 | Shot in sepia-grey tones, and closeted, ulcerated detail, this film adaption of George Orwells' novel is as close to high fidelity as anyone could wish.
John Hurt plays the skeletal, haunted Winston Smith exceedingly well and Suzanna Hamilton, as lover Julia, brings just the right amount of cool calculation and sex to the screen. As vainglorious heroes, they do their utmost to "sin" against Big Brother but are eventually and disturbingly brought to feel "love" for him and NOTHING for each other.
1984 is a study in psychology as well as totalitarianism. Orwell never repented his socialist ideology and one has to ask how such a brilliant denunciator of statism could have held fast to collectivist beliefs.
Well, doublethink, that's how. Orwell, who described fictitious "doublethink" (that is, the ability to hold two contradictory concepts in one's mind simultaneously) in 1984, was guilty of that very artifice in real life.
He's not alone.
See Joe's 1984 book review: http://www.solohq.com/Spirit/Books/26.shtml
Ross Elliot
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