Montag (Oskar Werner), a regimented fireman in charge of burning the forbidden volumes, meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read. Suddenly he finds himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between two women, but between personal safety and intellectual freedom. Truffaut's first English language production is an eerie fable where mankind becomes the ultimate evil.
Commentary: This is the only movie Francois Truffaut directed in English. The movie is a somewhat odd adaptation of the Ray Bradbury novel, and is considered by some critics to be poorly paced. Still, an engaging film with a dark tone and a disturbingly detached, unemotional feel to it. --RJ
Ray Bradbury said about this film in a recent interview: "It was very good, but [Truffaut] was a coward about doing certain things. He didn't put in the Mechanical Hound, which should be included, because it's a metaphoric adventure thing. The tactical stuff is really miserable. The flying men should be cut out. They're not flying anywhere except down. And the casting was a mistake. Not all of it. Oskar Werner I like very much." (quoted from "Playboy Interview: Ray Bradbury." Playboy, May 1996.)
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This Page Created December 4, 1995
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