The film "Fahrenheit 451": Summary and Review

The 1966 film, "Fahrenheit 451,"is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel of the same name and directed by Francois Truffaut.  The film is set in a future society where the government controls the people and what they are exposed to.  The goal of the government is to form a society that is void of their own opinion and that will conform to all the government's wishes.  In order to do this, the government administers drugs to the citizens and, most importantly, outlaws all printed reading material.  The government feels that if the citizens are given nothing to read, then they will not be able to think for themselves and, thus, will not be a threat to the government.  The people, most of whom appear clueless, receive their news and entertainment from large, wall-length television screens that display what the government wants them to.  The film's main character is Montag.  Montag is a firefighter whose job in the film is to seek and burn all the books that he can.  Although, Montag is married to a Linda, he meets hi new neighbor, Clarisse.  Clarisse is very interested in reading and she introduces Montag to the beauty of reading.  In turn, Montag becomes fascinated with reading. Eventually, it is realized that Montag has been stealing books in order to read them.  When he is discovered, he torches his captain with his flame thrower and takes off, fleeing the scene of the book burning.  Shortly after, he discovers a secret society of people, who, like him, love to read and think for themselves.  Montag, also, finds his neighbor, Clarisse, who first sparked his interest in reading.  Together, the members of this society memorize books and hope that there knowledge can one day be put to use.

All in all, I enjoyed the film and thought that it was rather interesting.  I felt that the story itself, originally by Ray Bradbury, was a great choice to adapt into a film.  Although I haven't read the novel, after seeing the movie, it seems that the society in which they live in is similar to the society in George Orwell's "1984."  In addition, given the time (1966) in which the film was made, it was very good.  For example, the special effects were excellent.  All of the extravagant fire scenes and the fact that the fireman carried flame throwers, added to that perception that the film was ahead of its time.  They didn't get it exactly right, however, as the people do not look anything like they do nowadays, which was the "future" that the film was shooting to portray. For instance, the fireman looked like they belonged on an episode of "Star Trek," rather than burning books. Also, I found it funny and a bit ironic that the fireman started fires in the film, as opposed to fighting them.  Back to my first point, all this movie did was make me interested in the book. I really enjoyed the concept of the story, but I simply felt that I wasn't getting the entire story.  I'm sure that the book is much better, which is most often the case when a book is adapted into a movie.