A Sociological Analysis of 1984 (movie)

“Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Says George Orwell. We start the movie with this saying. Our first scene is a propaganda video of The Inner Party. Until the end of the movie we see a lot of propaganda and having control over the people. The film has done a pretty good job of giving those clear messages to the audience. It’s adapted from one of the most popular books 1984. Despite most of the adaptation movies having trouble reflecting the original world that they are adapted from, this movie doesn’t have such a problem. In my opinion, It’s a successful adaptation movie. We are witnessing the events that occur in Winston Smith’s life. In this dystopic world, Smith works as a clerk to re-write the past news according to the government’s changing policies. From the outside, Smith is a good citizen but while the film continues we see Smith is doing some things that a good citizen shouldn’t do. As a result of those events, the movie delivers a very dramatic ending. Overall, 1984 has a very good structure and a clear narrative. In addition to that, we have a great performance by John Hurt, stunning cinematography, and a rich story. Considering all of these subjects, this movie should get more recognition.

In the first scene, we see a crowd watching a big screen. They are watching a propaganda movie created by The Inner Party. Director Michael Radford chose to shot this scene behind the people. The lightning on the crowd is very low. It is slightly difficult to separate people from each other because of this. The director wants us to not consider these people as an individual. Later in the movie, O’Brien’s speech proves that statement. In the video, the narrator praises the working class and connects the government’s success to these people. After those praises, we see the crowd from the front. The first thing that we notice is the uniforms. People don’t have a choice in what to wear. They are wearing blue overalls like prisoners. This also proves the statement above. The crowd is very pleased with the comments of the narrator. They are proud of themselves. We understand that working is a mission and to be a good citizen you must work.

The next scene involves Smith’s workplace. It starts with a shot from above. We see workers’ desks and how they are in cage-like workspaces. It is almost like a George Tooker painting. Smith’s work is to re-write the past news according to the government’s changing policies. He collects the necessary information via tube and sends the finished work via a tube. We can consider Smith as an unskilled worker. His coworkers’ are unskilled too. In a scene, one of his friends tells Smith that they are rearranging the dictionary. He removes the words that have been told him to remove. They are expecting people to think less if there are fewer words in the language. All of the people we encounter during the movie are unskilled workers. Julia, the lover of the Smith is an unskilled worker. She is hanging banners on the streets to prevent sexual intercourse. O’Brien who is in a higher position than Smith is doing the same process as him. Therefore he is unskilled too. Throughout the movie, we don’t see any skilled worker. Technology has almost no involvement through the working processes that we witnessed. Except for the machines that have been used to torture Smith, technology doesn’t add or remove anything from workers’ skill levels.

All of the jobs we see in the movie are monotonous. They are doing the same thing every day. We don’t see any non-standard jobs at all. The only exception is Charrington’s job. He owns a thrift shop. He is also the only character who doesn’t wear blue overall. He wears a suit. Later in the movie, we learn that he isn’t actually a thrift shop owner. He is thought police. Besides Charrington, all of the characters have boring jobs. There is no solution to cope up with this problem. Every desk has a telescreen, with those telescreens workers is being watched if they are doing the job or not. This is not surprising considering that this world is built on surveillance. In one scene, Smith wakes up and goes to the front of the telescreen. Later, we see there is a woman on the screen and she starts to talk about the exercise of the day. We can assume that these exercises are daily. The Inner Party wants its citizens to be in good shape. In front of the screen Smith does the exercises, after one move the woman on the telescreen roughly warns Smith because he isn’t doing the exercise moves right. The citizens must do the work precisely and waste no time while doing it. It doesn’t matter if the work is their job or not.

