Dharlenton
I find many of the movies I saw during their first theatrical release now considered cult classics. Such is the case with Fahrenheit 451. I wanted to comment on what an impact this movie had on me as a 16 year old boy living in a small Pennsylvania town in 1966.
Amazing, thought provoking and anything with Julie Christie playing in it was something of an immediate hit with me. The fact the credits were spoken rather than displayed on the screen was revolutionary to my simple mind.
Once you've experienced a film such as this one and you read the barbs thrown by witty "critics" you're always surprised to find that these people and you obviously saw two different films.
For me it was a story about breaking free from tyranny and oppression, something that was an every day fact of my life at that time as a high school student where supposedly "grown adults" were telling me what to think, feel and do. Telling me how I should prepare for the grim realities of the dystopian world they themselves had created.
Now as a 61 year old grown adult myself, I realize my original impressions still pertain. As the world, and especially the good old US of A spirals down into a pit of mediocrity, greed and unquenchable consumerism, I realize how portentous this story and the movie really were.
I read with interest the fact that Mel Gibson had planned to do a remake of the 1966 movie with of all people, Tom Cruise but abadoned the project for a reason no less than what the story portended. He didn't feel it was relevant anymore as no one really reads books instead going into cyber space which in fact is just another form of TV, to read.
Well, Mel, isn't that exactly what this book is about? The fact we have disengaged ourselves from the physical touch of a printed book to absorb the mindless pabulum processed and milled out to us in the form of a screen. If I'm not mistaken that's exactly what Montag's wife was engaging in -- now known as Tweet, Twitter, Facebook and all those mind-numbing exchanges of irrelevant factoids about what one did today, how many times one went to the bathroom and spreading gossip to any disinterested plugged in android whilst walking the aisles of Wal-Mart with a phone plastered to the ear throwing useless items into a cart and then dutifully throwing them on a conveyor belt and offering up the holy debit card. Fahrenheit 451 indeed.
It's already here.
Amazing, thought provoking and anything with Julie Christie playing in it was something of an immediate hit with me. The fact the credits were spoken rather than displayed on the screen was revolutionary to my simple mind.
Once you've experienced a film such as this one and you read the barbs thrown by witty "critics" you're always surprised to find that these people and you obviously saw two different films.
For me it was a story about breaking free from tyranny and oppression, something that was an every day fact of my life at that time as a high school student where supposedly "grown adults" were telling me what to think, feel and do. Telling me how I should prepare for the grim realities of the dystopian world they themselves had created.
Now as a 61 year old grown adult myself, I realize my original impressions still pertain. As the world, and especially the good old US of A spirals down into a pit of mediocrity, greed and unquenchable consumerism, I realize how portentous this story and the movie really were.
I read with interest the fact that Mel Gibson had planned to do a remake of the 1966 movie with of all people, Tom Cruise but abadoned the project for a reason no less than what the story portended. He didn't feel it was relevant anymore as no one really reads books instead going into cyber space which in fact is just another form of TV, to read.
Well, Mel, isn't that exactly what this book is about? The fact we have disengaged ourselves from the physical touch of a printed book to absorb the mindless pabulum processed and milled out to us in the form of a screen. If I'm not mistaken that's exactly what Montag's wife was engaging in -- now known as Tweet, Twitter, Facebook and all those mind-numbing exchanges of irrelevant factoids about what one did today, how many times one went to the bathroom and spreading gossip to any disinterested plugged in android whilst walking the aisles of Wal-Mart with a phone plastered to the ear throwing useless items into a cart and then dutifully throwing them on a conveyor belt and offering up the holy debit card. Fahrenheit 451 indeed.
It's already here.