Chances are you’ve heard of—or even watched—the television show “Big Brother.” You know, the show where several people live in a house, and their every word and action is televised to an audience that apparently finds even the most mundane interaction to be quality entertainment? What you may not realize is that the term “Big Brother” comes from George Orwell’s 1984, but in the original version citizens are monitored not for entertainment purposes but to ensure absolute loyalty and thought control.

Winston Smith is subject to such monitoring systems, to a deeper extent than he even realizes. As a bureaucrat for the Party, which bears no small resemblance to another party, his job is to rewrite history, changing headlines and altering news stories to reflect the Party’s version of reality.

Winston has a nagging suspicion that the Party is lying to the people, no doubt in part because his job is to aid in the lying, but his greatest “thought crime” occurs when he falls in love with the subversive Julia. Publicly, Julia is a member of the “Anti-Sex League,” a group of women who pledge celibacy and consider it their patriotic duty to submit to artificial insemination. To put this into context, in such a totalitarian state loyalty to family is considered undesirable in that it surpasses loyalty to the Party. Therefore, the erosion of familial bonds is desirable, and the simple act of falling in love could be considered treason.

Winston and Julia try to escape the prying eyes of Big Brother, but are no more able to escape the camera than those reality-show contestants. What happens next will leave you wondering if, when Winston utters “I love you,” he means it for Julia—or for the Party.

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
DVD Date of Release: March 2003
Based on 1984 by George Orwell

Posted Mon, 05 May 2008 07:00:23 and filed under DVD of the Week, Movies, DVD, Adaptation Reviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.