Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) is a fireman. In the future a fireman doesn’t put out fires, he starts them. Actually, he sets books on fire. The government has decided that books make people unhappy. Therefore, books are made illegal. All books must be destroyed. Once they are destroyed the populace will be happy and content. Everyone will be equal. Montag’s boss is Captain Beatty (Cyril Cusak). Beatty mentions that Montag may be up for a promotion soon. Montag’s co-worker Fabian (Anton Diffring) doesn’t really like Montag and is a little jealous of him.
Montag lives in the suburbs in block 813. On the way home a woman begins a conversation with him. Her name is Clarisse (Julie Christie). Clarisse lives with her uncle. They are neighbors of Montag and his wife Linda (Julie Christie). Clarisse is a schoolteacher. She asks Montag if he has ever read any of the books he burns. The thought had never really crossed Montag’s mind before. He becomes interested in the idea. He secretly brings home a book from one of the book burnings and hides it. Late at night he begins reading it. Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield”. He begins to read anything he can bring home and hide.
Montag’s wife Linda is upset with him and doesn’t understand his desire to read. After all reading is against the law and his job is to burn books not read them. People who have books hidden are caught when their friends and neighbors turn them in. The books are burned, and the people are arrested and questioned. Montag is affected when the woman whose home is an underground library refuses to leave the house when the firemen are about to burn her books. Instead, she strikes a match and sets herself on fire rather than leave her books.
Clarisse manages to escape when her house is raided. By now Clarisse and Montag are friends. Montag finds out about the raid and is concerned. He breaks into the captain’s office looking for information. He finds out that Clarisse was not captured in the raid. He finds her trying to get back to her uncle’s house. He helps her break in and find and destroy a list of other people who read.
Clarisse tells Montag about a rag tag group her uncle told her about. She calls them “book people”. To keep books from being destroyed each one has memorized a book. This way they can keep books alive. They live in small groups way out in the country, in the woods and the hills. She says she will be going out to stay with them. She asks him to go with her, but he says he can’t. He says he wants to hide a book in every fireman’s house and then denounce them. He believes that way the system will eat itself. What he doesn’t know is that Linda has turned him in to the authorities. When he returns to the fire station it is his house they will be raiding.
“Fahrenheit 451” was released in 1966 and was directed by Francois Truffaut. The movie is a British science fiction drama about a dystopian future. It is based on the Ray Bradbury 1953 novel. The film's beginning credits are spoken instead of being written. This is consistent with the film’s theme of written material being taboo.
There are lots of differences between the book and the movie. If you are a purist, you may have trouble with the film. Beside plot differences the book makes the world more futuristic, cold and barren. The film reflects life less as a science fiction world but more as just a suppressed world. Super censorship, conformity and the banal induce a lack of feeling and boredom in everyday existence.
The film is a little on the strange side and a bit surreal. What makes the world of “Fahrenheit 451” dystopian is the numbness that people feel in life. Books are outlawed because they make people unhappy. At least unhappy is a feeling. Captain Beatty believes that the only way for people to be happy is for everyone to be equal. It’s socialism in its most obscene form. The problem with that is that it’s not sustainable. People do have emotions, ideas and differences. Beatty’s philosophy about books is as flawed as is his ideas about people.
The film and the book are dated in that you don’t need actual books anymore. The web is a vast and varied expose of all things and thoughts that you would ever find in books and more. Of course, the web can make the world more dystopian. We could be going down a rabbit hole of our own making. When we label lies as “alternate facts” we no longer have the clarity of reality.
There is a running subplot concerning two of the firemen. They are always in trouble and are not allowed to associate with each other. They are not even allowed to sit next to each other during classes. Nothing is actually said but the under current seems to look as if they are homosexual and are being berated for not conforming to social norms. It’s another way of saying equal means conformity.
Even if you are a purist, it is worth it to view the movie as a separate view or interpretation of the book. It’s quite intriguing.