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From the Page to the Screen – 1984

1984 is an iconic 1949 science fiction novel by George Orwell. It is considered to be one of the best novels of the 20^th century for numerous justified reasons. It is a book that continues to be prescient and powerful in its themes and messages and influential in the area of all media, including cinema.

THE FILM ADAPTATION

The film was released in 1984 (a great fact) and it received pretty solid reviews, but it is overall a movie that is only serviceable, but flawed and nowhere near the level of its literary influence. It’s a fine effort, but it could have been much stronger.

PLOT

I appreciated the faithfulness of this adapted screenplay. Not that many things were actually changed for the film, which was a good thing. My issue is that the movie flows very slowly and it doesn’t have the effect of immediacy and intensity that the book had. It’s too much of a drama and not enough a thriller.

WINNER – BOOK

CHARACTERIZATION

The characters are actually very strongly adapted. The acting helped a lot because both Richard Burton and John Hurt were phenomenal in their respective roles. My only problem here is the lack of inner monologues that made us get to know Winston much more in the novel.

WINNER – BOOK

EMOTION

I will give the movie some props for actually making you care about Winston and for featuring that brutal, very tragic ending that was superbly adapted from the source material. With that being said, the book was still much more emotionally engaging throughout.

WINNER – BOOK

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THEMES

This one goes without saying, but the book isn’t just extremely rich in themes and scope, but it is one of the most relevant, timeless and thematically complex pieces of literature of all time. The movie is solid for a film, but it never delved too deeply into any of its important issues.

WINNER – BOOK

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

Orwell’s writing isn’t just masterful at dialogue, but also at creating this desperate tone and atmosphere. He was great at world building as well. The movie actually is just as strong in the technical area because the dark cinematography, amazing production design and an excellent score made for a very engaging SF watch despite a tighter budget.

WINNER – TIE

BOOK 5: FILM 1

Yes, at the end of the day the book remains indisputably better. Some would actually argue that the movie is just as good, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this assessment. It’s atmospheric, well acted and technically polished, but it simply lacked the thrills, brilliant themes and emotional intensity of the original novel.