Subject: Retrospective: Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

From: Ted Prigge <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Oct 1997 04:27:21 GMT

FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966)
A Film Review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge

Director: Francois Truffaut
Writer: Jean-Louis Richard and Francois Truffaut (from the novel by Ray
Bradbury)
Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack

Like works of film and literature such as "A Brave New World," and
"1984," "Fahrenheit 451" deals with a bleak future.  But while those
films criticized politics and showed totalitarian states, this one shows
a government that has outlawed books.  And believe it or not, it's a
nightmare world where people are arrested for having copies of any kind
of literature, the daily comics are without captions, and the TV reigns
supreme as the only outlet of entertainment, creating a shallow world. 
That's right: whether we like it or not, we need books.

So why are they outlawed?  Well, as the fire cheif (Cyril Cusack)
explains, they represent free thought, and if we are to live in a
peaceful society, we can't have it, because free thought can insult
someone out there.  This is the price we have to pay for peace - no
culture whatsoever, because no one can be different from the next.

So what they do is have firemen, instead of saving houses, which I guess
they do too, they find out who is keeping books, then go to their house,
get them, put them on a little pile, and burn them at 451 Fahrenheit
(hence the title).  The protagonist of the story is a highly decorated
fireman (Oskar Werner), who lives with his shallow wife (Julie
Christie), who watches way too much TV (even more than me) and takes
some kind of government provided drug, often too much.

But Oskar meets a neighbor of his (also Julie Christie) who is an
admitted book lover, and she turns him onto them (yes, books are
outlawed, yet everyone knows how to read - it's not the point of the
story).  And soon he has developed sympathy for those he must hurt by
burning their books.  And we get a wonderfully constructed fable about
how books are essential to keep up our culture.

The film is directed by the great French director, Francois Truffaut,
and he does an amazing job with adapting Ray Bradbury's story for the
screen (and also doing his what was his first outing in English).  He
creates tension in some of the fire scenes (mainly attributed by the
awesome musical score by the greatest film composer of all time, Bernard
Herrman) and even makes some of the more futuristic stuff (flying cops)
look pretty cool for the mid 60s.  He even as the ingenius idea to not
show printed credits, but have someone name them as they role.  The best
scene is where this woman, who has an entire library up in her attic,
choses to be burned with her books.  It's a frightening scene that will
stick in your mind afterwards.  Hopefully.

The acting is also very good.  Julie Christie is awesome, as ever, and
Cyril Cusack is amazing as the fire chief.  Oskar Werner is probably
underrated in his performance as the lead fireman.  He's soft spoken,
but always has a different facial expression.  He's in deep thought
constantly, and he always looks that way without looking stupid.

If anything, "Fahrenheit 451" gives us a kind of ironic story of how
books are much better than TV.  All the while, we're thinking, "Hey,
we're watching a movie about how TVs suck compared to books."  But it's
a totally intelligent film with a great message, wonderfully presented
by Truffaut, with the upmost competence.  Hey, maybe some day I'll even
read the book.

MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2

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