Contrast-Comparison Essay. Lytoshenko Dariia

The dystopian movie: Fahrenheit 451 and 1984

Dystopia is a genre which is widely used in art to illustrate the views on modern society and to predict its future. First it appeared in literature. The word ‘Dystopia’ came from ‘Utopia’, a term used by Thomas More as a title of his book in 1516. But when the cinema industry began to develop, dystopian movies have taken one of the leading places in it. Among the best examples of this kind of movie are Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and 1984 (1956).

Both of these films are based on novels: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell. The action takes place in a totalitarian state, where every aspect of one’s life is under control. The most powerful pressure is imposed on the feelings and emotions of people. Both societies have special “police” whose main mission is to oppose to everything that can develop individuality and personal meaning of a human. At the very beginning the main characters in both movies belong to such groups of people. Montag (Fahrenheit 451) is a fireman, who burn books in order to avoid an undesirable reactions in emotionally stable and calm society. O'Connor (1984) is a man, whose daily work is rewriting history by changing facts of the past according to the modern situation. Both these men are doing their work well. But then they fall in love, which revolutionary changed their life. The films show the results of such turn differently.

First of all, the problems, which the heroes have to face with differs. Montag fights against the erase of books in order to protect his right to get knowledge and to develop himself. O’Connor, in the other hand, tries to escape from Big Brother’s eyes and to find some privacy for his feelings and thoughts. Moreover, the struggle of the hero in 1984 sustains a defeat, as the world that he faced with is so stable and so perfect in its totalitarianism, that O’Connor has no chance to win. In comparison with that, the world of Fahrenheit 451 is less cruel. There is an optimistic possibility of resistance in this movie, as there are people who oppose to the consumer society. They are the protectors of World’s cultural heritage.

So, both of the movies, Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, have much in common in their point of view on the repression of moral values and the forces that can resist it, such as love, fidelity, desire to get knowledge and to be independent. Modern society already has a lot of elements of manipulation. Dystopian films show some possible pictures of the future of human society. They criticize consumerism, degradation and disregard to history and culture.