Fahrenheit 451 reviewed and decoded in under 4 minutes!

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film by Director Francois Truffaut about a future in which owning a book is a crime and firemen are paid to start fires! This British film is based on Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel of the same name. Julie Christie, Oscar Werner, and Cyril Cusack round out the all-British cast.

The film's central character is Guy Montag (Oscar Werner) who works at Engine House 451 and performs his duties under the watchful eye of his Fire Captain (Cyril Cusack) who demands conformity and commitment from each and every fireman. Montag loves burning books and the smell of kerosene. That is, until the firemen discover a library in the home of an old woman. They burn each and every last book but 1, David Copperfield, and upon reading it, Montag realizes that it is not books that they are burning; it's people!

Although lacking today's special effects, this film does a fantastic job in conveying the main point in Bradbury's book: the idea of conformity and the death of the individual. Fahrenheit 451 describes a future in which a totalitarian government controls men and women by turning them into robots. Books in this film are treated like anti-government rebels converting people by giving them the power to think and feel. Conformity, individualism, censorship, ignorance, and propaganda are themes throughout this film. When Clarisse (Julie Christie) asks Montag if he read any of the books he’s burned he says no and tells her that he burns them because he was told they are bad. The 1998 film The Matrix is very similar to this film if you think of both films as metaphors with Neo as Montag, Mr. Smith as the fire captain, Clarisse as Trinity, the firemen as Mr. Smith, and the books as Morpheus.

Anyway, this is a great film by Truffaut, his first color film and his 1st and only non-French film. The film's excellent camera work was done by Nicolas Roeg who directed The Man Who Fell To Earth, Bad Timing, and did cinematography on Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago. This film is more relevant now than ever. I have it on DVD and it looks excellent. You should see this film if you haven't already.