Nineteen Eighty-Four
Entry updated 2 February 2017. Tagged: Film.
Film (1984). Umbrella-Rosenblum/Virgin Cinema Films. Directed by Michael Radford. Written by Radford, Jonathan Gems, based on Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell. Cast includes Richard Burton, Cyril Cusack, Suzanna Hamilton and John Hurt. 110 minutes. Colour.
This second film version (see 1984 for the first) is better acted and more intelligent than its predecessor, but still stresses the romantic interest, substituting an orthodoxly liberal lovers-against-the-system sadness for Orwell's sheer savagery and irony. It was eight weeks into shooting before Burton was cast as the treacherous O'Brien, Smith's Torturer, and he seems a little cut off from the rest of the film. [PN]
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