Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

1984 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 14, 2019

Michael Radford's "1984" arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; new video interviews with the director and cinematographer Roger Deakins; new video interview with writer David Ryan; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by critic A. I. Kennedy as well as technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

The censor

The bigger and more powerful the government, the smaller your freedoms are. This is the crucial truth that emerges from Michael Radford’s cinematic adaptation of George Orwell’s classic novel. All other red flags and troubles in its narrative exist to support the validity of this relationship.

The events in the film take place in a futuristic state controlled by the Socialist Party and its many visible and invisible forces. The state is engaged in a big war with a mortal enemy, and each day its residents are provided with lengthy reports highlighting new developments from the front. They are always uplifting and inspirational, predicting the inevitable victory that will bring back peace and prosperity to the masses.

The actual news coming from the front and elsewhere around the state, however, are closely monitored and then filtered daily by hundreds of censors employed by the Ministry of Truth. Winston Smith (John Hurt) is one of them. In an underground facility, Winston carefully reads incoming reports and corrects or removes information that could erode the Truth. Quite often, he even rewrites old government documents for the exact same reason.

But an unexpected note from a girl, Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), forces Winston to begin reconsidering his duties. They meet secretly, make love, and even have some decent food and real coffee. After that, while pondering the illegality of their romantic relationship, Winston begins to question most everything that the Party has demanded he believes in -- and the more he does, the more terrified he becomes of his past blind loyalty to it.

Around the same time Winston crosses paths with O’Brien (Richard Burton), a high-ranking apparatchik, who also seems frustrated with the false reality which the Party has manufactured for the masses. When he visits his office, O’Brien offers him a banned book and makes him believe that he understands exactly what troubles his mind. However, shortly after, the secret police discover the place where he has been meeting Julia and the two are promptly arrested.

Despite some minor omissions, Radford’s film does a pretty good job of visualizing the totalitarian state that Orwell described in his famous novel years ago. Right from the get-go the viewer feels that it is a place whose foundation is so rotten that even a whiff of unfiltered truth can bring it down, which of course is the main reason why Big Brother is constantly sniffing around and crushing the brave souls that occasionally dare to speak up.

Given the current socio-political environment, the most interesting aspect of the film is its deconstruction of Newspeak, the reformatted and approved by the Party language, whose function is to protect and preserve an ideology. It is truly fascinating, as it reveals endless parallels to the type of political correctness that is now targeting even the traditional ways in which the two sexes are identified. (The entire segment about the purposeful obliteration of orgasm from the proletarian mind is quite the eye-opener as well). Then there is the revelation that a manufactured past is the starting point of all future dictatorships, which of course is the very reason why history has always been a favorite target of all ambitious demagogues.

The film has a silvery (fifty percent black-and-white) minimalistic look that is perfect for the dystopian future it aims to recreate. Radford teamed up with cinematographer Roger Deakins and the two shot some of the key footage in an area where a couple of years later Stanley Kubrick did a potion of Full Metal Jacket.

*Criterion’s new release of 1984 features two soundtracks: the controversial electronic one by Eurythmics and an orchestral one by composer Dominic Muldowney.

1984 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Michael Radford's 1984 arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Supervised by director of photography Roger Deakins, this new digital transfer was created in 16-bit 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the 35mm original camera negate at Deluxe in Hollywood. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm magnetic track using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX.

Transfer supervisor: Roger Deakins, Lee Kline.
Colorist: Greg Fisher/Company 3, London.
Additional color grading: Kevin O'Connor/Deluxe, Hollywood."

The new 4K restoration of 1984 is easily one of the best restorations that I have seen this year. The film looks so healthy and the color grading is so impressive that it is quite simply impossible not to praise the precision of the work that was done by the restorers. It is very easy to understand why Roger Deakins is so enthusiastic about the end product -- everything from density to color balance to image stability is top-notch, as it should be. It is an all-around great organic presentation of the film that from time to time actually looks like a native 4K presentation. Fantastic work. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

1984 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0 (for the Eurythmics score) and English LPCM 1.0 (for the Dominic Muldowney score). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I viewed the film with the Eurythmics score. I thought that the quality of the lossless track was outstanding. Clarity, depth, balance, and the overall range of dynamics were all superb. Also, there isn't even a whiff of aging, so the entire score sounds as if it was recorded in a studio a month or two ago. I only tested parts of the second score and I thought that the quality of the audio was equally impressive.

1984 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for 1984. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Roger Deakins - in this new video interview, cinematographer Roger Deakins discusses his preparation work for 1984, various decisions that he and director Michael Radford had to make because of budget limitations, the visual style of the film and the new 4K restoration he supervised, what it was like to work with Richard Burton, etc. The interview was recorded exclusively for Criterion in London in March 2019. In English, not subtitled. (21 min, 1080p).

• Michael Radford - in this new video interview, director Michael Radford discusses his work with Roger Deakins on 1984, how different sequences from the film were envisioned and shot, specific choices that were made to enhance particular themes, the scoring of the film and his past disagreement with Eurythmics, etc. The interview was recorded exclusively for Criterion in London in March 2019. In English, not subtitled. (23 min, 1080p).

• David Ryan - in this new video interview, David Ryan, author of George Orwell on Screen, discusses some of the main political themes and overtones in 1984, notable differences between Michael Radford's film and earlier cinematic adaptations of the popular novel, the visual style of the film, casting choices, etc. The interview was recorded exclusively for Criterion in London in March 2019. In English, not subtitled. (22 min, 1080p).

• Behind the Scenes - presented here is footage from the production of 1984 which features interviews with Michael Radford and actors John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton. In English, not subtitled. (5 min, 1080i).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring writer and critic A. I. Kennedy's essay "Coming Soon to a Country Near You" as well as technical credits.

1984 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The scariest thing about George Orwell's 1984 is that its supposedly most outrageous political prophecies turned out to be facts of life. Before the Internet, they were easy to dismiss as far-fetched science fiction because it was easier to hide the scripts that were used to brainwash people and even entire states to ignore the obvious. But it isn't as easy to hide the scripts now, which is why Big Brother is looking even further and deeper than it did in the past. Michael Radford's film is arguably the best cinematic adaptation of Orwell's novel, and undoubtedly the most atmospheric one. It was recently restored in 4K and looks absolutely stunning on Blu-ray. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.