The citizens must do the work precisely, not because they are having incentive or anything but because they have to be a good citizen in order to stay alive. As I mentioned above, people feel happy and proud of themselves while watching the propaganda. This happens because they are realizing that they have been a good citizen and their life is not on the line. In a scene, O’Brien tells Smith that he used the old dictionary in his last job. Smith becomes terrified after hearing this from O’Brien. He immediately says that they have the old version of the dictionary in the office. Smith doesn’t want O’Brien to think Smith is not doing his job. Because if that is true, this means Smith is not a good citizen and if a person is not a good citizen, The Inner Party might frame that person for being a traitor.

We see a lot of Taylorism effect on the movie. The jobs are divided into a lot of little parts. For example, when Smith gets new work, the necessary things come from a tube system. We can assume that there is a person that arranges the necessary items for Smith. After doing his part, Smith sends the finished work via a tube system. The finished work is being added to the archive by another person. We don’t know if the workers have been trained or not. But based on the dictionary dialog mentioned above, we can assume that they are trained. We also see Weber’s disenchantment idea. Religions have been destroyed by The Inner Party. When Smith goes to Charrington’s room, Charrington shows him a painting that is a church. Smit remembers the church and says it is a wreck now. Then Charrington tells a tongue twister about the church and says that he used to tell this tongue twister when he was a child. Later in the movie, we see a meeting where takes place in Smith’s workplace. The speaker talks about scientific improvements that they achieved in artificial insemination. Unlike Taylorism and disenchantment idea, this movie doesn’t have anything about Fordism. There are no mass production and mass consumption. In one scene Smith’s neighbor asks Smith if he got any extra razor blade. Smith tells him that he uses the same razor blade for six weeks. After a couple of scenes, a coworker asks the same question to Smith and Smith gives the same answer. One night, he goes to the thrift shop to get a razor blade and pays Charrington 4 dollars for it. One additional example for this topic might be the scene where Julia brings some stuff to surprise Smith. She opens her bag and gives Smith white bread, milk, and coffee. Smith becomes very surprised and asks Julia where does she got these items. Julia tells Smith that she got all those stuff from The Inner Party Members.

There is no emotional work in this dystopic world. Maybe this is because the government wants to prevent people to think and feel. O’Brien says to Smith that “Humans are helpless animals. Humanity is the Party. If you are a man, you are the last man. You are extinct, we exist now.” Obrien takes Smith in front of the mirror. You’re rotting, he says and pulls out his tooth. That’s what humanity says. We can’t expect any emotional work from a structure that has this view of humanity. O’Brien’s butler is the only example we can give about this topic. When Smith goes into the elevator, we see the butler and Smith. Smith looks to the butler from the side, nevertheless, the butler pretends like Smith isn’t in the elevator. He doesn’t even blink. When the elevator stops he’s almost moving like a robot.

The most common concepts in the film are Foucault’s concepts. Talking about disciplinary power, when Smith looks around every now and then he sees that his colleagues are constantly working. He does not communicate in any way and continues his job, although he occasionally makes eye contact with others. He knows that if he doesn’t do his job properly, he will be punished. Even when Smith was exercising at home, the woman on the screen shouted at him, and telling him to do the move properly shows what kind of discipline the government is addicted to.

Talking about the Panopticon control, there is a screen in front of everyone in the workplace and there is a picture of the big brother on this screen, all employees are watched on this telescreen. The meaning of panopticon; a prison design, the guards stood in a high tower watching all the prisoners. It would not be wrong to call the big brother this tower and call the employees prisoners.

Before closing, the last thing I want to refer Daniel Bell’s “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society”. Bell says that post-industrial society is an information society. In this world, the government shapes the information. Thereby, it strengthens its control over society. We witness how Smith changes the facts that have been happened before. After those new, false pieces of information citizens move on their lives thinking that information is actually true.

To sum up, 1984 has done a pretty good job of delivering messages and while doing that being a good movie. While I was watching the movie for the second time I realized that I didn’t give this movie the value that it deserves when I watched it years ago. As I mentioned in the introduction part, this movie should get more recognition from the people. The book version is one of the most successful dystopic books ever written. Even though the movie isn’t one of the best of its kind, it is still a good movie and worth watching.