George Orwell's "1984"

[Taipan]

It seems the widely read book is getting another film treatment, or so it seems:

George Orwell’s seminal literary work 1984 could be getting a new movie adaptation.


Imagine Entertainment, the production house run by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, and LBI Entertainment, the banner run by Julie Yorn, are teaming up to develop a new take on the 20th century classic.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...imagine-303003

I vaguely remember the film adaptation with John Hurt and Richard Burton, so I'm all for this. Anyone else up for this?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Taipan

It seems the widely read book is getting another film treatment, or so it seems:

"Shepard Fairey, the street artist perhaps best known for creating the Barack Obama "Hope" poster, was instrumental in bringing the project to Imagine and LBI and might take some sort of producer role once the deals shake out."

IOW, the artist wanted to imagine how the propaganda posters would look, so the studio wants to "reimagine" it for the Obama/election era.
With a big production behind it, they'll probably go for big-budget dystopia, which...doesn't really fit with the book.

I vaguely remember the film adaptation with John Hurt and Richard Burton, so I'm all for this. Anyone else up for this?

It turns up on Instant Netflix all the time, and pretty much said all that Orwell had to say--
The book wasn't supposed to be the "future" so much as alternate-postwar, and they got the grimy, pseudo-Cold War Soviet look just right.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by EricJ

It turns up on Instant Netflix all the time, and pretty much said all that Orwell had to say--
The book wasn't supposed to be the "future" so much as alternate-postwar, and they got the grimy, pseudo-Cold War Soviet look just right.

Agree. I love Michael Radford's version of 1984. John Hurt was perfectly cast as Winston Smith. He looks unhealthy and beat down, like he's been raised on Victory Gin, rationed food and oppression all his life. I can't picture this new version being any better than the '80s one. I guess anything is possible, but I think the odds are against it.

[singhcr]

The movie was good in terms of its look, but in my opinion it never captured the sense of total desperation that Winston lived in. I suppose a movie can't compete with a book in that case, as the book can take a long time setting things like that.

Given that we live in more of a police state than ever before with the "war on drugs", warrant-less wiretapping, and recently the ability to kill US citizens without due process, it would be a good idea to bring this story to the big screen again to show a new generation what happens when they sacrifice liberty for security.

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by singhcr

The movie was good in terms of its look, but in my opinion it never captured the sense of total desperation that Winston lived in. I suppose a movie can't compete with a book in that case, as the book can take a long time setting things like that.

Given that we live in more of a police state than ever before with the "war on drugs", warrant-less wiretapping, and recently the ability to kill US citizens without due process, it would be a good idea to bring this story to the big screen again to show a new generation what happens when they sacrifice liberty for security.

I whole heartedly agree with you on both points; especially the second point.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by singhcr

Given that we live in more of a police state than ever before with the "war on drugs", warrant-less wiretapping, and recently the ability to kill US citizens without due process, it would be a good idea to bring this story to the big screen again to show a new generation what happens when they sacrifice liberty for security.

(And I bet I know which one we're particularly against, aren't we?... )

The "book-faithful" Hurt/Burton version was made in 1984 not just for timeliness, but to get discussion back onto what Orwell intended: "What if Britain was Soviet?", by what was then Soviet standards (loyalty to the state, the eradication of "subversive" sex, the rewriting of history to serve the state interest, the propagandic creation of a "state enemy").

As for "Could it happen today?", unfortunately, the famous Apple Macintosh commercial prophetically answered that, just by trying to be clever:
Orwell's point in 1948 was that the state COULD control the people if it controlled all the information, and as we know from our Internet today, that's....not what happened.
And that, as Steve Jobs told us, is Why 1984 Wasn't Like 1984.

[Jimmy Smith]

I also hope for a new adaptation of animal farm

Orwell's novels are a fantastic examination on the toltolatarian tactics of the Political Left and how tyranical governments manipulate facts to fool the masses

[ZoetMB]

Maybe they could make 2084, but how can they now make 1984? 1984 was supposed to be a vision of the future. It's no longer the future. So unless the new 1984 is going to be a comedy about how dumb we were in the 80's, I don't see how it makes any sense.

