A few years ago, a former co-worker of mine Jeff was reading Fahrenheit 451 on his break. He raved about how even 64 years since it was published, the book was as relevant today as back then. We had a copy in our library at home, my wife's father's copy. I decided to finally give it a try and read it. It wasn't quite the book I was expecting. It was set in the future but not an entirely far away future. There were no space ships or robots (except for the Mechanical Hound). But the hook that sticks in your mind is that firemen no longer put out fires. Firemen burn books. The written word is forbidden. Books are dangerous to read. That is the terrifying future of Fahrenheit 451.
I would have expected the film version of FAHRENHEIT 451 to have been made in the United States by an American director, maybe John Frankenheimer or Arthur Penn or Sidney Lumet. The turbulent 60s seemed like a perfect time for FAHRENHEIT 451 in America. Surprisingly, it would be French New Wave director Francois Truffaut (THE 400 BLOWS) who would not only co-author the screen play with Jean-Louis Richard but also direct his first and only English speaking film about this dystopian world. Although the film never explains where it's located, Truffaut would film in England with a mostly English cast except for Austrian actor Oskar Werner in the lead. Although considered Science Fiction, there's very little to differentiate from the present save for the stormtrooper like firemen, the same omniscient television host on everyone's flat screen television, and the repressive society that fears individualism. There is no appearance by the Mechanical Hound. Truffaut lets the audience know right away in FAHRENHEIT 451 that the written word is taboo. The opening credits are spoken to us by an unseen narrator instead of appearing superimposed on the screen.
The title FAHRENHEIT 451 refers to the temperature fire needs to reach to burn a paper book. In the world of FAHRENHEIT 451, books are banned. Books are forbidden to be read let alone owned. Books give people ideas which in this oppressive society is a crime. Firemen are sent to suspected violators homes to confiscate the books and burn them. The firemen carry flamethrowers instead of firehoses. Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) is one such firemen. On his way home on the monorail from a book burning, he meets his inquisitive neighbor Clarisse (Julie Christie), a schoolteacher who questions why he burns books. Montage responds it's the law but her question begins to nag at him.
Montag arrives at home to find his wife Linda (also Julie Christie) watching an interactive television program where a TV host (Gillian Lewis) drones on. Casting Christie as both Montag's neighbor and wife fits in with this world of conformity. Same haircuts, same houses, be equal, no individualism. When Montag and his crew led by Captain Beatty (Cyril Cusack) confiscate and burn more books, Montag sneaks one book back home with him. At night, he reads Charles Dickens David Copperfield.
Montag skips work one day to spend time with Clarisse who doesn't seem to conform like everyone else. Montag's suspicious co-worker Fabian (Anton Diffring) sees Montag playing hooky. Clarisse takes Montag to a house owned by the Book Woman (Bee Duffell) filled with hundreds of books. Moved by the Book Woman, Montag returns home, interrupting a party Linda is having with her girlfriends. He reads to them from a book, upsetting Linda and her friends. Montag's fire brigade is sent to the Book Woman's house. Captain Beatty orders her book collection and house to be burned to the ground. But the Book Woman refuses to leave. She stubbornly stays and goes up in flames with her hundreds of books, an event that upsets Montag, changing him forever.
Beatty and Fabian become suspicious of Montag. At night, Montag hears sirens next door. His neighbor Clarisse disappears along with the other inhabitants of her house. Montag breaks into Beatty's office to find out what happened to Clarisse. He reunites with Clarisse who tells him that outside the city is an underground group known as "the Book People." If he ever wants to join them, he needs to follow the river out of the city. Montag decides to resign but Captain Beatty takes him on one last raid, this time to Montag's house. As Beatty lectures Montag on hiding books and urges him to burn them, Montag turns the flamethrower on Beatty and the other firemen. Montag flees the city, arriving in the woods where the Book People including Clarisse are memorizing entire books so that they live on -- Jane Austen, Plato, Machiavelli, even Ray Bradbury. Montag joins them choosing to memorize Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
At first glance, FAHRENHEIT 451 feels like Truffaut got it all wrong. It feels like it should be an American film, set in the Midwest (Bradbury was born in Illinois). It should have American actors, not English and German ones. But about a quarter through the movie, FAHRENHEIT begins to feel right. It's a universal story. FAHRENHEIT 451 could happen anywhere in the world. Book burning did happen in Nazi Germany. Libraries in the U.S. South banned certain books. Truffaut, as we know, was a lover of films but he's a lover of books, of the written word too. Who better to make this futuristic cautionary tale than Truffaut? Truffaut makes sure we see the classics torched: Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer; Danie Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, William Shakespeare's Othello to name a few. Truffaut even wickedly shows Hitler's Mein Kampf and the French movie magazine Cahier du Cinema which he used to write for go up in flames.
