The original Ray Bradbury story is great but even back in the day I didn't think was a very fine adaption. Things are made a little worse, I think, with Blu-ray, the fire engine looks distinctly toy like and the streets and houses like some model village. I realise now that there are further problems contributing to this not being the success it might have been. The major rift between Oskar Werner and Truffault must have been devastating for the young director, the lack of mutual language between him and many of the English crew another. But, most of all is the script itself, written without full knowledge of English. This certainly all goes to explain the stilted nature of the performances, which might have helped with a conventional science-fi but not here when this is more about the loss of books. The final scene in the woods, in the snow, is absolutely magical and here the director had a bit of luck (even if the actors didn't) because I understand the snow is real and was unexpected. Truffault did well to use it and so well.

This is one of my favorite sci-fi films and my second favorite adaptation from one of my favorite authors for one of my favorite sci-fi books "Fahrenheit 451". Most live action adaptations of Bradberry's works have always been hit or miss, but to me this is one of the hits. Yeah, it's true it's not perfect (though same can be said about a lot of other live action adaptations from famous authors) but for what it was about to accomplish I felt it did well.There is a lot about the film I really like, production value is on par, I even like the music score which is solid though to me the best music was at the end which I thought was beautiful. The suspense in this film is pretty good though like the book this isn't so much a suspense thriller it's more of a drama. Acting was really good from Oskar Werner as Guy Montag I really bought him as a man that has been nothing but a drone for a corrupt power let alone having no real identity hence his name. But then after spending time with Clarise and reading a book or two it awakens things inside him that have been long dormant, we see he is slowly but surely becoming human because he's using his brain and heart. You really find yourself routing for this guy in not so much just to join in the cause to save humanity but to save his own soul.Julie Christie is very good as Clarise and Linda, it's a duel role but I bought into it I actually did believe the actress was two different people. This choice really adds into the film in fact makes it even more interesting which I'll explain latter.The plotline I personally think is terrifyingly plausible it's the kind of place I honestly wouldn't want to live in; when you think about our technological sub culture how rapid it's evolving and how our current reading sub culture is suffering a slight decline. A corrupt government finding the chance to take advantage of the public by outlawing the very thing that gives us knowledge and even joy in life books. That's a really scary thought, one scene that displays this is a harrowing scene, where a woman that has hidden books throughout her own house, sets herself on fire with the books. This didn't just show how there was something sacred about the books that she's die for then live in ignorance, but it was also to show how much of a living hell the society created truly is as it's a world with not just no place for books but intellects as well.It's true the future looks a little more like the 60's and 70's with some futuristic equipment added, this film was made around the 60's after all. But when you think about it more it does make sense, there was some sort of war sometime in the past which means certain resources would be scarce and due to the intellectual bankruptcy, it means very little invention and technological advancement, ok a few but like I said few and most of that tech is under government control.In a way this film along with the book was sort or prolific on Reality TV and podcasting as we see there is this interactive program they have going where people at their own homes they commutate with each other live, with whatever script given to them. Though the difference is at least with reality TV and podcasting, people actually had something to say and they were about something. These programs we see in this society are bloody boring because they're not about anything, no one is really talking about anything or even engaging in real conversation. It makes sense the program would be uninteresting because the people that created it have no imagination, they have no resources of inspiration to fuel its fire.What disturbs me about this society is how intellectually bankrupt and emotionally unbalanced it has become, we don't just see that books have been taken away, but all other resources of intellect as well. Despite all the technology they have we don't see anyone playing any video games or any board/party games of any kind. Or even watch reruns of any old TV shows like "Star Trek" or "Game of Thrones". This just makes the society all the scarier the inability to enjoy those things.The reason for the whole burning is to create peace and equality and based on the old dictum "ignorance is bliss". Now peace and equality are a genuine goal for every society but the problem is their methodology is perverse and corrupt because as it means subtracting basic important human freedoms, which makes the peace and equality achieved false. Also, bliss has a double meaning which is death, which you feel is something that will happen to this society somewhere along the line. We do see that most of the people in this dystopia are happy, but the happiness isn't genuine it's the kind where people are docile and dopped up which we see most are as there are certain drugs available, which in a way is a bit prolific on our own over the counter drug culture. This happiness isn't genuine because there is no love, it sorts of reminds me of what the Seventh Doctor from an episode of "Doctor Who" once said, "Happiness is nothing without sadness, two sides one coin." And that's the main problem with the populace they have no spiritual balance, no yang for their yin which means no harmony.There is a very interesting contrasting dynamic between both Montag's wife and Clarise and Montag in the middle. It's sort of a Cronenberg like dynamic as it's sort of a contrast and clash between two different duel identities. As well as a clash on the positive ideology of what women can be versus certain stereotypical and faulty ideologies about what women should be. Montag's wife Linda is a product of her society and time, she's like a fancy car but with nothing under the hood to really bring it up to speed. One thing about her that is disturbing isn't just that she's a druggie but how forgetful she's became, in a scene she mentioned how she's forgotten how many pills she's taken, which made me worried because at that moment she could've died. This just shows how truly dangerous the society is and justifies the double meaning of bliss, doing nothing to strengthen your mind leads to dire consequences.Clarise is an alternate version of Montag's wife she's obviously what she could have been. As we see her a person with a mind and a heart. One thinks I like about her is that she's curious about a lot of things in life, like what fire man use to do which is something I can emphasize with because even I'm curious about things all the time. In that society they would regard her as an outcast, crazy but she's not she's being human which is part of what humans in fact intellectually do which is to discover and seek truth out.I even like the interaction scenes with both of them, here it's a real health relationship because both are actually interacting, talking about things and sharing them. Unlike with his wife where they talk almost about nothing, in fact Montag can't even remember why they even fell in love and got married which I'll admit is kind of sad because it just shows how absent the concept of love and emotion is. This story is about the importance of literacy, and how important a role books and any other resources of knowledge really are for our lives. But also, the importance of being a person and never settling for less in life. Books may be destroyed but the human spirit never will along with the ideas with it.Rating: 4 stars