It would be like remaking "2001: A Space Odyssey" and keeping it in the year 2001.

[vegeta88]

I suppose I should see the version you all are taking about as I really liked the book quite a bit. I think at the very least, a remake would bring the ideas, themes, and messages back into conversation. I am always surprised when a person tells me he/she has never heard of the book. The messages are always relevant and a new movie, done right, would bring it to popularity again.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by EricJ

As for "Could it happen today?", unfortunately, the famous Apple Macintosh commercial prophetically answered that, just by trying to be clever: Orwell's point in 1948 was that the state COULD control the people if it controlled all the information, and as we know from our Internet today, that's....not what happened.
And that, as Steve Jobs told us, is Why 1984 Wasn't Like 1984.

Not sure what you're getting at here, but Apple products (actually, most American products) are made in China -- a totalitarian state that controls all the media its populace use, including the internet. Steve Jobs, that rebel who was going to free all mankind with his superior products, seemed just fine with that.

It seems that East Asia didn't need to be at constant war with Oceania. It could dominate by having free trade with them.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith

I also hope for a new adaptation of animal farm

Orwell's novels are a fantastic examination on the toltolatarian tactics of the Political Left and how tyranical governments manipulate facts to fool the masses

Orwell was part of the political left. He fought in the Spanish Civil War against Fascism in the late '30s, for instance. His reports and essays were published by leftist magazines. Orwell's novels specifically critiqued Communist and Fascist methods of totalitarianism, not some generic "political left" since, again, he was leftist himself. (There are different factions on the left, and many are critical of each other, just as there are on the right.)

[master_8ball]

Originally Posted by J. J. Hunsecker

Orwell was part of the political left. He fought in the Spanish Civil War against Fascism in the late '30s, for instance. His reports and essays were published by leftist magazines. Orwell's novels specifically critiqued Communist and Fascist methods of totalitarianism, not some generic "political left" since, again, he was leftist himself. (There are different factions on the left, and many are critical of each other, just as there are on the right.)

Thank you, I didn't want to get into the left ≠ communism.

I would like to see an updated version of this, as others have said the topic is as relevant as it's ever been.

[Cremildo]

James Graham Parks ‘1984’ Collaboration With Paul Greengrass

One project Graham has parked, however, is his ambitious adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 with Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass. Deadline first revealed Sony Pictures project back in 2014, but after years of wrestling with a script, Graham said they have admitted defeat for now. “Paul and I got very excited about it and then [we realized] it’s a difficult project,” he said. “The book is just so bloody perfect, we started going: ‘Let’s just pause for a second.’ The world of surveillance and tech moves on so quickly, we just needed to have a broader view of it.”

[Arawn]

We don't need another 1984 adaptation, we're living it.

[karsten]

Of the sundry classic dystopian works, Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" short story has turned out to be the most prescient. Nothing else in the genre even comes close to it, in its foreknowledge. An adaptation was made some years back with Chris Plummer and the actor who played Samwise in LOTR, and it was... all right, within its low-budget parameters, but played it very, very safe and avoided drawing obvious contemporary paraellels.

All in all, I'd say that Huxley's dystopia is also a bit more prescient than Orwell's. I haven't seen any of the Brave New World adaptations; none of them look interesting.

Zamyatin's We is certainly worth a read and has been filmed at least once. Very influential on all that followed.

Ayn Rand's Anthem is surprisingly a decent read, if one can separate the work from the author. (Being a literary formalist, this is not a problem for me.) It could make for a much better film adaptation than her verbose, overly didactic novels.

As a literary work, though, I'd say that Orwell's is certainly the finest of the bunch, and by a long shot.

[mrr1]

They should think outside the box and make a prequel. Call the movie "1983"