Cinema Review: 1984*

By Symeon J. Thompson

There is a tendency to see totalitarian societies as the apex of efficiency and order – they are, after all, meant to be societies of total control.

We see this repeatedly in fiction.

George Orwell’s 1984, memorably filmed by Michael Radford with John Hurt as Winston Smith and Richard Burton as O’Brien, depicts a brutal future of degradation, depression and control. The state is not satisfied with external control. It has to control the mind and the spirit, a…

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