Film Snail

6.8

Nineteen Eighty-Four

R·1984·113m

Drama

Science Fiction

Drama

Science Fiction

Summary

George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

Cast

John Hurt

Winston Smith

Richard Burton

O'Brien

Suzanna Hamilton

Julia

Cyril Cusack

Charrington

Gregor Fisher

Parsons

James Walker

Syme

Andrew Wilde

Tillotson

David Cann

Martin

Peter Frye

Rutherford

Roger Lloyd Pack

Waiter

David Trevena

Tillotson's Friend

Anthony Benson

Jones

Phyllis Logan

The Telescreen Anouncer (voice)

Garry Cooper

Guard

Rupert Baderman

Winston Smith as a Boy

Corinna Seddon

Winston's Mother

Martha Parsey

Winston's Sister

Merelina Kendall

Mrs. Parsons

P.J. Nicholas

William Parsons

Lynne Radford

Susan Parsons

Pip Donaghy

Inner Party Speaker

Shirley Stelfox

The Whore

Janet Key

The Instructress

Hugh Walters

Artsem Lecturer

John Hughes

Man in White Coat

Robert Putt

Shouting Prole

Christine Hargreaves

Soup Lady

Matthew Scurfield

Guard

John Golightly

Patrolman

Rolf Saxon

Patrolman

Ole Oldendorp

Eurasian Soldier

Eddie Stacey

Executioner

Norman Bacon

Man on Station Platform

John Foss

Youth Leader

Carey Wilson

Party Member

Mitzi McKenzie

Party Member

Pam Gems

The Washerwoman

Joscik Barbarossa

Aaronson

John Boswall

Goldstein

Bob Flag

Big Brother

Keith Gale

Prole (uncredited)

Annie Lennox

Woman at rally (uncredited)

Lucien Morgan

Ministery Worker (uncredited)

Michael Munn

Interrogation Room Soldier (uncredited)

Jason Savage

Child at Rally (uncredited)

Fred Wood

Prol (uncredited)

Crew

Director, Screenplay

Michael Radford

Novel

George Orwell

Reviews

CharlesTheBold

February 22, 2017

Based on George Orwell's dystopian novel from the 1940s, the movie was produced in the very year that Orwell had set it, 1984.

Horrified by the recent atrocities by the Germans and Russians, and fearing that England and America might take a similar turn, Orwell had painted a frightening portrait of the ultimate dictatorship, and the movie faithfully followed him. Some of the details were:

(1) Continual surveillance, in this case carried out by cameras hidden inside television sets.

(2) Decaying infrastructure and shoddy merchandise produced by the Party's monopoly of the economy.

(3) A political language, NewSpeak, full of euphemisms and code words for the government's activities.

(4) A brutal law-enforcement system in which being suspected even of disloyal THOUGHTS can bring barbaric punishment.

The movie stars John Hurt as the beaten rebel, Susanna Hamilton as his mistress, and Richard Burton as the government official on whom they pin their hopes (like Orwell himself, Burton was fatally ill during the production and died before the movie's release)