In 1984, Oceania is an omnipresent state ruled by the Big Brother with a totalitarian society and in permanent war, presently against Eurasia, with intention of keeping the proletariat without education and without possibility of capital accumulation. People from the upper classes follow the "Ingsoc" philosophy and are under permanent surveillance of Big Brother through the "telescreen" – a monitor that is television and also spies the life of each individual. However, the proletariat is free of the control of the state. The Party has just released the 10th edition of the Newspeak Dictionary, with the intention of reducing the words to make people limited to express any feeling against the Party.

In the "Minitrue" (Ministry of Truth in Newspeak),the bureaucrat Winston Smith (John Hurt) rewrites history to permit the party to control the future and is quite indifferent to his society. Winston is approached by the party member O'Brien (Richard Burton) that gives a copy of the new released dictionary to him. When Winston meets the brother Julia (Suzanna Hamilton),they commit "sexcrime" and fall in love for each other. But they are captured by the fearful Thought Police and Winston is interrogated and brainwashed by O'Brien that explains the logic of the party to keep the power. But in the end, the human spirit of Winston prevails.

When I was a teenager, George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Animal Farm" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" were my favorite novels. George Orwell wrote this novel in 1948, inverting the last two digits in the title, and the novel was released on 8 June 1949. The story takes place between April and June 1984. I read the book in Portuguese, where the new words of the Newspeak were perfectly translated.

The film "1984" is a magnificent transposition of the novel to the cinema, with a remarkable screenplay by Michael Radford and top-notches performances of John Hurt and Richard Burton in his last work. The awesome direction of Michael Radford gives a perfect idea of this novel about a dystopian society and the political theories of this society subdue by the powerful, feared and omnipresent Big Brother and is so careful that "1984" was filmed between April and June 1984 in London, in the same period and location George Orwell wrote in his novel. I saw this depressing film in the movie theater for the first time in 1984, and since then, I have seen at least three times on VHS (last time on 24 April 2003) and now I have just watched on DVD. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "1984"

Everything about this movie felt so real, the cinematography, the outstanding music, the acting, the entire look of the film. John Hurt is perfectly cast as Winston Smith. If you want more of this talented man's work, try the Elephant Man, Watership Down, The Black Cauldron and Lord of the Rings(the animation)Richard Burton was wonderful as the sinister O'Brien, and their scene in Room 101 was the highlight of the film, and is also the best bit of the book. The Room 101 scene is very disturbing, and sees Winston as a broken man, people O'Brien pulls out Winston's tooth here, the sound that made disturbed me greatly. The cinematography was excellent, with the graphic darkness and the pastoral imagery. Susanna Hamilton is also good as Julia, though the sex scene in the woods was a little too much information, everyone in my year 11 English class, i was 16 when I first saw this, covered their eyes when Julia stripped naked. However, this is very faithful to the source material, well it may need to be to convey the terror of living in an omnipotent society. All in all, a powerful and effective film, based on a complicated but truly excellent book. 9/10 Bethany Cox.

It's 1984 and George Orwell's vision of the future hasn't quite arrived yet. Maybe Orwell should have been slightly more optimistic and named his futuristic pessimistic novel 2084.

In any event the world is now in three different conglomerate countries and John Hurt as our protagonist Winston Smith is in the country of Oceania. It's all one continual war as Oceania is forever fighting with one or both the other two and sometimes one of the other two is in alliance. All we know is what the Faux News tells us. One thing is constant, you've got to keep up the martial spirit of the citizenry to hate the designated enemy at the moment.

John Hurt has a nice bureaucratic job, but he's starting to question just what is being given out for news and a whole lot more about certain assumptions this totalitarian society is based on. He's even taken to fornicating for the pleasure of it, specifically with Suzanna Hamilton. They've even set up a love nest of sorts.

But you can't keep away from the all seeing eye of Big Brother. And soon both of them are being rehabilitated by the State of Oceania.

The state here is represented by Richard Burton who was ill at the time and gives an almost somnambulant performance. I suspect health was the reason.

John Hurt however is fine as Winston Smith and he's a fine everyman protagonist for a very frightening future.