11/14/2022 0 Comments Brave new world movie reviewBut there's a great deal of power in other speeches, and I especially liked his little quotation from Shakespeare as he leaves the Centre for Death. Some of his lines are cheesy, as if he were a standard anguished young man from a soap opera. The Savage is nicely portrayed, and we feel his tragedy intensely. Unfortunately, that makes his fate less appropriate (in the context of a satire against this type of society) - in the book, he was a loser and he got a raw deal at the end, and here the exact opposite is true. The character of Bernard has also been augmented, making him much more forceful and driven by purpose. There's some sexism here too, but at least Lenina has more brains and more things to do. I liked how the movie increased the importance of the role of Lenina - Huxley was simply not concerned about the woman, as necessary as she was to reflect the desires of the male characters. He's convincing, but too bad he's completely wrong. Here is Spock, telling us as he usually does what's good for us. In fact, this was quite a casting coup, and nice judgment on the part of Nimoy to play against type. Leonard Nimoy has an interesting role here as the World Controller Mond. Unfortunately, a number of unique aspects of the book are jettisoned in favour of generic plot devices (like the killer Delta) and the ending is changed in implication and in tone. Many of the setpieces from Huxley's novel are used to good effect here - I especially liked the sequence in the Centre for Death and the ensuing scene in the soma distribution centre. The movie begins with the Lenina-Bernard romance, which starts the story much more efficiently. Also, the identity of the Savage's father is changed, leading to a silly subplot about a Delta conditioned to kill Bernard (KILL BERNARD MARX!!). The plot here adds a few things to Huxley's story, like the lousy conditioning results. The plot goes into high gear when Lenina and Bernard meet the Savage after crash-landing in a Reservation - they bring him back into civilization and all sorts of uncertainties ensue. Also, Bernard is part of the department in charge of societal conditioning, and their results are falling, which means that a few Deltas here and there are questioning their role in society. Brave new world movie review tv#Unfortunately, Lenina and Bernard have forgotten that "promiscuity is every citizen's duty" (and here is the first flaw of this TV production - this slogan is catchy but promiscuity would be an unknown concept in a society without sexual possessiveness) and spend too much time with each other. This lifestyle is greatly helped by the drug soma, a happy drug, easy to ingest, with no harmful side effects. Reproduction and education are under the strict control of the government, and happiness is the only thing any citizen should be pursuing. Lenina and Bernard live in a world where society is divided up into distinct castes, from Alphas down to Epsilons (although we only see Deltas, no Epsilons), and both Lenina and Bernard are part of the privileged Alpha caste. Leonard Nimoy is the only well-known name, but all the actors acquit themselves as well or better than could be expected. This movie is also well-cast, with some strong acting here and there. And the main thematic points survive almost intact from the book, which is frankly amazing. There are also a number of very humorous scenes in this movie, an element which certainly does not come from Huxley. They were not afraid to fiddle with Huxley's plot, which gave them two big advantages, a better beginning and a better version of the character of Lenina. The fact that this movie was made for TV accentuates many of the flaws of the novel (more on that in a minute), but the screenwriters and the directors do a number of things right. This is a mostly successful version of Brave New World, which surprised me greatly. Note: This is a made-for-TV version, first aired by NBC in April of 1998. Brave New World, written by Dan Mazur and David Tausik from the novel by Aldous Huxley, directed by Leslie Libman and Larry Williams, 1998, 100 min.
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