Fahrenheit 451: A dystopia where reading is a crime and thinking, an act of rebellion

Truffaut’s work shows a future in which LBooks Ectura is prohibited Under the pretext that it makes us unhappy. Burning them is the only solution.

It is sadly curious that one of the science fiction authors of greatest interest, Ray Bradburyhe had such bad luck in his adaptations to the screen. It is true that many of his books have passed to cinema or television, but, in general, with results between mediocre and forgetting.

François Truffaut’s version

It is usually said that Darkness of its creativity They do not work when they are taken from the books. In any case, well involved in the 21st century, the Bradbury mine are left without exploiting, waiting for filmmakers who know how to get all the juice.

There are some exceptions, of course, and this adaptation of “Fahrenheit 451 “held by François Truffaut “That he had never shown any interest in science fiction until he read the book – is one of them.

The prohibited books

In an inaccurate future, books have been prohibited and Reading is considered an illegal activity.

The Fire Department is dedicated to registering households in search of books, which confiscate and burn immediately (The title of the novel and the 23 film refers, supposedly, at the temperature at which the paper burns, 232.8 ºC).

Treasury books

One of those firefighters, Guy Montag, lives a boring and routine life with his wife Clarisse, whose only interest is to spend the dead hours watching television (a huge model stuck to the wall and almost identical to today’s flat screen televisions).

Things begin to change when he meets Linda, a girl for whom he feels immediately attracted, and who, little by little, awakens his interest in books.

Montag begins with Read hidden and treasure volumes. Finally, discovered by its former companions, it has to escape and seeks refuge in the forest with men-books, a resistance group that memorizes literary works so that they do not get lost in oblivion.

Futuristic air

With the fair special effects to give the necessary futuristic air – the monorrail that appears was a real prototype, which was used for the film before being dismantled – but focusing on the force of the Original literary proposal And the work of the actors, the film is considered a classic with all justice.

His central idea of ​​a society in which reading is despised in favor of gigantic flat screen TVs It sounds worryingly real today.

Novels about people who never existed

We are not explained at what time the books were prohibited, but the reasons for this are recited by Montag himself or, above all, by the captain of the Fire Department: The novels are about people who never existed.

The people who read them are unhappy with their own lives, because they want to live in a different way.

“All this philosophy, let’s get rid of it. It is even worse than the novels. thinkers and philosopherseveryone says exactly the same: just I am right, the others are idiots! ”

Greater book destroyers

General thinking indicates that reading makes you miserable. Any book, whatever it is. In fact, one of those we see is “Mein Kampf”, written by Hitler, paradoxically, one of the greater book destroyers in history.

Accepting what they dictate and not ask questions is the key to a Perfect existence

And one of the biggest findings of the film (there are those who say it was Truffaut, others attribute it to the producer, Lewis M. Allen) was to make Clarisse’s characters – the wife – and cute – the lover – were interpreted by actress Julie Christie: The same face represents the person neutralized by the systemand the one that could have been allowed to grow by exploiting its intellectual curiosity.