A fireman is in charge of burning books in a future where reading is a crime. Genre: Science Fiction Rating: NR Release Date: 1-APR-2003 Media Type: DVD
The classic science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury was a curious choice for one of the leading directors of the French New Wave, François Truffaut. But from the opening credits onward (spoken, not written on screen), Truffaut takes Bradbury's fascinating premise and makes it his own. The futuristic society depicted in Fahrenheit 451 is a culture without books. Firemen still race around in red trucks and wear helmets, but their job is to start fires: they ferret out forbidden stashes of books, douse them with gasoline, and make public bonfires. Oskar Werner, the star of Truffaut's Jules and Jim, plays a fireman named Montag, whose exposure to David Copperfield wakens an instinct toward reading and individual thought. (That's why books are banned--they give people too many ideas.) In an intriguing casting flourish, Julie Christie plays two roles: Montag's bored, drugged-up wife and the woman who helps kindle the spark of rebellion. The great Bernard Herrmann wrote the hard-driving music; Nicolas Roeg provided the cinematography. Fahrenheit 451 received a cool critical reception and has never quite been accepted by Truffaut fans or sci-fi buffs. Its deliberately listless manner has always been a problem, although that is part of its point; the lack of reading has made people dry and empty. If the movie is a bit stiff (Truffaut did not speak English well and never tried another project in English), it nevertheless is full of intriguing touches, and the ending is lyrical and haunting. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
To read or not to read...:
Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451" (1966) was his first film in color as well as his only English language film. The film has a retro look to it with old phones mixed in with advanced technology like flat screen tvs. Julie Christie also plays two characters in the film which alludes to the fact that the people in her state controlled society have no real personality and so don't differ from one another. This film needs to be viewed more as metaphor than as a literal reality otherwise various elements of the movie... more info
Fahrenheit 451; or, How Roeg saved Truffaut.:
Before any discussion of this film, there must be a line drawn between the politics of the film versus the way this film was created. Being a Truffaut fan, I didn't want to miss his idiosyncrasies within a scene merely because the politics of book burning were overwhelming. Yes, one understands that this is a film adaptation of "Fahrenheit 451", a beloved classic that gives booksellers inspiration every time it is read, but also this is a Truffaut film. Several reviews state that Truffaut did an excellent... more info
Not a bad movie, but....:
...the main virtue of this film is that it will encourage people to read Ray Bradbury's brilliant and all-too-prophetic novel. The motion picture makes a nice try at conveying the themes, but it gets sidetracked. By all means, read the book.
Fahrenheit 451:
Quick delivery. Quality product. Interesting entertainment about how things could be. I am a very happy customer.
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