ThiefHott
Too much of everything
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Derrick Gibbons
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
butlerstc
I watch it like once a month. Very well acted and perfectly cast. Its also a great drama, comedy, romance - and has a clever sense of self awareness. I always find new things in it whenever I watch - very thoroughly done. I can quote this movie almost line for line, "but everything is perfect now, and everything will always be perfect, so why does it matter when things weren't perfect?" I haven't read the book, so I don't know how much of the dialogue is drawn from it - but I love the dialogue. So simple and naive. I like how there are no "good guys" in this story, its just a character study. John Savage wasn't anymore more moral at the end of the day then the people in the perfect society were. He was naive too in his own way. He was kind of the opposite of the Ford worshipers - they suppressed their emotions and he was carried away by his... I also like the idea of trying to build a perfect society - this story is as close to a "Utopian" scifi as I've ever seen. Even though it is ultimately dystopian, it is not as bleak as dystopian stories usually are. I feel like the major flaw in this dystopian society was hierarchy. This is the tragic flaw of the otherwise perfect little social experiment they had going - is that it was ultimately still based on hierarchy and dominance and submission within its roles - just more refined and sleek so it wasn't as obvious and noticeable as other dystopian fantasies. This mini series is painfully underrated. One of my favorite movies/mini-series ever! S
Scott Amundsen
This 1980 made-for-TV film is the first attempt to adapt Huxley's landmark novel to the screen. I read the book for the first time over twenty-five years ago, and recently had occasion to re-read it. Some books are so much their own identity that one can be excused for considering them possibly unfilmable; for me BNW was one of these until I stumbled across this odd but audacious effort.In the minute details, this telefilm is not as faithful to the novel as it might be; John Savage's backstory is moved from the center of the novel to the beginning of the film, and the low budget shows mostly in the wobbly sets and what can only be described as a valiant attempt to create the Brave New World on a shoestring budget. The futuristic society should have looked more like LOGAN'S RUN than a bunch of plastic sets, one of which is so obviously the interior of a 747 that it is almost laughable.Yet despite the technical flaws, this film has considerably more power than one would expect, mainly because of a splendid cast including the great Keir Dullea, the legendary Ron O'Neal, Bud Cort in yet another superb performance, the wonderful but underrated Marcia Strassman, and a carefully culled bunch of the finest character actors including such names as Jeannetta Arnette, Jonelle Allen, Kristoffer Tabori, Dick Anthony Williams, and Valerie Curtin.The script is merely serviceable; it works hard to be as faithful to the novel as possible, but some of what was sinister in the book comes across as merely silly on the screen. This isn't the fault of the actors, who mostly play their roles with the glaze of mindlessness that one envisions when reading the novel (the exceptions here are Cort, Williams, Tabori, Cobb, and Strassman towards the end). In fact it's the performances that bring across just how sinister the Brave New World really is.This is a clunky production and it is easy to get distracted by the cheapness of the sets and some of the silliness of the basic scenario, but for a television film it is surprisingly effective thanks to a well-chosen cast that performs brilliantly; performances such as are seen here were a bit rare in television in 1980. At the very least it is good enough to make me want to see the other versions as a comparison.
N. N.
Here we are, jolly good fellows of the Balliol College at Oxford making some good old fun of the ever prevalent lack of human substance among the peasantry. "Brave New World" is to the common intellectual that what has been labeled an English national trait in "Trainspotting". You could also liken watching the film to drinking some home brewed apple wine, more prominently known as Soma in the terminology of the Rigveda, a golden stream of delight in the face of those ever smiling Americans and these "I know not what I do" pseudo emancipated university who... cuties, Gammas and Betas that is. If that doesn't sweeten your day, what ever will? Shakespeare quotes perhaps? No? Well, you can't please everyone. Those on the other hand whose eyes already lightened up with the glee of the person who sees its investment finally coming to fruition cannot miss by watching this film, for it was made for them, an almost private and quite definitely guilty pleasure.
graham_wright
I am not going to pretend this is my favourite film of all time, but it was a good, clear version of the excellent book.The film looks dated and would be boring for some. But those who are interested in what might happen to the human race should check this out. This idea is the most likely to come true of all possible fates of humans.The acting is in places 2-dimensional, but this is usually only when portraying characters who are themselves 2-dimensional, such as Lenina, Linda and Thomas.The three more interesting and deeper characters of Bernard, John and Mustapha are portrayed well and all change dramatically and believably as the story unwinds.Not a funny, thrilling or exciting film but a clear film that makes you think.