1984

Who controls the past controls the future.  Who controls the present controls the past.

The movie opens at a rally where the latest news of the unending war is reported to the masses.  During the rally, both Winston Smith (John Hurt) and O'Brien (Richard Burton) notice Julia (Suzanna Hamilton) when she flings a book at the image of Emmanuel Goldstein, enemy of the state.  Winston works in a cubicle where he alters newspaper articles, replacing people who have been 'unpersoned' with other people or rewriting reports of reductions as reports of increases.  Not surprisingly, he has doubts about the government and what he sees on the omnipresent telescreens.  He privately keeps a journal in which he expresses these doubts.  Julia initiates an affair with Winston.  Both of them know that they will eventually be caught and admit to whatever crimes the party requires them to admit but Winston asserts that he will never betray Julia.  The day comes that they are caught during one of their meetings.  Winston is tortured by O'Brien until he doubts whether 2 + 2 = 4 and also betrays Julia.  'Cured' of his thoughtcrimes, Winston is returned to society where he holds an abiding love for Big Brother.

Though familiar with the plot and storyline of Nineteen Eighty-Four, I have not read the novel and only just watched the movie.  Nothing in it surprised me and I was very much reminded of Brazil, which came out the following year.  Brazil is more fun while 1984 is just sad and depressing.  Of course, all the newspeak reminds me of trends in language, where some words become 'unwords' and new, more opaque ones replace them.  For instance, disabled became handicapped, handicapped became physically challenged, physically challenged became differently abled.  These are just euphemisms.  Government has learned to couch things in more favorable terms too.  Spending is investment, secrecy is a new standard of openness, increasing the debt is paying our bills, taxing Peter to subsidize Paul is compassion.  As the language becomes less clear, those who use it can make ambiguous claims and stand by them!  The unpersoning process has gone viral in our media-saturated society.  Say the wrong thing and the rats swarm to pick the bones clean.  No one is safe from the trolls.  Both Hillary and Bernie had to bow to the language of Black Lives Matter during the primaries.  Many have been ostracized for having the wrong opinions or using the wrong words.  Profuse apologies may stave off the frenzy but as often as not encourage more of the same.  Then there is the opening line: Who controls the past controls the future.  I have often noted how historically uninformed people are.  This ignorance is by design.  Here is just one example of a modern Winston Smith rewriting history.

 

Certainly worth watching and surprisingly applicable, which is unfortunate.