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Poster (c) Universal Pictures
François Truffant’s Fahrenheit 451 was created before the year 1970, so you know it’s bound to be remade. In fact, Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Majestic) is recreating it for next year. The 1966 version, however, will overpower the remake. It even was better than the book, which is quite a feat.
Oskar Werner is the perfect person to play Guy Montag (actually, we never hear his first name in this version, it’s always “Montag”), a fireman in the near future. His job isn’t to put out fires; it’s to start them. In this crazy future-world, books are for the burning, and the title temperature is at which they burn. He thinks he’s happy: he lives in a nice house with wife Linda (Julie Christie) who is dying to get another TV for the wall. However, once he meets Clarisse (also Christie), who puts things into perspective. Montag then realizes what he must do, and how he is in danger.
I think what really made this better than the book was the visuals. It was hard to imagine what the world looked like in Ray Bradbury’s novel, and here it was so lavishly done, it looked like something fake that was made to look real. The colors all stood out, especially the common bright red. It looked so fictional that I could actually believe that it was true. The set was done so creatively that it looked real. And, like the book, Bradbury got most of everything right on target.
Werner is a great actor, but who really stands out here is Christie. Being able to tackle two entirely different roles is more impressive than Peter Sellers’ three in Dr. Strangelove. Why, you ask? Because this role wasn’t comedic. It required two different viewpoints, two ways of acting. I congratulate her.
In fact, all of Truffant’s crew deserves a round of applause. Not only does he have a flair for directing (it was his first color film, and his only in English), but he also has good ideas for colleagues. Famous Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann composed the wonderful score for Fahrenheit 451. Perhaps the greatest crew member was Nicolas Hoag, the cinematographer. Giving us many great close up shots of burning books, which were simply amazing, I’m surprised he isn’t more famous.
Basically, if you’ve read the book, you won’t be under whelmed. Truffant’s great adaptation of the screenplay, along with Jean-Louis Richard, is the best type of novel adaptation. It’s not sticking incredibly close to the source material (The Green Mile, for instance), and doesn’t stray too far from it (The Shining). It’s the perfect medium. Overall, Fahrenheit 451 is a very good adaptation of a good book, and should be seen by those who have read the book.
Not Rated
Review Date: June 9, 2003