I noticed that the 1956 Hollywood version of 1984 is on YouTube. If you haven't seen it you should take a gander at it. I remember seeing that on tv in the 60's and liking it. It's not a happy happy film so it's not something I want to watch more than a couple of times. Even after all these years have gone by I still remember scenes from the movie. Even if I had wanted to see it a bunch I couldn't until this century. When the original film distributors contract ended Orwell didn't let the movie be re-released. I would read his book and I've always thought the movie didn't capture the harsh and brutal world he'd created. Maybe he didn't like the adaptation. Doesn't really matter why, the end result is the movie wasn't available for ages and ages. When VHS tape came along you could get bootlegs, if you knew where to look. Same thing when dvds came along. It finally had a regular release about 10 years ago. I didn't get a copy as I hadn't missed seeing it. It's a fairly good movie which is a chilling reminder what dicks humans can become. Double plus ungood.
Edmond O'Brien, Michael Redgrave and Jan Sterling all star in the Michael Anderson film based on George Orwell's novel. It's a really sucky future and we can all be glad it didn't turn out that way.
There's a British tv adaptation on YouTube that was first broadcast in December 1954 and it's somewhat closer to the book. It was adapted by Nigel Kneale who also wrote the Quatermass tv specials. The play was aired live the 12 of December 1954 but that isn't what we're seeing. Even with all the complaints coming in the BBC Board of Governors voted yes to a second live performance on December 16. That version of the play was recorded on film and that's what we have to watch. I'm glad we do have it. It's one of the earliest roles for Peter Cushing, who plays Winston Smith. Donald Pleasence plays Syme. Winston rewrites history and Syme removes words from the language. I thought it was a fairly interesting adaptation and worth a look see. It's a bit longer than the movie and a fair bit slower. The sets are low budget but mostly they do just fine. The copy of 1984 on YouTube isn't the best looking print but it's mostly watchable. There's a downloadable version on the Internet Archive. I hadn't know it caused a bit of a kerfuffle when it was broadcast.
The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. In a 2000 poll of industry experts conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four was ranked in seventy-third position.
There is a 1984 movie adaptation with John Hurt. It's probably the most depressing of the lot. Now's your chance to watch it on YouTube. There's also an audio book of the novel on YouTube.
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