1984 (aka Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1984), Director: Michael Radford, rated R for nudity, torture, disturbing scenes

George Orwell's Terrifying Vision Comes To The Screen.

Starring: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack, Gregor Fisher, James Walker, Andrew Wilde, Merelina Kendall, John Boswall, Phyllis Logan (voice only)

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"Obedience is not enough. Power is inflicting pain and humiliation. Otherwise, you cannot be sure. Power is tearing human minds apart and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing." - O'Brien as he tortures Winston

Why watch this? George Orwell's future-vision is a cautionary tale for us all.

Plot Summary: Winston Smith, a low-level government worker living in the totalitarian super-state of Oceania, struggles with his desire for individuality and truth in a world where an omnipresent Party, led by Big Brother, tightly controls information and history. He embarks on a dangerous, forbidden love affair with a woman named Julia, and together they seek to join a secretive resistance movement known as the Brotherhood. Their efforts to rebel against the relentless surveillance and psychological manipulation of the state test the limits of their loyalty and freedom.

Dad's Preview: This visceral onslaught is a beautifully bleak tale of a possible world to come. Its central themes are extreme propaganda and forced mind control. Society's worker bees are subjected to constant vocal news feeds and stark visual imagery, all discredit the lies told by a man named Goldstein. The state's goal is to shift focus away from each person's self and toward the prosperity of the collective... the machine. I feel this film channels a future had Germany won World War II. You also can't watch this and not see parallels to today, where a government's sole focus is its own existence. People are merely grease for the cogs of the machine's endless hunger to oppress and subjugate the lowly. I loved the performances by Hurt, Hamilton and Burton, and the haunting Eurythmics' soundtrack. 

Virgin Films, Umbrella-Rosenblum Films; Virgin Films