Fahrenheit 451

I teach Fahrenheit 451 in my Freshman English class, and I was so excited for this film to come out, but I was deeply disappointed by the final product. Bradbury is a brilliant writer, but the beauty of his language is completely lost in this poorly adapted script. The story is entirely changed and many of the key scenes are altered or removed altogether and the central messages are warped. Beatty lacks all complexity and Mildred and Faber aren't in the story at all. I expected so much more for this classic, but instead, I am left discouraged by the warping of a beautiful book.

Though it was strong in a couple moments, for the most part I was disappointed with this, it really could ave been so much better, especially considering the immense resources of HBO. It goes back and forth between completely ridiculous to somewhat interesting. Unfortunately it is also a pale imitation to the novel its based on, only using the bare skeleton of the story, and not delving into what truly made the novel profound. Michael B. Jordan's character was so completely ridiculous and different than the novel version in the first 15 minutes that I nearly stopped watching it, but thankfully that subsides. There were many things from the book I expected to see, only to piss me off when they were either not there at all, or altered in some way for no justifiable reason. So while many of the basic plot points are there, tough some of them changed, it just didn't possess what the book did.

I did like Michael Shannon's character and his acting, and while Jordan's character is completely off-putting, it does get tolerable as the film goes on. There were a couple of meaningful discussions, but the essential meaning of the book burning is completely missed, it was to create a people void of free thought, and while that is hinted at, for the most part its nowhere near as deep and introspective as the novel, its a very basic rendering of and incredibly deep story. I for the most part was disappointed, it could have been so much better, all the had to do was pay attention to the source material, and not just scan over it. Also the re-writing of many of the characters is inconceivable to me, no idea why they would do it.

Meh... I didn't like it very much.

I've seen Truffaut's version from the 60's two or three times even if it wasn't perfect for a great admirer of the book but it had Oskar Werner and Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack and a phenomenal score by Bernard Herrmann. This 2018 version has an interesting production design but the the actual center of this warning tale is completely lost. The pacing is infuriating and Michael Shannon as good as he is, he's becoming the go to guy to play the bad guy. Here everything is on the nose and by the numbers. So, disappointed. Michael B Jordan has amazing eyes but I wish he can find a great actor's director. He certainly deserve it.

...I'll keep this brief.

Bradbury would not be happy with this film. Bradbury appreciators are not and never will be happy with this film. Where is Mildred? Where is Faber? Where is the Hound? Who tore the beating heart out of a fine parable and crushed it? What possessed them? When did they sell their souls to the devil? How did they manage to get Bradbury's or his estate's blessing for this cartoon? Why, oh, why was that blessing given?

This film embodies everything Bradbury warned us about.

"Lecture's over."

...or blasphemy. or a too big mistake. and , after its end, the only question remains why Fahrenheit 451 must be the victim of an adaptation who use it only as pretext. because it is a bad MTV style movie. flames, few lines from books, flat performances ( for his Montag, Michael B. Jordan deserves Golden Raspberry Award) and Michael Shannon is refuged in the skin of military bad guy, using each clichee. short, a massacre of a masterpiece. chaotic, lost in incoherence, without any meaning , proposing no story and proof of the hate against books of director. because it has every piece for create a decent work. but , except the desire to propose few fake impressive images, a lot of kitsch and stupidity, nothing else.