Movie Review: Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a movie based on Ray Bradbury’s 1951 novel of the same name. In the movie, the director François Truffaut presents a futuristic society where books have been outlawed and reading is not encouraged in any form. People in this society are told to accept what is presented to them and any kind of individuality or freedom of expression is strictly prohibited. Guy Montag , a fireman is one of these people who obediently follows the orders that he is given by his superiors and does not question his profession of burning books, until he meets Clarisse. Only after meeting her does Montag start questioning his own rigid ideas and ideals. Ultimately he feels trapped in his life of complacency and runs away with a secret group who memorize books in order to preserve the tradition of reading books for the future generations.

Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most prominent movies about censorship and its message resonates with viewers to this very day. Themes like the importance of literacy and individualism are presented effectively throughout the movie. Individualism and personal freedom are the most important forms of human expression, and thoughts and ideas cannot be formulated and shared with other people in society. The film tries to show that this basic freedom was done away with by the government who thought that they would lose control of people if they weren’t all trained to accept what was told to them.

This was done by ‘the family’, a government sanctioned programme on TV which almost hypnotized viewers to stop thinking. Montag’s wife Linda is a classic example of the kind of person who is brainwashed into believing and accepting the propaganda of the government. She is a drudge who does not question anything around her, thus proving the immense power of the administration over people. Clarisse, on the other hand, is the opposite of Linda and stands out because of her ability to think differently from the rest of her community.  She does not blindly accept or conform to anything and seems to be aware of the government’s ploy. She represents the small minority of people who are able to critically think and comprehend events for themselves, and is thus an outcast in her society. Even today people who question any kind of authority have the power to overthrow governments, and are hence feared and on the fringes of society.

Bradbury’s vision of the future is seems fairly accurate to me because we seem to be moving at such a pace that the written word no longer holds as much value as it used to. While all the characters in the movie seem to be sufficiently literate, they stand out due to the ease with which they accept everything that the state dishes out to them. Books are known to broaden one’s horizons and worldview as well as critically analyze the state’s actions. Bradbury foresees a society where television slowly takes over and moulds people’s thoughts a certain way, and this can be seen even now due the decrease in overall reading habits.

 Television has thus become a threat to critical thought and has only succeeded in encouraging conformity. This can be clearly seen in the instance where, Linda is shown to be in almost a trance like state when she watches a soap opera that requires her participation, and instead of sharing her own ideas and thoughts, she is told to repeat lines from a script. The state does all it can to provide mindless entertainment to keep citizens occupied so that they don’t have the desire to think and the prohibition and burning of books works an effective tool to achieve this purpose.

Bradbury is a clear believer in the idea that people should think for themselves, independent of the state or what is shown on television and the easiest way to build and carefully assess ideas is to read a varied variety of books and enrich one’s knowledge.  Though this may seem like a daunting task for a lot of people, it is essential in order to avoid making past mistakes, and solving problems in the future as far as possible.