1984

In Oceania, Winston Smith rewrites the past at the Ministry of Truth. He begins a secret affair with Julia, and finding a room where two people can be alone is in itself a crime in this world. When they are caught, Room 101 is waiting. The film is not interested in dystopian design. It is interested in how a confession is extracted: torture here is not for punishment but to make a person hand over the thing they love, in their own words. The form is built with fifties studio means: plain sets, grey tones, large telescreens. It looks modest now, but the mass propaganda scenes still work. The strangest thing about it is that it has two endings. Michael Anderson shot both, one closer to the novel and one more hopeful. The distribution then reversed itself: the more hopeful ending, intended for America, played in Britain, while American audiences saw the version closer to the book. Edmond O'Brien plays Winston, Jan Sterling plays Julia and Michael Redgrave the interrogator. Who it is for: viewers interested in Orwell adaptations and fifties science fiction. Who it is not for: anyone who wants fidelity. The film softens many of the concepts, and the business of the endings blurs the book's hardest idea.