Fahrenheit 451

HBO | Release Date: May 19, 2018

4.1	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Ratings

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mcleanman36Dec 6, 2021

I think this was a very good movie. Obviously based on the books as much as anything that is made into a movie from a book generally is. Jordan and Shannon do a very good acting job and make the movie very enjoyable to watch.

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TheQuietGamerJul 3, 2021

Tried to capitalize on the last wave of the YA dystopian craze by updating a piece of classic literature for the Hunger Games crowd. Yes, some of the depth and nuance was lost in the process, but this isn't an entirely brainless adaptation.Tried to capitalize on the last wave of the YA dystopian craze by updating a piece of classic literature for the Hunger Games crowd. Yes, some of the depth and nuance was lost in the process, but this isn't an entirely brainless adaptation. That's because the source material's themes are still relevant to this day and even in this altered form paints a picture of a future that feels like all too real a possibility.

Following a second civil war the government decides that the best way to keep America from tearing itself apart with infighting (while giving themselves greater control over the populace) is to destroy any means of artistic expression that could create differing viewpoints and therefore conflict. Primarily books in this case. In a time where cancel culture is running rampant and nobody can handle someone else having a different opinion than them, it's not hard to see how this level of censorship could come about. What's really scary though is that it almost seems like a preferable alternative to the point where you can somewhat understand why the society portrayed here would be so willing to accept it. I mean, wouldn't you like to live in a world where you didn't have to worry about another racially, politically, or religiously charged riot or other act of violence (or Twitter feud) taking place?

Of course, books and other types of media aren't the problem here. It's people's inability to accept or at the very least ignore the beliefs and lifestyles of others they don't agree with. This is something the movie never really addresses. It certainly shows how we should celebrate and protect our texts through the heroes' efforts to preserve them, but it doesn't cover why they aren't at fault for how the country ended up in that state. Essentially failing to dive into the real meat of the matter.

In an effort to spice up this now decades old story, Ramin Bahrani and Amir Naderi did things like cast attractive young actors in the lead roles, made Montag and Clarisse lovers, and took the setting further into the future to incorporate modern technology such as the internet. All of which do a good job of making an entertaining experience out of a novel that's not very exciting in the traditional sense, even if there are still a few dull stretches. That doesn't quite make up for how hollow the script can be though. For example Guy's desire to go from burning books to reading them comes completely out of nowhere and the romance aspect is based more on a physical attraction between the two characters as opposed to an emotional connection because one is never developed. The groundwork was clearly in place for both of these to have played out in a more satisfying manner. I don't know if constraints with the budget or running-time got in the way, but whatever the case some things aren't as fulfilling as they otherwise could have been.

Coming off like a made-for-TV version of Divergent the whole thing may feel kind of pandering, and that's because it totally is. Yet, it's pandering in an attempt to reach an audience that typically wouldn't give the work of Ray Bradbury a second look. So despite all its flaws if this new take has a better chance of passing on his still important message to a wider group of people then even in this watered-down state I'm here for it.… Expand

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Bertaut1Oct 26, 2019

An extraordinarily lazy adaptation

I don't do remakes. They're a cancer of the industry. Where I am more flexible, however, is in adaptations of novels that have already been adapted. After all, my all-time favourite film falls into thisAn extraordinarily lazy adaptation

I don't do remakes. They're a cancer of the industry. Where I am more flexible, however, is in adaptations of novels that have already been adapted. After all, my all-time favourite film falls into this category (Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998) was the second adaptation of James Jones's novel). Fahrenheit 451 is also a second adaptation; in this case, of Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel, and, for all intents and purposes, it's a misfire. Bradbury himself has said the novel is not about censorship, as is often assumed, but was written in response to the Second Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism. More specifically, it's a treatise on the dangers of an illiterate society unquestionably accepting the word of a monopolising centralised mass media.

Adapted for the screen and directed by Ramin Bahrani, the film is set at an unspecified point in the future, after a second civil war has been fought. All aspects of society are rigidly controlled by the Ministry, an authoritarian government that believes unhappiness, mental illness, and difference of opinion come from unregulated reading. As such, all books have been banned, although simplified and edited Ministry-approved editions of texts such as the Bible, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, or, the Whale (1851) and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (1927) are available on the internet (known as "the 9"). Special units of "firemen" are tasked with locating and burning any remaining books, and estimates suggest that within 20-30 years, books will have become completely extinct. The film follows two such firemen; Cpt. John Beatty (Michael Shannon), the veteran and somewhat disillusioned mentor of Guy Montag (Michael B. Jordan), an idealistic rookie who believes unquestioningly in the firemen's work. That is until he meets Clarisse McClellan (Sofia Boutella), who educates him as to the real history of the US, the rise of the Ministry, and why they want literature destroyed.

Now, you'd think that in this age of Trump's fake news and people using Facebook as a news source, something with this subject matter would speak volumes to a contemporary audience. And you'd be right. Unfortunately, this film isn't about sheeple and mass media. Apparently unaware of Bradbury's statements, the filmmakers have focused almost exclusively on censorship. But it falls down in other areas as well. Mildred Montag is absent, hence the theme of addiction to television broadcasting which tells people how and what to think. Additionally, the infrequent and scattered allusions to the importance of literary texts serve to undermine the absolutely essential nature of what a group of rebels are doing by memorising whole texts. This should be the film's absolute central statement, but instead, it comes across as a bunch of weirdos being quirky. Jordan plays Montag as a bombastic loudmouth TV personality. Shannon is, well, Shannon. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. He's an actor of immense talent. But here, he's playing an identical character to the one he played in The Shape of Water (2017). It's an extraordinarily lazy performance. In fact, everything about the film is lazy. Bahrani's direction is flat and uninspired; the whole thing looks like Blade Runner-lite. It's all very conventional and safe, which neither the novel nor François Truffaut's 1966 adaptation was. And this conventionality and safety grind against the inherently rebellious subject matter, rendering it less urgent, and hence, less potent.… Expand

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