Fahrenheit 451

Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, et al.

Product Description

A fireman of the future burns books until he meets a book lover and becomes an outlaw.

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 025192124020
• Release Date: January 2003
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
• Director: Francois Truffaut
• Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring, Jeremy Spenser, Bee Duffell, Gillian Lewis, Ann Bell, Caroline Hunt, Anna Palk
• Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: Multiple Formats; Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; NTSC; Subtitled; Widescreen
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

451 the temperature at which book paper burns.

Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) is an ideal fireman. He knows his job is to burn books. He does this well until one day he runs across an old woman who decides books are important enough for her to burn with them. Now he is intrigued as to what kind of hold old books had on her and decides to take a peek. So, he pilfers a few books. Even his boss (Cyril Cusack) knows that it is irresistible to want to peek at the forbidden as long as you do not get carried away. Montag gets carried away. He even forces his wife, Linda Montag (Julie Christie), and her friends to listen to him reading out loud. It looks like time for someone to turn him in. Meanwhile, Montage strikes up a friendship with an outcast schoolteacher. The whole reason for burning books was to clamp down on people like her who bring up subjects that make people sad. What will become of these misfits? Will society collapse? Or is this our future? Yes, the book is more intricate; however, the movie captures the essence of the story. One major deviation from the book that some people miss in the reading is that the society was not against books and reading; they had technical manuals, but they were against literature and unauthorized reading material. The more trivial differences are the changing of his wife’s name from Margaret to Linda, and the absence of the mechanical dog; the dog important to the book plot, is not necessary for the movie. You will immediately notice that the movie credits are presented verbally. This was a well-put-together movie and stands on its own with any other movie of this genre. Another interesting touch is having Julie Christie play both the wife with long hair and the schoolteacher with short hair, so you get a contrast in personalities. In the book, it was a teenage neighbor. I still watch this movie periodically to see what I miss while anticipating the next scene. Watching the nightly news today with everyone warning us of criminals on the loose, I get visions of Montag being tracked down on camera. I expect the TV announcer to tell me to go to the front door and look for the perpetrator. Try watching the movie first, then read the book by the same name. If you like Oskar Werner in a movie, you should look at "Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968).