Nineteen Eighty-Four
1984
**
Director: Michael Radford
Cast: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack, Gregor Fisher, James Walker, Andrew Wilde, Merelina Kendall, John Boswall, Phyllis Logan, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Bob Flag
In a dystopian 1984, the oppressive regime of Oceania brutally suppresses individuality and dissent. Lowly bureaucrat Winston Smith discovers the harsh realities of surveillance, manipulation, and the destruction of personal freedoms. George Orwell's visionary 1949 novel eerily predicted the surveillance society we are currently living in. The novel has layers, but Michael Radford's monotonous adaptation is dull and unrelentingly depressing. Terry Gilliam's Brazil, which came out the following year, depicts a similar future, but it's actually a great film.
