Early this January, HBO took to Twitter the release of the teaser for the Fahrenheit 451 film with the tagline, “Fact. Fiction. It all burns.” I don’t know about you, but I was sold. The upcoming television film is evidently an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s 1953 classic. Bradbury named his novel Fahrenheit 451 after he was told by a fireman that a book burns at 451 degrees (which is not entirely true, as it depends on the kind of paper). Now, if you’ve never read the novel, just so you have an idea of it, you get your totalitarian regime, complete with censure of the people, suppression of ideas, and the disappearance of dissenters. Voilà! A dystopian novel is born. And don’t we just love them? If that’s not enough for you, the film stars Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. ‘Nough said.
The story follows fireman Guy Montag (Michael B. Jordan) as he slowly comes to the realization that his job may actually be doing more harm than good. Now, in this society, firemen are a little different from what we’re used to. You see, instead of putting out fires, they start them. Their primary responsibility is burning books. Classic dystopian, am I right?
So, books are outlawed, because that’s how censure works, and it’s the firemen’s job to burn them. In essence, Guy is an enforcer of the regime. He goes about his work mindlessly following orders, burning books, and the possessions of people who read them, left and right, but eventually, he begins to doubt his work. He gets curious, pockets a book and, fueled by a young girl he meets, starts to question everything he’s been told. He actually listens to this girl and is intrigued by her view of the world, and that makes all the difference.
During a radio interview in 1956, Bradbury said that the novel was a reaction to his concern over the threat of book burning in the United States and of the mass media destroying the reading culture. In the vein of the novel 1984, the novel and Hulu series, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the Netflix series 3%, it’s a moving story about subversion and breaking out of blind obedience. So, in the spirit of the story, I strongly recommend reading the classic (if you haven’t) before watching the adaptation.
And remember, “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door…Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
Happy reading!
The film is set to be released on May 19, 2018. You can watch the trailer here.