1984
George
Orwell’s “1984” is a drama film based upon the novel of the
same name by acclaimed author, George Orwell. The films tells the story of
Winston Smith who lives the typical life of a citizen in the super state,
Oceana, a country run by a brutal, totalitarian government. Over the course of the film, he meets and
falls in love with Julia, another typical citizen, only they have an affair and
discuss political ideas that are treacherous and rebellious to the State. They question the morality and the legitimacy
of their government, their preconceived conception of the world, and how the
government distorts the truth in order to preserve power. By the end of the film, they are both apprehended
by the authorities and are tortured for committing “thought crimes” and are
ultimately rehabilitated to accept the authority of the State. The film ends as Winston sincerely and
heartily declares his love for Big Brother.
The film contains many themes that stem from the brilliant writing of
Orwell’s novel.
The film explores the
ideas that the compromising of the truth can lead to the three following
principles: war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. War is peace is the idea that the
totalitarian State of Oceana can maintain peace within in its homeland
territory if it can successfully distort the truth and convince the people that
an exterior enemy can only be defeated in the name of preserving their safety
if they unite together and support their government. This is an idea that Winston and Julia
question together when they read the book supposedly written by the
rebels. The notion that freedom is
slavery can mean that when the people are left to believe they are “free” when
in reality the only freedom they think they have is what the government has
granted them, then they are actually slaves, because it should be for the
people to give the government such opportunities. Winston and Julia realize this when they
acknowledge the lengths they must go just so they can have their harmless
affair. Finally ignorance is strength
may be the most significant source of power for the state because if the people
are completely consumed by ignorance, how are they expected to pose any challenges
to those who oppress them? The State
knows this and not only endorses such ignorance of the people, it encourages
and perpetuates such vices, thus securing their power for yet another
generation. Winston and Julia come to this understanding when it is too late
they are ultimately apprehended by the thought police because of the
tele-screen that was in their room all along.
The ultimate irony of the story is that while Winston and Julia were
becoming educated of the greater questions that could have possibly led to
their freedom, they were doomed by the ignorance of their very close
surroundings.
However, the film is very different
from that of the book. In the book there
is a strong indication that Winston was killed, not only a broken man, but a
sincere “patriot” of the State. The film
ends with Winston simply declaring his love of Big Brother, removing any trace
of the much darker tragedy that plagues the books ending. While one could argue that it was subtleties
that the filmmaker was striving for, it can not be refuted that the removal of
such imagery completely diminishes the power of such an ending. And ending so bold that it would be tough for
any viewer to walk away with the same “ignorance.”THX1138
THX1138 is set
in a dystopian world where society is controlled by police android officers and
citizens are forced to take mind altering drugs. The story focuses on the
protagonist, THX1138, who works in an operating cell building police androids.
He shares a room with his roommate, LUH 3417, who works at a control center keeping
surveillance over the city. THX has been having difficulties maintaining his
focus at work and takes more of the usual dose of drugs. He is less focused on
his work and this drug imbalance becomes is more of a federal offence if one is
caught. As THX passes out in front of his roommate, LUH, his roommate has also
taken sedatives from THX medicine cabinet. THX and LUH both break the law as
they begin to feel for one another. Emotion is another offence in society and
the two break it by having sex. The drugs cause THX to not be able to
concentrate at work and soon he is taken away to a detention center as he
awaits a trial for breaking the law. However, he manages to escape the scene
but realizes his route takes him into an unknown world that looks like our
present day society. He has a moment of realization of what appears before him,
as if the world he was living in was not real to begin with.
“THX1138” is a
really well thought out movie but it was very difficult to follow. I had to
re-watch many scenes just to understand what was going on in the film. Many of
the themes associated with “THX1138” is the loss of individuality and how the
growth of technology has become mankind’s imminent doom. Technology is what
controls everything and as this movie was released in 1971, many people’s fears
about the increase usage and rise of technology could have been what inspired
George Lucas to make this film. Society in “THX1138” exists where consumerism
means nothing and religion is going into a booth and praying, as a tape
recorder repeats the same message to reassure that everything is going to be
fine. Even the TV has 3 useless channels that doesn’t make sense to the viewer,
one of them containing a person speaking about nothing but trying to convey a
meaning to the viewer. This dystopia really examines how a tight, closed and
controlled society, does not always prevail. The people’s yearning to break
free is not revealed unless the protagonist accidentally or willingly breaks
the law. It’s as if the fate of society rests on the shoulders of the
protagonist to see if he can change the laws to be fair again. “THX1138” like
“1984” both have a society where heavy surveillance and monitoring accidentally
creates the individual to break free from this vicious cycle. What I thought
was interesting to see was how drugs, sex and any form of emotion is forbidden.
If the government wanted no revolts or retaliation, there is no need to take
the liberties to make humans feel free, therefore there is no suspicion that
they would try and revolt.
Soylent Green
“Soylent Green”
is directed by Richard Fleischer and based on Harry Harrisons novel, “Make
Room! Make Room!”. The year is 2022 and New York City has become over populated
as fewer jobs, depleted resources and food have become scarce. Due to the
dangerous effects of greenhouse gases, earth is slowly reaching the stage of
becoming uninhabitable. The population survives on rations called “Soylent
Green” to survive. Soylent Green is a product from Soylent Corporations and
this food item is said to give a high value of energy to its consumers. The
story focuses on detective Frank Thorn, played by Charlton Heston, and his
partner Solomon Roth. Solomon is able to remember a time when the world wasn’t
heavily polluted and often advises Frank as he helps him with his crimes.
This movie was
interesting because it shows what people will do if the world suddenly has limited
resources to offer. However, I found it to drag on a bit too much and found
myself wanting the movie to speed up. What was an unexpected twist was how
“Soylent Green” was actually just recycled dead humans being fed to the
consumer. It shows what people are willing to do in order to survive. It also
brings the question, is this what mankind would do if our resources will
diminish? Would we really eat one another? “Soylent Green” brings many questions
into mind. Did Soylent Corporations try to dominate people into buying their
products by accidentally destroying the earth itself? Was this just a ploy into
achieving more capitalism? The environmental catastrophes that occurred in
these films seem to be the result of how greed and capitalism brought the
downfall of society. Now they have to rely on one corporation, whose food
supply is just basically recycled humans. Our protagonist, Thorn, undergoes
some problematic questions whether it is right to help the people rioting
because they are hungry or serving the police department in quelling the riots.
In one scene, Thorn has to use “scoopers” a large machine that scoops up people
and are dumped into receptacles. It doesn’t seem right that because of the
overpopulation, one has to treat people like livestock.
This film is
really important because it shows what can happen to the world if it were
suddenly destroyed by mankind’s desire to become greedy. Therefore it teaches
many lessons on why we should take care of the earth. The film shows how the environmental
degradation and increase capitalism brought the downfall of humanity. This resorted
people to take the necessary precautions in order to save what is left of
humanity.
