It spoke to both left and right and to their fears and prejudices. Its continuing appeal and impact lay in how every generation saw something of itself in the book. It was shaped by being written in the shadow of the Second World War, the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism, and by the threat of nuclear war. It was both a product of its time and timeless. Orwell’s novel was not a prophecy but a warning and a reflection on how power operates. Indeed, the whole feel and atmosphere of the film were very faithful to the book. This was inspired by a line on the novel’s opening page which stated ‘there seemed to be no colour in anything, except in the posters that were plastered everywhere’. Virgin, who financed the film, would not allow it to be shot in black and white so a technique was used that produced a faded and slightly washed-out colouring. The style was supposed to be that of a science-fiction film made in 1948. The film’s aesthetics were key to conveying this. Like the novel, it depicted the grind of a daily life devoid of hope, laughter and small comforts and underpinned by a fear of authority. The bleakness was intentional and perhaps the film’s central message. Concerns about such reactions had led a major distributor to suggest that the ending be changed to make it happier. The Daily Telegraph thought the film provided viewers with ‘an almost unrelievedly grim experience’. Total despair is stamped into every scene’. The Daily Mirror concluded, ‘There were no rays of hope in Orwell’s book. But enthusiasm was muted by its stark bleakness. He invests the character of torturer O’Brien, with his usual powerful presence, but fails to convey the role’s subtleties’.ĭespite such reservations, the film was well received by the critics. The Sunday Mirror thought that Burton’s performance was ‘a respectable piece of acting - but nothing more. Its film critic wrote, ‘Although the actor worked wonders to disguise his melodious voice… I missed in his face the “sort of exultation” and “lunatic intensity” which Orwell described’. The Daily Telegraph, in contrast, was underwhelmed. The Observer said it was one of his ‘most restrained performances’ and that he ‘projects Orwell’s notions of a man of pure intelligence and will, who seems in his haggard face to have burnt out the last residue of compassion and pity’. Richard Burton’s role in the film won mixed reviews. He did not drink and seemed nervous at first, but his star quality was apparent in the stories he told the crew and his insistence that his boilersuit costume be made in Savile Row.
His declining health was evident during filming.
Production and filming had already commenced by the time Burton was offered the part. Paul Scofield accepted it but had to withdraw after breaking his leg. Sean Connery turned the role down, while Marlon Brando cost too much. Radford remembered that Burton had always been in the frame but that his reputation for drinking meant they looked elsewhere. He was not the original choice for the part. Burton played O’Brien, the senior party member who traps and interrogates the hero Winston Smith (played by John Hurt). There was thus something of a Nineteen Eighty-Four fatigue by the time the film was released, but the fact that Richard Burton had died two months earlier helped generate interest. Its slogans and messages appeared in advertisements, comedies, t-shirts and political speeches. There was serious and humorous discussion of its merits and relevance. In 19, the novel sold nearly four million copies across the globe. It was released late in 1984 and thus missed what Lynskey called the ‘Orwellmania’ of the start of that famous year. The novel’s power and relevance quickly led to television, radio and theatre adaptations and Michael Radford’s film was the second cinema version. This is not down to its literary merits or its storytelling but its messages about the evils of totalitarian states and political surveillance, and the manipulation of history and language to wield authority. Dorian Lynskey’s brilliant history of its influence argued ‘No work of literary fiction from the past century approaches its cultural ubiquity while retaining its weight’. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is one of the most important novels ever written. Each essay will discuss a specific Burton film this week, Martin Johnes gives thought to Burton’s final film: an adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Williams, director of the Richard Burton Centre at Swansea University.
#1984 john hurt richard burton movie poster series#
The ‘ Becoming Richard Burton’ / ‘Bywyd Richard Burton ’ exhibition is now reopened at the National Museum Wales and Wales Arts Review is publishing a series of essays to run concurrently with the exhibition, curated by Daniel G.