Screen time with Big Brother in 1984
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the fictional hero Winston Smith begins keeping a diary on the fourth day of April. This is an act of rebellion in a society where individual will is negated and the state attempts complete control over its citizens.
Winston begins his diary by writing, “Down with Big Brother,” over and over.
In a meeting of cinematic art and activism that honours Winston’s defiance, more than 190 art house movie theatres in 175 cities and in 44 states across the United States — and more around the world — will screen director Michael Radford’s adaptation of the novel today — April 4.
First-Ontario Performing Arts Centre follows suit with a one-time screening of this now classic film to be shown in the Film House Sunday at 7 p.m.
The mass screening has been loosely organized by an ad hoc group called the United State of Cinema.
Its website explains that, “Orwell’s portrait of a government that manufactures their own facts, demands total obedience and demonizes foreign enemies, has never been timelier.” The site goes on to claim that the project, “encourages theatres to take a stand for our most basic values: freedom of speech, respect for our fellow human beings, and the simple truth that there are no such things as ‘alternative facts.’ By doing what they do best — showing a movie — the goal is that cinemas can initiate a much-needed community conversation at a time when the existence of facts, and basic human rights are under attack.”
Originally released in the year 1984 — ’80s pop tune mainstays The Eurythmics did the soundtrack against Radford’s wishes and Ronald Regan was the newly re-elected U.S. president — the film stars the recently deceased Sir John Hurt in one of his most memorable roles. Richard Burton also appears in his last film, understatedly portraying O’Brien, the duplicitous member of the Thought Police and Winston’s torturer.
The film is a faithful adaptation of the novel. A British production filmed in London, the post-nuclear war landscape is depicted in desaturated colour to heighten our appreciation of all that is drab and grey.
Though the novel was published in 1948 and the film is now almost 35 years old, both are now receiving attention for their dire warnings about totalitarianism, an obvious reaction to the Donald Trump presidency.
Popular interest in the novel has actually spiked twice in the past few years.
In 2013, when Edward Snowden publicized the extent of state surveillance with the monitoring and storing of world Internet traffic, including bulk data collection of emails and phone calls, sales multiplied seven times. In the first days of the Trump White House earlier this year, the book hit the sales charts again when Kellyanne Conway used the phrase “alternative facts.” There can be little doubt that many of the tactics of state control that Nineteen Eighty-Four warns about have come to pass. The cultivation of groupthink that has polarized our politics, the deception and doublespeak that has come to characterize a White House press conference and the dumbing down of discourse typified in the tweet-to-rule style of President Trump are all in tune with Orwell’s cautionary story.
Often overlooked in our preoccupation with how accurate and prophetic 1984 is about the mechanisms of a modern totalitarian state, is how Big Brother rules without any agenda other than control itself. Orwell depicts a pursuit and control of power driven solely by an appetite for more of it. This is perhaps the tale’s strongest affinity to the politics of our age.
In newspeak, it’s doubleplusgood time to understand all we can about those who seek power in our society. There’s still much we can learn from 1984.