p e n g u i n d e v i l

Another of the old favorites of mine, from that great genre of political sci-fi classics. Fahrenheit 451 (from a great book by Ray Bradbury) is the story of Montag, a fireman. But in this place, where all houses are fireproof, a fireman’s job is starting fires. Fires of books specifically. Books are illegal here (In fact, writing seems quite rare and even the opening credits are all spoken, with no writing to be seen) and as one might expect the land is filled with malcontents who have concealed stashes of them in their homes. The fireman’s job is to find these books and burn them.

In this land, which comes across as being not so much in the future as in an alternate present, books are pursued with the determination of chasing commies during the cold war (or maybe more like Nazis’ weeding out subversive matter, even Mein Kampf has an appearence). The film, which I am always surprised to see is by Truffaut, is pretty blunt in its message and it can come across as a bit too obvious in its critical eye towards television, society and, of course, book censorship.





Our hero is one of the driest characters that you are bound to ever see in a movie. Montag is a man of few words or emotions. He comes across as thoughtlessly content as he goes to work everyday and then he comes home to a wife who seems to be immersed a strange land of television. Though he does seem to enjoy his successful career raiding peoples homes and burning their books… That is, until one day when he is approached by a neighbor on his way home. A young lady may have an ulterior movie to talking to him, something more than being neighborly. In fact, she might be one of those that thinks that books maybe aren’t such a bad idea afterall. As she befriends him and talks to him more and more, he begins to become curious about the dangerous land of books. A dangerous territory for one in his position.





As happens with things like this, this new influence threatens everything that he has. Even his boss at the station, when he begins to suspect the direction that Montag is heading, tries to save him rather than see him fall! I also did find it interesting to notice the books that we seen being burnt: Genet, Proust, Lolita, too many old Penguin paperbacks… (more about the books here).





All in all, even though it is slow and very dry, I always find this movie to be engrossing and completely watchable. The ending is also a bit hokey, but it gets its point across.