For his first color film, Truffaut uses color very effectively in FAHRENHEIT 451. Red represents fire. The fire station and fire truck are crimson red, almost like blood. But red shows up prominently throughout the film. Cars, doors, kiosks all painted in a garish red. Red equates to the burning of books. Hundreds of books are burned by the firemen's flamethrowers. Black is another significant color, signifying evil. There's no mistaking the parallel between the firemen in FAHRENHEIT 451 with their black uniforms and boots and the Nazis in the 1930s. Montag even makes a Nazi like salute to his superior Beatty. Is it a coincidence that Austrian actor Oskar Werner and German actor Anton Diffring are both cast as book burning firemen (English actor Terrence Stamp was originally going to play Montag but backed out at the last minute)?
It should not come as a surprise the influence of Hitchcock on Truffaut's visual style and other choices for FAHRENHEIT 451. Truffaut was a huge admirer of Hitchcock and had done an extensive interview (which became a 1967 book) with Hitchcock prior to Truffaut filming FAHRENHEIT 451. Truffaut has several long tracking shots and a zoom in, dolly back shot that echo Hitchcock's work in VERTIGO (1958). The biggest nod to Hitchcock is Truffaut's decision to have composer Bernard Herrmann compose the score for FAHRENHEIT 451. Herrmann had written some of Hitchcock's best music in films like VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959), and PSYCHO (1960). Hermann's score for FAHRENHEIT 451 is haunting and melancholy, different than anything he did for Hitchcock, with some notes that harken to the TV show THE TWILIGHT ZONE which Herrmann also worked on. As much as I like Herrmann's scores for Hitchcock, I rank his score for FAHRENHEIT 451 as one of his best. Hermann would score one more film for Francois Truffaut, the 1967 Hitchcock like thriller THE BRIDE WORE BLACK.
For his first and last English speaking film, Truffaut surrounded himself with excellent technicians. Besides composer Bernard Herrmann, FAHRENHEIT 451 is photographed by Nicolas Roeg who would go on to become an acclaimed director himself with the psychological thriller DON'T LOOK NOW (1973) starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland and the Sci-Fi THE MAN WHO FELL FROM EARTH (1976) with David Bowie. Roeg gives the film a slightly off kilter feel that fits with FAHRENHEIT 451 society. The film's finale, shot during an unexpected snowfall in England, with the Book People wandering through a forest memorizing books is pure poetry thanks to Roeg. FAHRENHEIT 451 would be editor Thom Noble's first credit but he would go on to work with directors Ridley Scott, Peter Weir, and John Milius.
Films are difficult to get made. Truffaut's persistence and patience to make FAHRENHEIT 451 is nothing short of incredible. To start with, Truffaut was a French speaking director working with an entirely English speaking cast and crew. Truffaut barely spoke English (although he did have an interpreter with him). Truffaut's first choice to play Montag was Terrence Stamp (who would have been brilliant). But Stamp pulled out of the film at the last moment when he learned Julie Christie would have two roles in the film (ironically, Stamp and Christie would act together the following year in 1967 in John Schlesinger's FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD one would presume because Christie had just one role). Truffaut would then choose Austrian actor Oskar Werner to play Montag. Truffaut and Werner had worked well together in Truffaut's 1962 film JULES AND JIM.
But Werner's ego had exploded since JULES AND JIM. He considered himself a big star now. He didn't want to listen to Truffaut the second time around for FAHRENHEIT 451. The director and actor butted heads throughout the film. Werner even tried to sabotage the film in the finale when he got an entirely different haircut then what he wore for most of the film (it's not that noticeable). Yet through it all, Truffaut persevered and created a profound adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel that may be more appreciated today then when it was released in 1966. FAHRENHEIT 451 is not only Truffaut's only English speaking film but also his only Science Fiction film. Truffaut would act in a Science Fiction film when he appeared eleven years later in Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977), a far different film than FAHRENHEIT 451.
We've seen that history often repeats itself but one hopes that the Nazis burning books will never repeat itself again. FAHRENHEIT 451 should be recommended viewing, a cautionary reminder. FAHRENHEIT 451 is not a perfect film but French director Francois Truffaut gives the story all the benefits of his original and eclectic vision, using color and visual effects to great effect. For if society ever does decide to ban books and the written word again, then CrazyFilmGuy could no longer (THIS BLOG HAS BEEN BANNED. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. THANK YOU.)
