Released in the same year as the title, Nineteen Eighty-Four stands as a picture of a future that has not come to pass, at least as of writing. It’s a bleak vision. The novel’s world has been adapted to the screen in the grayest and coldest of settings, as the mass populace eat slop, dress plainly, live in war perpetually, and hold no pleasure other than what was allowed by the ruling Party, not even able to enjoy their own thoughts. So, while there is much more from the novel that this adaptation could have fleshed out further, Nineteen Eighty-Four nonetheless works because the worldbuilding is fleshed out. It effectively captures a world so emptied out by totalitarian rule and surveillance with no escape.
Imagine a world where absolute conformity rules, and word and thought, including loyalty to Big Brother is demanded. It's the year 1984 and such a world exists. Divided into three vast states, whose inhabitants are dominated by all powerful governments, an illegal love affair begins. Soon, worker drone Winston becomes the target of a brain-washing campaign to force him back to conformity.
