Frequently and incorrectly labeled as “sci-fi,” “1984” is pure New World Order dystopia, a situation that sadly is finding renewed interest among many of the globe’s current two-legged, all-compliant sheep.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 18, 2024

The film is faultlessly acted by the entire cast and the settings are perfectly photographed in the kind of lighting that prevails on Waterloo or any of the main-line railway stations in London.

| May 7, 2024

‘…the word Orwellian is now misused to mean any future that doesn’t reflect the speaker’s own wishes, but that’s not the highly specific message of the book or film, and in terms of predicting the feel of the future Orwell and Radford got it dead right.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 21, 2024

While Radford never fully captures the devastating ordeal of mental and physical torture of Orwell’s novel, it is an admirable effort and a fine film in its own right...

| Apr 14, 2023

Even though it paints a stark, bleak picture without any hope of redemption, it has an inevitability about it, a relentless driving force that carries you forward whether you want to go or not.

| Feb 10, 2023

The moviemaking suggests a slow descent into a quiet, awful nightmare.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 31, 2022

Orwell dealt in ironies, in frightening possibilities which have turned out to be not so far-fetched. But not much of that is conveyed in 1984. Just atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 5, 2022

Many viewers might become agitated at its placidity, especially considering the cheerlessness of the subject matter.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Sep 6, 2020

[A] well-intentioned (if overly stylised) adaptation...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2020

Watching 1984 is a powerful, even terrifying experience, but so is being locked up in a dark closet.

| Feb 28, 2020

Radford's visualization of Orwell's vision in 1984 is all the more powerful and disconcerting today for how frighteningly prescient it was

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 6, 2019

The visuals capture the oppressive atmosphere of the novel even if the script can't quite convey the sheer horror (and chilling wordplay) whipped up by Orwell.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 27, 2019

Radford's adaptation of 1984 is admirable in that it perfectly captures the look and feel of the novel's oppressive dystopian setting, but unfortunately it's less successful when it comes to presenting the narrative of its rebellious central figure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 22, 2019

Radford and Deakins brilliantly juxtapose these vistas of industrial decay with pastoral shots of the verdant English countryside to which the characters escape, first in person, then in their minds.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 28, 2018

Can it live up to the masterpiece from which it was adapted? In short, the answer is no. But it makes a damn good crack at it.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 26, 2018

Nodding to the movie's bleak mood, Burton bleakens himself; robbed of the pleasures of the grand, show-offy way he could use his voice, the mischievous twinkle of his eye, you feel cheated.

| Jan 2, 2018

Book-based tale has brutal political torture, violence, sex.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 28, 2017

It's the linguistic cargo - the story of "Newspeak," the outlining of the censor's calling - that makes this tale still fearful.

| Feb 10, 2017

Solid version of the famous sci-fi novel. Big Brother again rules.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 17, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 14, 2007