Product Details

• Actors: Edmond O'Brien, Jan Sterling
• Directors: Michael Anderson
• Format: Black & White
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Movies Unlimited
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000192YUE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,589 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

George Orwell's landmark novel is the basis of this eerie, darkly satiric tale whose futuristic world is divided into three sections following an atomic war. London, capital of the Oceania sector, is where Edmond O'Brien is a clerk for "Big Brother," the totalitarian government that keeps a close watch with all of its subjects. When O'Brien carries on a forbidden love affair with Jan Sterling, officials try to brainwash the couple into abandoning their free will. 91 min.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Orwell's nightmare future., June 13, 2005

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1984 (DVD)

This 1956 vision starts with scenes from the recurring nightmare of its time: nuclear war. Oceania and the rest were built on the glowing rubble of that war.

Michael Anderson directed this very compelling version of Winston Smith, the Everyman in that world. It's a world where people searched daily, in their own homes - display of pockets and briefcase content in front of the flickering but unblinking monitor lenses. His work is in rewriting history, to make sure everything turned out the way Big Brother says that it did, and rewriting again tomorrow to conform to the new past.

This movie form of Orwell's book does take some liberties with the story, but none that matter. Winston and his lover are captured. Their thoughtcrime is too serious for matters like trial, and the sentence is immediate. They don't deserve execution in that world, instead they are crushed into Big Brother's mold and converted. This is not a movie with a happy ending. At the time it was written, though, it was a very believable ending.

Some of this story's predictions have some true, in odd ways. Big Brother's cameras track us every day, in banks and stores, along streets and highways, and even from home webcams. Oddly, the futuristic dome-towers of Orwell's Ministry buildings in London also came true in the Swiss Re building, the "gherkin.".

In other ways, though, the 1950s sensibilities of the movie look stale to a modern audience. A newer version of the movie emphasized the grit and damage of a bombed-out world, impoverished by the costs of its weapons, but this was a relatively clean kind of place. The newer production also suggested the physical decay caused by imprisonment under Big Brother, but this Winston came out looking reasonably well-fed and dapper. The 1956 Winston was a crushed man, too, but our eyes have changed since this movie was made.

Still, it's a classic rendering of a classic cautionary story. It's a strong portrayal of a dystopia that could still happen, even though calendar year 1984 has come and gone. And, like Orwell's original, it ends on a note in which hope is not just gone, but forgotten.

//wiredweird

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still powerful after all these years, October 1, 2004

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1984 (VHS Tape)

With no communist threat left to fight, this film of George Orwell's sizzling book may seem like yesterday's newspaper. Still, the movie is loyal to Orwell's creation and -- having been made in Great Britain in 1956 at the height of European communism -- brings a far more potent and immediate sense of fear than that tepid remake from the 1980s.

This movie features a number of stars -- Edmund O'Brien as the hero Smith, Jan Sterling as his love interest, Michael Redgrave as his boss that eventually turns him in, and a young Donald Pleasance as his friend that also meets the same fate. A highly dramatic musical score from British composer Malcolm Arnold underlines the potent story.

The pace of the film varies between deadly dull and extreme nervousness while the overwhelming cinematic aura is film noir. I think this may be from poor technical detailing in the 1950s as well as a poor transfer from original film to videotape. This movie is not available in DVD, sad to say.

None of this diminishes the importance of this film as a point in time reference to intolerance and authoritarism in post World War II Europe. Indeed, the voiceover at the beginning and end of the film explains how our liberty is under attack and why we must be vigilent in protecting freedom.

If you read Orwell's timeless book and saw the inferior remake, it's time you see this version to get a better idea of how people actually thought about this kind of terror when communism was a menace throughout the continent.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Here is a complete review of this item for sale., February 22, 2009

By 

fw Bear "fw-bear_the" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: 1984 (DVD)

Item was listed as "NEW FACTORY SEALED". Plastic covering appears to be type used by some to re-seal opened products giving the -appearance- of the factory sealed. Disk had bad scratch across outer 1/4 of disk on data side. This is NOT an original transfer as the film was produced by Holiday Film Productions Ltd. in the United Kingdom (England), and as such, before BETA -VHS - and DVDs. However, several versions have been available over the years. It is a Non-Professional DVD-R copy. It is NTSC REGION 1 coded. Of course it is in B&W (Greyscale more accurately) and with RCA Monophonic sound (in original English). There are no subtitles or captions.
Although in Mono, my 'Phillips HTS-3400 DVD Home Theater System' generated a lively enhanced sound in the ProLogic mode that sounded very modern. It has chapters and a chapter list but no added features. I last saw this film in 1958 when a local LA TV "movie station" broadcast it over two dozen times in one of their 'feature weeks'. I saw it then a dozen times. Either you love this film or you don't. I do.

The following refers to a purchase from "moviesunlimited": The film condition this copy was made from is poor with continuous scratches,frequent bad spots and projector sprocket wobble. Reel change cues were frequent meaning that this copy had been broken for many, many commercials. Over all I would rate this DVD copy in the ranks of the $5 specials tables. To someone serious about this or someone new to the
film, this presentation will be like viewing it in the 60's on a late-night TV showing. The reason for this is simple: this is the 1955 TV version (Screen Gems Films is the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures Corp. the US distributor). If you would buy this only from a $5 table, then this is too expensive. If, on the other hand, you remember "1984" and would like to revisit it, it will be worth it until a better product emerges from some film vault long forgotten. (You might try one of the Region 2 versions available for something closer to the original UK version.) I rate it 3***, down from 5***** because of original film condition, unprofessional transfer and describing it as NEW thereby giving the impression that it is from original production company. Delivery was 13 days!