1984
December 7, 2025
This masterly adaptation of George Orwell’s chilling parable about totalitarian oppression gives harrowing cinematic expression to the book’s prophetic dystopia.
Intro with Austin Field from King County Department of Public Defense.
This masterly adaptation of George Orwell’s chilling parable about totalitarian oppression gives harrowing cinematic expression to the book’s prophetic dystopia. In a rubble-strewn surveillance state where an endless overseas war props up the repressive regime of the all-seeing Big Brother, and all dissent is promptly squashed, a profoundly alienated citizen, Winston Smith (thrillingly played by John Hurt), risks everything for an illicit affair with the rebellious Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), defiantly asserting his humanity in the face of soul-crushing conformity. Through vividly grim production design and expressionistically desaturated cinematography by Roger Deakins, Michael Radford’s 1984 conjures a bleak vision of postwar Britain as fascistic nightmare—a world all too recognizable as our own.
- Director: Michael Radford
- Principal Cast: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack, Gregor Fisher
- Country: United Kingdom
- Year: 1984
- Running Time: 113 min.
- Producer: Simon Perry
- Screenplay: Michael Radford
- Cinematographers: Roger Deakins
- Editors: Tom Priestley
- Music: Dominic Muldowney
- Language: English
- US Distributor: Park Circus