Nineteen Eighty-Four
Published September 12, 2025
Film info
- Title Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Director Rudolph Cartier
- Year 1954
- Run time 2hrs
- Genres Drama, Science Fiction
- Tagline Nigel Kneale's adaptation of the George Orwell classic
A man who works for ‘The Party’ (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as ‘Big Brother’) begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:49 | BBC version of this has kept the TV intro in, which is pretty dry and almost like they don’t want you to watch! |
| 6:22 | “Such a careless report must not exist.” Rewriting history, fake news, etc. |
| 12:10 | Big Brother’s moustache is silly. |
| 14:33 | Language is never in its final shape, even Newspeak. |
| 22:15 | There are a lot of percentages in this future world. |
| 28:16 | Jesus, what a brat. |
| 42:52 | Love this kooky shop, with a singing proprietor. |
| 45:50 | “Doubleplusgoodthinkful.” I get the desire to control language but this is nonsense, surely? Takes so much longer to try and understand what it means! |
| 1:03:26 | Big old interval in the middle, we could have edited this out, no? |
| 1:06:58 | “The party gives them exactly what they want.” |
| 1:11:13 | She’s quite harsh, making him say it. |
| 1:15:49 | “I’m not interested in the next generation, only in us.” |
| 1:29:38 | Ooh, that was scary. Suddenly knowing you’ve been watched. |
| 1:37:03 | “We’re not interested in the stupid crimes, only in the thought.” |
| 1:48:04 | Wow, they know what they’re doing with this torture. Awful. |
Thoughts
This is an incredible BBC production of the classic dystopian book, and the cast really put their all into it. Peter Cushing does a great job with the quiet, understated character, who has to express doubt to the audience subtly. I find Donald Pleasance endlessly captivating as well, so it’s a shame his role was so short-lived in this. Meanwhile, because the production is so old - black and white and some pretty rubbish camera work, plus some apparent aging of the tapes - it adds to that dystopian feeling and the general tension that just ramps up and up.
Occasionally, it gets a bit stiff-upper lip, and some of the live elements are a bit ropy, but you can’t really fault the production values for the time. And, of course, watching/reading things like this and knowing how the world around us is at the moment, it’s eye opening and depressing in equal measure!
Rating: 4 / 5