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Fahrenheit 451 movie storyline. Based on the 1951 Ray Bradbury novel of the same name. Guy Montag is a firefighter who lives in a lonely, isolated society where books have been outlawed by a government fearing an independent-thinking public. It is the duty of firefighters to burn any books on sight or said collections that have been reported by informants.
People in this society including Montag’s wife are drugged into compliancy and get their information from wall-length television screens. After Montag falls in love with book-hoarding Clarisse, he begins to read confiscated books. It is through this relationship that he begins to question the government’s motives behind book-burning. Montag is soon found out, and he must decide whether to return to his job or run away knowing full well the consequences that he could face if captured.
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 British dystopian drama film directed by François Truffaut and starring Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, and Cyril Cusack. Based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury, the film takes place in a controlled society in an oppressive future, in which the government sends out firemen to destroy all literature to prevent revolution and thinking. This was Truffaut’s first color film and his only English-language film. At the 1966 Venice Film Festival, Fahrenheit 451 was nominated for the Golden Lion.
This film is mainly focused on the idea of censorship by the government when it comes to literature and the impact that literature has on people. The government in the film believes that people who read think they are better than others and thus they are considered to be anti-social. All of this censorship leads to one hole after another regarding the government and how they control the people of their own society.
Montag at the end of the film is very much alive, he watches as the media reports that he has been captured even though this is not the case. This capture is used to kill the hopes of the people, thus keeping them at bay and away from reading. it also adds to enforce what will happen to people who do not follow rules and begin reading again, it enforces the already enforced law even further.
About the Story
In the future, a totalitarian government employs a force known as Firemen to seek out and destroy all literature. They have the power to search anyone, anywhere, at any time, and burn any books they find. One of the firemen, Guy Montag, meets one of his neighbours, Clarisse, a young schoolteacher who may be fired due to her unorthodox views.
The two have a discussion about his job, where she asks whether he ever reads the books he burns. Curious, he begins to hide books in his house and read them, starting with Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. This leads to conflict with his wife, Linda, who is more concerned with being popular enough to be a member of The Family, an interactive television programme that refers to its viewers as “cousins”.
At the house of an illegal book collector, the fire captain talks with Montag at length about how books make people unhappy and make them want to think that they are better than others, which is considered anti-social. The book collector, an old woman who was seen with Clarisse a few times during Montag’s rides to and from work, refuses to leave her house, opting instead to burn herself and the house, so she can die with her books.
Returning home that day, Montag tries to tell Linda and her friends about the woman who martyred herself in the name of books and confronts them about knowing anything about what’s going on in the world, calling them zombies and telling them that they’re just killing time instead of living life. Disturbed over Montag’s behaviour, Linda’s friends try to leave, but Montag stops them by forcing them to sit and listen to him read a novel passage. During the reading, one of Linda’s friends breaks down crying, aware of the feelings she repressed over the years, while Linda’s other friends leave in disgust over Montag’s alleged cruelty and the sick content of the novel.
That night, Montag dreams of Clarisse as the book collector who killed herself. The same night, Clarisse’s house is raided, but she escapes through a trapdoor in the roof, thanks to her uncle. Montag breaks into the captain’s office, looking for information about the missing Clarisse, and is caught but not punished.
Montag meets with Clarisse and helps her break back into her house to destroy papers that would bring the Firemen to others like her. She tells him of the “book people”, a hidden sect of people who flout the law, each of whom have memorized a book to keep it alive. Later, Montag tells the captain that he is resigning but is convinced to go on one more call, which turns out to be Montag’s house.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Directed by: François Truffaut
Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring, Jeremy Spenser, Bee Duffell, Alex Scott, Gillian Aldam, Michael Balfour, Ann Bell, Yvonne Blake, Kevin Eldon
Screenplay by: Jean-Louis Richard, François Truffaut
Production Design by: Syd Cain, Tony Walton
Cinematography by: Nicolas Roeg
Film Editing by: Thom Noble
Costume Design by: Tony Walton
Art Direction by: Syd Cain
Music by: Bernard Herrmann
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: September 16, 1966 (UK)
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