Nineteen Eighty Four

Nineteen Eighty Four focuses on the importance of maintaining your humanity even in the face of oblivion. In other words, one must hold onto personal integrity in order to prevent the takeover of an oppressive group. Once people begin to lose personal integrity and the will to think as individuals, society and  humanity will spiral into a decrepit state filled with oppression. People's lives in Oceania are directed by the Inner Party and the Big Brother (whose actual existence is questionable) all because people are afraid and lack the inner drive to challenge their authority.

At first I was disappointed in Winston for giving in to his fears at the end of the film. I was hoping for a dramatic triumph over oppression similar to that found in V for Vendetta where Evey Hammond would rather face death than betray the man she loved and the idea she believed in. After giving thought to the comparison of these two films, however, I realized that Winston could not follow the same path as Evey because the purpose of Nineteen Eighty Four is extremely different from V for Vendetta. The latter focuses on the power of an idea to inspire revolution in the strong hearts of citizens while the former is a commentary on the disintegration of humanity and the loss of will among men. Winston could not hold on to his integrity as an individual because he no longer had what it takes to be human: will. The entire society had been broken by The Party in order to allow for complete obedience. Any who challenged the laws set forth by the high power were either killed or tortured until they lost their will to act and think as an individual. Winston's situation tests his will to stay true to his feelings and beliefs. Even though he knows it is illegal and dangerous, he still chooses to see Julia showing that he would rather act on his own personal desires than on those of the state. As the film progresses, however, he begins to falter and as his punishments become more painful and dire, Winston begins to betray his personal integrity in order to stay alive.

I have offered a comparison between the final torture scene in Nineteen Eighty Four and the letter monologue from V for Vendetta.

After watching both clips, I realized that the "inch" Valerie refers to is lacking in Winston's world. In Nineteen Eighty Four, people don't even have an inch; therefore, there is no hope for humanity ergo the lack of hope at the end of the film.

In the first scene of Nineteen Eighty Four, the camera focused on both young and enthusiastic citizens and older non-excited citizens. My initial thought was that since they were older, the non-enthused citizens remembered a time when there was no oppression or war. However, O'Brien made it seem as if the war and the mind-control had been going on for an extended number of years. It was only at the very end of the film when Winston was playing chess alone in the cafe that I realized that those "elderly" men at the first rally could have possibly just experienced the same torture and loss of will as Winston. Both Julia and Winston exhibited behaviors similar to the older generation, meaning that almost everyone must at some point challenge the intentions of The Party, face punishment, and be reintegrated into society after they lose their will to fight. It is an endless cycle that George Orwell believes can never be broken.