WillSushyMedia
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
Allissa
.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
poe-48833
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY by Ambrose Bierce: "HARANGUE, n. A speech by an opponent, who is known as an harangue-outang." We've crossed a Line, here in this company (the "united $tate$"), where "alternative facts" (LIES) are disseminated daily and Fat Cat Fascism is The Order of the Day. Fat Cat Fascists: CASHists. Alternative facts: ALTFAX, in Newspeak. At the head of it all, to quote Orwell, "some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilization." (Just the other day, we were told that a "massacre" had taken place in Bowling Green, Kentucky- "The Bowling Green Massacre," it was dubbed. Only it didn't happen. It was all a LIE. An "alternative fact" from, apparently, an Alternative Universe...) (From the book, by George Orwell: "She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her.") (And: "The heresy of heresies was common sense.") In this particular video version of George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, Donald Pleasance, in a small part as Syne, has one of my favorite lines. When he suspects that Big Brother suspects him of Thoughtcrime, he blurts: "Was it something I said...?" "Forget what you've forgotten," Peter Cushing as Winston Smith suggests. But therein lies the rub: short of lobotomies all around, is such a thing even possible...? With 65 MILLION refugees from War(s) and Global Warming knocking on the door hoping to be let in, we're already well past the Tipping Point. (Orwell: "Do you know what time of day it is?") What this company needs is competent Leadership (if such a thing exists), although such talk could get you kil-
kevin olzak
The Dec 12 1954 live BBC telecast of Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" changed the career for star Peter Cushing forever after. His depiction of Winston Smith brought him to the attention of Hammer Films, who spent two years trying to sign him to a film, while a prolific string of teleplays kept him busier than ever. He deservedly won the Guild of Television Award for Best Actor for his performance here (the British equivalent of the American Emmy), yet was passed over for the feature version for Edmond O'Brien (only Donald Pleasence was retained from the BBC version, in a different part). In a repressed future society where 'War is Peace,' 'Freedom is Weakness,' and 'Ignorance is Strength,' thoughts and feelings are outlawed by the totalitarian government. Daring to love Julia Dixon (Yvonne Mitchell), Smith knows that there is no escape for them, only that 'some kinds of failure are better than others' (forbidden fruit is the best of all). Some critics rightly complained that Yvonne Mitchell's Julia lacked 'warmth,' but there was nothing but praise for Andre Morell's chilling O'Brien (replaced in the movie by Michael Redgrave), overseeing final punishment, using their own fears against them to completely wear down all defenses (no trace of humanity). As grueling as it is to watch now, one cannot imagine how shocking it must have been for viewers 60 years ago.
MartinHafer
This is the fourth and probably the best version of "1984" that I have seen. There's a decent version with Edmund O'Brien that is hard to find, one made for TV ("Studio One") and the more recent version with Richard Harris and John Hurt but for me, this made for TV British version is best for three main reasons. First, Peter Cushing was a dandy actor and did a fine job. Second, the book was set in London and the British accents made it work better than the American versions. Third, despite the very, very small budget, the cheap sets worked just fine--as they were able to provide an appropriate level of greyness for the story. A bigger budget really couldn't have helped in this way. Overall, it's well worth seeing and is available for free download at archive.org--a website frequently linked to IMDb.
Patguy
Difficult to find, and largely overshadowed by the 1984 film, this live television performance from 1954 deserves to be made more widely available.At the time controversial for its scenes of torture and sexuality, it provoked an outburst of Thought Police-style outrage among politicians and assorted editorialists. In fact, the program seems brutal even today, with its depictions of comprehensive hopelessness and deliberate cruelty.Peter Cushing was probably the most famous live television personality in Britain at the time, and he puts in a typically excellent performance. Yvonne Mitchell and Andre Morell neatly tie up the remaining emotional possibilities in this dystopia, with the rest of the cast expressing only various shades of despair. A very young Donald Pleasence plays Newspeak-auteur Syme, confronted here not by "Ultimate Evil," but rather doublethink and "Double-Plus-Ungood.""We are the dead."
