On the list of the ten worst movies I've ever seen (and I can't remember the names of the other nine) "1984" is near the top. It came out in 1984 and so misrepresents Orwell's masterpiece that I tell people not to watch it. It is so monosyllabic and boring and grey that I've only ever watched it myself using the fast forward button. Julia and Winston are not portrayed accurately and the sex scenes gross people out. It was Richard Burton's last movie and it's too bad he didn't die sooner. And John Hurt looked better as Elephant Man than he does in portraying Winston Smith. The movie is actually so lame it gives Orwell a bad name, which is exactly what its producers intended.

Regrettably it seems to be the case these days that when it comes to studying 1984 in school, teachers are using the movie version. They plug the video into the machine and thus the students receive "prolefeed" created by the CIA instead of being taught the message of the book by a teacher who understands its importance. Unless students do independent learning they won't realize that there is a lot more to the book than Winston and Julia having sex and O'Brien upping the dial on the torture machine.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

COMMUNIST CAPITALIST ORWELL MOVIES

1999 ANIMAL FARM BAD MOVIE

Reader asks about Orwell's film rights. Nov 10, 2004. Go to ORWELL A WRITER WRONGED

JFK & JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY
...To support his argument that 1984 was pro-capitalist, the author offered as proof the fact that the Washington branch of the John Birch Society had adopted "1984" as the last four digits of its telephone number. That's as absurd as saying Orwell would approve of the JBS because it advertises his books in its magazine, New American. In reality, the far-right and the far-left hate Orwell in equal measure. See ORWELL'S PUBLISHING PROBLEMS