I enjoyed the movie Fahrenheit 451 quite a lot as it had a very good concept and an interesting story line behind it. Even though I enjoyed the movie, it made me angry at certain characters throughout. In the world they live in, all books and written material are banned and forbidden, where if someone is found in possession with them, the books are burnt and the person’s memory is erased. The government within the American population is scared about the safety of America, and out of fear drug the country with ‘eye drops’, place cameras in every room and convince the people of America that books cause insanity. The main character Montag has grown up knowing that books are bad and that a fireman’s job is to burn books, not put out fires. “Really, your uncle is right, you are light in the head. Put fires out? who told you that?” Montag has grown up knowing books are bad, and finds it absurd that firefighters ell job is actually to put out fires. The producer, David Coatsworth has portrayed the main character Montag very well in my opinion. He comes across to me as someone who fits in but has not yet conformed like the rest of the society has in a robotic manner. Where of all the other firefighters accept and defend the idea that books must be destroyed, Montag questions why this is and why the rebels try so hard to protect books. “Tell me, why do you burn books”. Clarisse says this to Montag out of curiosity for why would he do it? thats just all he has known where is a sheep following the rest of the sheep, listening to what is apparently ‘right’. Montag’s mentor, Beatty is a character that constantly infuriates me throughout the movie. He has so much authority and power over the people, where he is obnoxious and self absorbed, putting on the hero act to the people and then being a rebel behind the scenes. His character portrays what people will go through in order to keep their ‘perfect’ image, where looking good comes morally before doing what’s right.
The rebels themselves are generally from the older generations and are seen through the movie as if they are poor or inferior. This idea of inferiority is shown by having them dressed in tatty clothing and living in shady neighbourhoods, which therefore strengthens the key idea that books are dangerous and bad. These ‘rebels’ know something that the rest of America don’t which is why they would put their lives on the line to bring justice to books and all that they have to share with the world. The rebels represent a group of people who believe in what is morally right and will do what it takes, even risking their lives to save the lives of written knowledge. Justice is defined as just behaviour or treatment, where for these people they must save the lives of written knowledge. When Beatty and his team raid an old house out of the city they find one of the biggest stash of books in all of history. At the house is a lady sitting on a chair reading a book, totally mesmerised by the words on the page and not by the recent intruders. She had such a connection to these books that when they set the place of fire she was burnt to the ground with the books as well. Even from this scene it is clear to see that the majority of America is obviously drugged and delusional, because why would someone be willing to die over something unless it was for such an important reason?
Justice comes in all forms, but throughout the movie fahrenheit 451 it comes in bringing justice to literature and to those from the older generations or those who know the truth. They believe it in them that the rest of the world should know and experience what they do. Through this dystopian movie it shows how higher authorities are driven by fear and uncertainty, where the need for absolute control over a country comes into play. Justice in the movie is all about bringing fairness and truth to the people of America, to show what books are really for and what the government is actually doing.
Something I found very interesting about the movie was the technology used and the thoughts I took away after watching the movie. Their whole world is on the screens, where everything is live- every footstep, word, search- all broadcasted and followed. For Montag, his whole life is being watched, where people love heart react and thumbs up what he does in his day to day routine. When he begins to question whether what he is actually doing is right he takes a stand by helping out Clarisse and the rest of the rebels to do what he knows is right. Soon after, Beatty knows something is up- that he is helping the rebels, snuck a tracking device and has been reading books. Beatty always seemed to be loyal to Montag but turns his back of him, by planting thousands of books in his house and arresting him while the whole event is broadcast to America. This moment highlights to me the fakeness of Beatty’s character where he was able to turn his back so easily on his best man, letting the idea of his reputation come over genuine connections. His ‘likes’ and ‘reactions’ dramatically plummet with now angry reacts, sad reacts and thumbs down. These ‘reacts’ and emojis portray the element of social media and what effect it has on a society. Fahrenheit 451 is warning it’s watchers of the scary possibility of what could come of social media, where it could transform generations to become a society with no genuine connections, no distinctive thoughts and an excessive reliance on technology. Ray Bradbury’s message from creating this movie is that he wants readers to understand the importance of reading and thinking. One of his quotes that relates very well to the movie is “You don’t have to destroy books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them”. Social media has had an already monumental affect on our society today as of the alarming rates of cyber bulling leading to exceptionally high suicide rates in New Zealand as a country. Too often people turn to social media as the easy way out, where things are said and done that would never even have been thought of being done in face to face interaction. This movie takes an all to real twist on what social media can do to a society. Social media no doubt plays a big part in my life today. I’m all for snapchat and instagram but I can agree that these platforms are both very distracting and influential. Something really interesting that Instagram has done recently is make it so that only you can see how many likes your photo gets. This is trying to take away all the insecurities and ideas around likes, where now you can just focus on what you want to post without being judged on how many likes you are getting. I think this is a really good thing to do as it is a step back from stereotypical social media traits, where no judgement comes from it. This makes it more personal where it is just about sharing your memories with your friends.
Fahrenheit 451 was a movie I really enjoyed that I thought was very relevant to me as social media plays a big part of everyones lives today. It highlighted the importance of books and what it means to bring justice to something so important and necessary.