a review of 一九八四

1st Annual Criterion Challenge Week 34: Watch a film released in 1984 Somehow this movie manages to make the setting Orwell's novel seem even more grim than I had imagined in my head, to the extent that I wondered if my understanding of the book had been infiltrated by the somewhat cozier Brutalist-Deco dystopia of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." As much as I like John Hurt in general, I do wonder if perhaps he is miscast as Winston Smith here, as his age difference with Suzanna Hamilton as Julia casts their relationship in a different light than I had envisioned.