FAHRENHEIT 451
UK, 1966, 133 minutes, Colour.
Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring.
Directed by Francois Truffaut.
Fahrenheit 451 was noted French director, Francois Truffaut's first film in English. (Other films include The 400 Blows, hoot the Pianist, Jules et Jim, The Bride More Black, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board). It was also his first colour film.
The story is from Ray Bradbury's science-fiction novel about a future where books are prohibited and the fire brigade's main function is to burn them. They ignite at Fahrenheit 451. The film focuses on a fireman, Montag, and the challenge to his accepted way of life by a neighbour (Julie Christie). This affects his own attitude to books and to his TV watching, pill-taking wife (also Julie Christie). After watching an old woman die as a martyr amongst her books, he is changed and his life is in peril. The only hope for civilisation that the film offers is a colony of Book People who memorise books and have them preserved in person for the future when books will be allowed again. Some critics have objected to the selection of books that we see being burnt; they agree that they should be burnt.
There are some in-jokes; Cahiers du Cinema, for which Truffaut wrote, are shown burning as is a book by Ray Bradbury. One of the Book People is also a Bradbury. The critics feel these jokes take away from the serious intent of the film.)
A serious criticism of the film is that it is too narrowly suburban. We see only a small section of this book-burning society and never the broader society of the government. The film seems to be provincial or smaller than it ought to be. However, despite its limitations, it is certainly one of the better acted and more stylish science-fiction films.
1. Why were the credits spoken and not written?
2. How did the film build up tension in the first few minutes?
3. First impression of the firemen (note their theme music)? Did it change after you discovered that their job was to burn books and not to put out fires?
4. Montag? Why was he a fireman? Was it just a job? Had he been brainwashed? Why did he begin to read books? What was the result on his character? (of his reading David Copperfield to his wife's visitors).
5. The character and fanaticism of the Chief? His giving medals of himself as reward to his men?
6. What kind of futuristic world was this? Note the suburbs, the monorail train, the ordinary conversations, the role of television, Montag's wife's reliance on pills, the fear, the ignorance of the past?
7. What was the impact of;
- Linda'a participation in the T.V, play;
- the Chief's autocratic authority over the cadets;
- Montag's file;
- the scene where Montag used all his home phones speaking to the doctor;
- the scenes where the people touched themselves in the train;
- the informant circling the box for information?
8. Why was so much made in the film of the old lady's martyrdom with her books? Note the titles; were they representative or were there some bizarre titles? (Note Montag's nightmare when the girl burns instead of the old lady.)
9. Montag's change of attitude, his burning of the Chief, his house and, especially, his wife's T.V. sets?
10. The Book People? serious or partly funny? Did the director make the sequence partly comical?
11. What was the effect of Julie Christie's playing two roles? Were they different enough? What did they have in common?
12. Was the film an effective science-fiction warning about totalitarian government - 1984 style dehumanisation and the need for tradition and communication?
