Farenheit 451 Movie Review

Farenheit 451 (2018)

Watch the trailer // Buy the Novel
Written by: Ramin Bahrani (adaptation), Ray Bradbury (novel), Amir Naderi (screenplay by)
Directed by: Ramin Bahrani
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon, Sofia Boutella, Lilly Singh
Rated:TV-14

Plot
In this HBO original movie, a terrifying care-free future, a young man, Guy Montag, whose job as a fireman is to burn all books, questions his actions after meeting a young girl. He begins to rebel against society.

Verdict
The ideas this presents are more compelling than the movie itself. The movie won't stick after watching, but the world presented where those in power rewrite history to cement their power will. I wanted this to develop the world and the characters further. A lot of ideas are introduced and are left for dead. The plot is rather simple, in a strict world one man rebels. It's unfulfilling when so much more was teased.
It depends.

Review
Ray Bradbury published the novel in 1953, inspired by concerns about the McCarthy era book burning and the role of mass media in reducing interest in literature. The title derives from temperature at which paper auto ignites.

If you are looking for meticulous accuracy it's nowhere close. In the film version Montag doesn't have a wife and social media is much more prevalent. The book had a focus on advertising and making people dumb. This is more inspired by than a retelling. After a lengthy introduction of many credits displayed over burning book pages we're introduced to the language the movie creates. Books are referred to negatively as graffiti. Those with books are eels, short for illegals. Fireman reinforce lies, and as we see even today, lies hold power and many people accept them.

We're shown literary classics like Moby Dick reduced to a couple pages of symbols. I like this idea. Social media and Twitter has condensed language drastically, employing many symbols. In the book people can't hold basic conversations, instead craving simple entertainment. The movie doesn't touch this idea.
The government, a far reaching total world government, controls everything you consume. How would one government take over the world? I wish the movie answered that or restricted it to just America. We eventually see Montag read. It's slow, but he's able. If kids are given symbol books, how does he know how to read? On top of that, would fireman be akin to sport heroes as the movie depicts? Some people like to see the world burn, but I don't see that catching on unless there is another component to it. Then again, it's instant gratification when the firemen are cop and judge.

I liked linking this to social media. It's a fire that feeds itself with self affirming opinions, but it's superficial at best. The first third of this sets up an interesting world, but I'm left with too many questions. I thought a sub-plot might be Montag's reliance on his need for affirmation through social media. It's not. I wondered if the drops he gets dull his emotions and make him docile like Equilibrium (2002). It's another non-factor.

Books are burned to rid the world of differing opinions. Sheep are easier to govern. There's an Amazon Alexa type device in every home called Yuxie. I thought it might be a device to spy on people, but inexplicably it doesn't. That seemed completely out of sorts with the government we're presented and the world we're currently in. If it did spy, Montag would have been found out long ago. Users can tell Yuxie to "go dark" for privacy. If you're expecting a reveal that Yuxie doesn't really go dark, you'll be disappointed.

Montag (Michael B. Jordan) and Beaty (Michael Shannon)

With all of these avenues to explore, the story is rather straight forward. Montag begins to question why books should be burned. Montag's ranking officer Captain Beaty is a strange contradiction. I was never sure whether he was staging his own tiny rebellion or not. At one point I thought he was grooming Montag to take over and continue, but by the end I was wrong. Beaty has paper and a pen, which is treason, he quotes books but he also disparages them. He says books are insane and full of useless nonsense. His plot line was resolved unsatisfactorily. Beaty plants ideas in Montag's head. He's pushing Montag to question the job, wanting him to become a rebel, while also wanting to promote him. By the end Beaty was just a standard villain. At one point he forces Montag to read from a book. I would imagine being able to read fluidly is a dead giveaway, but apparently not in this movie.

This is a fascinating world where the government has complete control, can delete words from the language, and create propaganda. Knowledge is a bad word. I hoped the movie would touch upon the reigning regime. Did A.I. help them takeover? It's hinted that A.I. is involved, but that's yet another throwaway. In 1953 a rebel story was much more novel than sixty years later. I wanted this to present Montag's world has a possible result of what's happening today. What I got was a ill-developed world that throws out a lot of ideas but doens't know what to do with them. Firemen, their lies, the government, and Yuxie should have been linked because in this world it would all work together. This movie starts a discussion, but it's almost by accident.