Imagined Futures in Sci-fi: Fahrenheit 451

I am taking a course called "Utopia/Dystopia: Imagined Futures in Sci-fi" which focuses on science fiction films from the fifties to the present. I will be writing a few words about each of the films I watch in class.

Fahrenheit 451
Directed by François Truffaut
Released November 14, 1966

There is absolutely an important lesson to be gleaned from this well-told story, but this film version hardly does it justice. The idea that firemen start the fires, to burn books, rather than put them out, is quite interesting. This is an ultimate example of a dystopian future, where all seems well when taken at face value, but behind the scenes, something sinister is truly going on. Montag is just like any dystopian protagonist, like Winston from "1984", who realizes his discontentment with society and tries to do something about that, starting first off with himself. This film is way too corny for its good, but the story is not completely lost, as long as you remember that what you are laughing about is not the future portrayed but rather how ridiculously it is portrayed.

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