Fahrenheit 451 Analysis by Tyler Johnson

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film adaptation of the 1953 novel written by Ray Bradbury. It is about a firefighter in a future where the firefighter's job is to search for and burn any form of written literature, due to the illegality of books in the future. The film was very well done in its time and had a compelling story that was delivered expertly by the director, actors, and editors.

The creators of the film did a good job of giving the feeling that initial situation the protagonist is a bit “off,” as the story requires. For example, the firemen, who turned out being bad, had a feel to them that was similar to nazis. They all had similar uniforms, marched like soldiers, had a solute similar to that of a nazi, and most of them appeared to be German, or even arian. These were all things put into place by the director. He would make sure that the uniforms were uptight and the behavior of the firemen was uptight and strict, just like the nazis.

One good example of a great scene was the school scene. The only shot we saw was of the hallway with the camera centered in the hallway facing forward with a slow creep forward. The dominating sound that was constantly in the background was the children, who were chanting math problems in sync. It was creepy, which was exactly what the filmmakers wanted for that scene.

I really liked the editing, or the lack thereof perhaps, in the scene where the protagonist’s wife overdoses on her pills. There is this one shot that is continuous with no cuts in which the protagonist is walking room to room, switching phones and reading bottles to the doctor on the phone, it gave the feeling that the whole process was dragging on and taking forever, in contrast to how we really treat these situations, with panic and rush to get an ambulance right away.

Fahrenheit 451 the film did justice to its novel counterpart. It made the future feel as creepy as the author wanted, and told the story in a manner that immersed the viewer in the fullest way possible, which is exactly what a filmmaker should do.