituary: Paul Scofield". BBC News. 20 March 2008. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014. He was to have been in The Shooting Party in 1983, but broke a leg and a couple of ribs in an accident on the first day of filming...
↑ 'In Conversation with Michael Radford', Sky Arts 18 October 2013
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