For me the best science fiction films don't have to be multi-million dollar blockbusters featuring other worlds, spacecraft or aliens. My personal taste is for recognisably near-future films or TV series where it's easier to imagine yourself in the action and think that, yes, this is just possible in your own lifetime. Especially with older films, it's often interesting to see how accurate the writer or director's future predictions are. "1984" of course stands as the template for this dystopian future depiction but this fine Truffaut film of the Ray Bradbury book also put me in mind of its near-contemporary small-screen counterpart "The Prisoner".Of course the invention of Kindle-like reading tablets renders the premise of "Fahrenheit 451" somewhat useless, but there were several other recognisable motifs in the film which have reverberated down into today, like interactive TV show participation, the ever-present debate on state censorship and the dumbing-down of society.Stylishly directed by Francois Truffaut and superbly shot by the emergent Nicolas Roeg, it's a strikingly visual film, with Roeg's trademark use of the colour red evident everywhere. Red of course is also the colour of fire which is used to destroy the books discovered by the state-run "fire-brigades" sent out on informant tip-offs, one of whose crew, the rigorous, seemingly ambitious Oskar Werner, is the central character whose conversion (or reversion) to an appreciation of literature is the fulcrum of the film.His young wife, played by Julie Christie is deliberately based upon Dickens' child-like Dora in "David Copperfield", the book that turns Werner's character and in an imaginative twist, she also plays the "girl on the train" who seeks him out as a possible convert to the book-people cause. I understand the criticisms of the acting in the film, particularly by the leads as vacant, wooden and stilted but I can allow this given that they are representing almost automatons in the way they live ordered lives, are fed on comic-like "fake-newspapers", state-propaganda TV shows and travelling to work lemming-like in efficient sky-trains.I'm a great book-lover myself, so I lapped up the premise of the importance of literature in our lives but Truffaut never forgets he's making a thriller too. I particularly liked the idea of people becoming living repositories of banned books, although quite how they memorise whole books is one of the harder-to-believe aspects of the story. The ending was suitably enigmatic and reminded me of a similar trick Truffaut's hero Hitchcock employed to likewise striking effect in "The Birds" but there were many other memorable scenes which linger long in the memory in this fine, underrated feature with a now deservedly growing reputation as a genre classic.

There was a lot of exposition, especially with the monorail going back and forth, which showed the sheer monotony of the kind of lives the people were living, and could have been cut back.The movie never showed WHY Montag started reading the books that he burned. Was it just the curiosity that Clarisse started in him, or was he already dissatisfied with his life, and was looking for a way out of it? What was up with all of the oranges in the movie? On the breakfast table and in the break room at the firehouse? Plus the orange juice dispenser? I mean I like orange juice, but not THAT often? I don't recall a lot of meat being served in the movie. Was everyone a vegetarian? And just what was Fabian's deal? Was he jealous of Montag's promotion? Of Montag himself? Or was he simply an opportunistic jerk? Oskar I think, was hampered by the stilted dialogue, along with his really BAD relationship with Truffaut, and came across as a bit of a zombie in his relationship with his wife Linda; only really coming to life with Clarisse.I highly recommend the movie, but it does have its bad spots.