Nineteen Eighty-Four: a film version

As well as various book readings, stage productions and audio plays, and a BBC television production many years ago, there have been a few attempts in the years since 1949 to bring Orwell's vision of the year 1984 to film, in 1956 and 1984, with a new film listed as in production for 2010.

The version released in 1984 by Virgin Films is widely regarded as being quite true to the original novel, and was actually filmed in the novel's described London locations and during the timespan of the novel itself (roughly April-June 1984, though the novel itself seems to run longer into the year, given the cruel winter weather of the final chapter). Many had considered the novel "unfilmable" because of the sheer scale of Orwell's story, but this film, written and directed by Michael Radford, while not being a huge box-office success at the time, is well-regarded by fans of the novel.

One of the most interesting things about this version of Nineteen Eighty-Four on film is the way it takes so many stylistic cues from Orwell's own time. There are no dodgy-looking "fashion of the future" shiny suits or futuristic special effects here; apart from the bleakly utilitarian Party overalls and the telescreens, you could be looking at a darker, more sinister version of London in the 1940s much of the time. Many of the hairstyles and much of the machinery and architecture suggest a parallel vision of the era in which the novel was being written, and this grittiness and familiarity makes the setting seem more frighteningly real. This artistic decision by the filmmaker, while partly being forced on the filmmaker by the terms of Sonia Orwell's agreement with the film's Executive Producer, further enhances the power of Orwell's own decision to couch his novel in settings and structures recognisable by his mid-20th-century readers, and to intentionally place the timespan of the novel's story within their forseeable future.

John Hurt, whom you might recognise from the first Harry Potter film (Mr Ollivander), V for Vendetta (the rather Big-Brotheresque Adam Sutler), or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Professor Oxley), plays Winston Smith. I've seldom seen Hurt look healthy in a movie; perhaps that was part of the thinking behind casting him as the quiet hero with false teeth, a hacking cough and varicose ulcer who lives in Victory Mansions.

Suzanna Hamilton, whom you might just remember if you've managed to see the right episodes of the TV series Dinosapien, appears as Julia. Cyril Cusack, whom you MIGHT have seen as Doc Spencer in the telemovie of Roald Dahl's novel Danny, The Champion of the World, plays Mr Charrington. Fans of Dr Who, Only Fools and Horses or The Vicar of Dibley might even spot Roger Lloyd-Pack in his early bit-part as the bored and listless waiter in the Chestnut Tree Café (a kind of café for destroyed people).

But the biggest star presence in this film is Richard Burton, who plays O'Brien. Burton was a huge star of screen, radio and Shakespearean stage from the 1950s to the 1980s, whose distinctive voice was his calling-card. (Your parents might also know his performance as narrator on the double-album rock musical version of The War of the Worlds from 1978). He received glowing critical acclaim for his portrayal of O'Brien, though sadly this was his very last feature film; he died of a cerebral haemorrhage while the film was still in post-production, hence the tribute to him in the film's end credits.

Annie Lennox's old band and big name in 80s pop, Eurythmics, was commissioned by Virgin Films to compose and record music for the film (they wanted the option of a profitable spinoff soundtrack album by a big-name pop act on the Virgin Music roster), and though much of it ended up not being used in the final cut, it did appear as an album release for the band, 1984...For The Love Of Big Brother. In the film, this music shows up mainly as a handful of sparse musical textures here and there; it was renowned English film and television composer Dominic Muldowney who wrote the Oceanian National Anthem, "Oceania, 'Tis For Thee" (a tune very reminiscent of anthems and propaganda tunes of the 1940s), which is used as the titles music for the film, as well as the vaguely unsettling "Hikers' Song" (very true, again, to Orwell's descriptions of this music in the novel) which is sung by the Spies children in one scene.

(Indeed, director Michael Radford had already hired Muldowney to write ALL the music for the film, unaware of Virgin Films' plans, and when Virgin exercised their rights over the final version of the film to include Eurythmics' music, there was apparently quite a fight on! A version of the film using the full Muldowney score was briefly available on DVD in the United States.)

Among the locations used for the film was the Senate Building of London University, although only in a brief shot; a fitting inclusion for the building in which Orwell worked during the Second World War, and which inspired his idea of the four Oceanian mega-Ministries in the first place.

NOTE: The UK trailer posted below contains spoilers for people who have not finished reading the novel!