Michael Radford's "1984" and George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" Essay

Michael Radford's "1984" film is an artistic literal translation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four novel, where the film has focused on different elements which are closely related to the actual novel. Even though the two pieces of the work were released under different publications not to mention the different time that creates a huge gap between the two, there is a closer reflection of the entire Orwell's work in the "1984" film by Michael Radford. This paper will explore the literal translation of the two sides to determine how the novel has been explicitly translated into the movie.

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The film opens in a descriptive manner where it addresses and describes the lifestyle of a young, dedicated man, Winston who works in a small office cubical at the Ministry of Truth. His secret thoughts significantly influence his daily life. His art of rewriting the history by the dictation of the supreme party leaders, Big Brother has made him human under in humanistic circumstances. The film portrays Winston as a man haunted by the desire of change and a series of painful memories, thus forcing him to keep a private diary of his thoughts, which helps to compose evidence of his thoughtcrime.

On the other hand, George Orwell's novel takes a similar turn in trying to open the description of Winston and his daily life. Never the less, there is a closer similarity between the two sides when considering the choice of the characters and their daily routine activities that each side depict. To begin with, the description of Winston's Lifestyle and his boss is quite apparent to describe the similarity. Never the less, the pictorial representation of the office cubical and the overall outline on Radford's film, is closely matched to Orwell's description of the cubical in the novel, where Winston is believed to operate in a small cubical office with limited resources.

The superstate Oceania has become one of the provinces by the party who employed the "Thought Police," to persecute the individuals and the independent thinkers. Winston is a dedicated and skillful worker, who is a rank-and-field party member, but secretly hates the party for its brutality and dreams of rebellion against the Big Brother. In this case, the desire of Winston's heart lands him an opportunity to engage in a forbidden relationship with a Julia, a fellow employee. Radford's Uses similar concept while describing the nature of brutality of the "Thought Police" the concept and interest of the Big brothers in investigating the public. In this case, Radford reveals that Winston is not happy with how things are carried out by his superiors since he believes that the regime greatly practices in the oppression of the citizens. Never the less, the film also portrays the interests of Winston trying to rebel against the forbidden love when he approaches Julia, an employee, who is still depicted in the novel.

The mandatory two minutes halt at the working place is aimed at increasing the creativity and breaking the monotony of working at the workplace. It is at this point, Winston catches the eyes of an inner party member whom he never got to talk to O'Brien. Never the less, he also catches the eyes of a young beautiful dark-haired girl whom he believes she is from the Fiction department, who he considers to be an ally, intending to destroy him. Radford's film takes a closer look up of how the sequence of the events are captured from this chapter and decides to make a scene that follows the series of activities that took place within the two-minute break, without reversing the sequence of the events.

Orwell describes the channel of Julia communication back to his secret admirer at the office via a written note with a concise message that made Winston understand the nature of their relationship "I love you." Winston understands the price of the relationship after getting a stan warning about the relationship but decides to take the chances. On the other hand, the film depicts the scene capturing the note with a brief message to Winston. Julia proposes a complicated plan for the two to incubate their relationship.

The novel describes the first meeting place of the two secret lovers as a remote area which could be used as a hiding place from the Thought Police. At this point, the two lovers feel they are secured from the outside interference, and their love affair is hidden from the prying eyes that could separate them.

Michael Radford keenly describes the entire scenario of the two secret lovers in remote countryside as a way of capturing the environment described in the novel. The two goes on to exchange subversive ideas before having their first sex as described in the book. At this point, Winston is profoundly convinced that the two are insulated away from the interference of the external world since they are in the remote countryside, where they believe the wroth of the party's whip may not uncover their underlying relationship. Based on the novel, the relationship comes to an end, at one evening, where a raid from the Thought police, arrests the two and their relationship comes to an end. On the same token, the scene is captured and well defined in the film, where a telescreen hidden behind a picture on a wall in their room was used to capture the evidence of their relationship. In addition to the above statement, the charmingly seem less sensitive and old-fashioned proprietor of the pawn shop, Mr. Cherrington is a secret agent working for the party without Julia and Winston consent, where he blows up the cover, leading to their arrest.

O'Brien is a high-ranking member of the private party, who is introduced once more to Winton Smith once more even after working together for a while. The novel describes the character of O'Brien's brutality in torturing Winston, for going against the forbidden love. O'Brien's character is profoundly portrayed in the film when Winston is brought to room 101 for torture. Never the less, O'Brien does not hesitate in opening up to Winston, by telling him that "you will be subjected to the worst in the world," a similar phrase that is used on both the film and the novel to inject fear and imagination of what awaits Winston.

Conclusion

In the bottom line, there has been a closer reflection of the entire George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four novel as compared to Michael Radford's "1984" film, where minor details that do not form the core of the play in the book are well elaborated and depicted on the film. Never the less, the film incorporates the plot, flow, major and minor characters as well as the themes from the novel. In this case, the film is a clear literal translation of the book to the film.