Fahrenheit 451: Movie Analysis

Following the Second World War, tension began to rise between the democratic America and the communistic, war-torn Soviet Union. As America and the USSR entered the Cold War, fear of communism and its encroachment spread like fire through the rebuilding American public. The panic instilled by such fear leads not only to a hunt for all person and qualities associated with Communism, but also a period of disillusionment and spiritual desertion. Scared of standing out and being assumed as a communist, the people of the mid-1900s forced themselves to conform to the social and political standards of the day. The Levett towns built all across the suburbs, the moms that never worked but stayed at home to take care of the children, and the men—dressed

The 1966 movie adaption of Fahrenheit 451, directed by François Truffaut and starring Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, and Cyril Cusack, captured the major theme of Censorship as well, if not better, than the book itself. As the 1960s was known for its banning of books, movies, and even children’s stories, Universal Pictures released the movie during an age of constant surveillance and public supervision; no one is safe from watching and being watched. Thus Truffaut brings up an interesting question: What is Ray Bradbury trying to tell the American public with his Fahrenheit 451? Or perhaps more importantly, will America eventually become the dystopian, book-hating community as portrayed in the book? Under the context of the Cold War, the Red Scare, and the social standards of the mid-1900s, both Bradbury and Truffaut warn the American public about the consequences of Censorship and the suppression of free thought, media, and press, hoping to bring the American people back to the reality of the world they live