A society where books are banned ! It's not a fantasy . Consider the likes of Nazi Germany , Stalin's Russia , Mao's China etc , but the flaw with FAHRENHEIT 451 lies in the idea that not certain books are banned but ALL books are banned . Think about that for a moment then ask yourself this question : How would a society be able to function under this law ? We're shown schools still exist but how do pupils learn without being able to read text , and if people can not read text then how will they be able to write ? It seems impossible that a society would still be able to function without books
That flaw is down entirely to Ray Bradbury's source material but Francois Truffaut's adaptation of Bradbury's novel is very uneven in every way . Take the cast for example , Oskar Werner seems very miscast while Anton Differing is once again very type cast as a fascist ( Differing's last ever role was in an episode of DOCTOR WHO where he played a Nazi war criminal ! ) , but Cyril Cusack gives a very good performance as the fire chief . Traffaut also shows his new wave roots by casting Julie Christie - Quite unnecessarily - in two different roles . And talking of new wave this is the movie that's best remembered as having the title sequence whose credits come via a voice over as the camera zooms in on a montage of TV receivers , and watch out for the scene where it looks like we're going to be treated to a split scan sequence then for some reason we're not . To give the director credit though his visage of the near future is very recognisable unlike many directors at the time who seemed to think we'd be living in space cities by the end of the 20th century
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Perhaps FAHRENHEIT 451 can be summed up by its ending . It's touching and sad and feels very European ( And watch out for the injoke ) but once again there's flaws with the idea of the book people . Just how much information can the average human being assimilate ? Even more importantly - How would a human being be able to keep that information in their head for the rest of their lives ? I doubt if I'd be able to remember this review word for word this time next week
Despite the many flaws I did enjoy this film for the most part and I'm someone upset that Hollywood feels the need to do another version of Bradbury's novel even though the remake is being made by the director of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION . No doubt we'll be treated to scenes of Stephen King books being torched
That flaw is down entirely to Ray Bradbury's source material but Francois Truffaut's adaptation of Bradbury's novel is very uneven in every way . Take the cast for example , Oskar Werner seems very miscast while Anton Differing is once again very type cast as a fascist ( Differing's last ever role was in an episode of DOCTOR WHO where he played a Nazi war criminal ! ) , but Cyril Cusack gives a very good performance as the fire chief . Traffaut also shows his new wave roots by casting Julie Christie - Quite unnecessarily - in two different roles . And talking of new wave this is the movie that's best remembered as having the title sequence whose credits come via a voice over as the camera zooms in on a montage of TV receivers , and watch out for the scene where it looks like we're going to be treated to a split scan sequence then for some reason we're not . To give the director credit though his visage of the near future is very recognisable unlike many directors at the time who seemed to think we'd be living in space cities by the end of the 20th century
**** MILD SPOILER ****
Perhaps FAHRENHEIT 451 can be summed up by its ending . It's touching and sad and feels very European ( And watch out for the injoke ) but once again there's flaws with the idea of the book people . Just how much information can the average human being assimilate ? Even more importantly - How would a human being be able to keep that information in their head for the rest of their lives ? I doubt if I'd be able to remember this review word for word this time next week
Despite the many flaws I did enjoy this film for the most part and I'm someone upset that Hollywood feels the need to do another version of Bradbury's novel even though the remake is being made by the director of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION . No doubt we'll be treated to scenes of Stephen King books being torched