Richard Burton deserves a mention for his chilling portrayal of the party official who betrays and then tortures Smith.Īnd now, on to one of my all time favourite films, V for Vendetta ! This time, Hurt plays the glorious High Chancellor of the ruling party, Adam Sutler. 1984 won Best Film and Best Actor for John Hurt at the 1985 Evening Standard British Film Awards. Hurt’s performance in this is, of course, outstanding and should have won more awards than it did. Winston and Julia are carted off and we see Winston undergo torture in the infamous “Room 101” to re-instil his love for Big Brother and The Party. However, the man he thought was sympathetic was actually working for the thought police to catch him in his crimes. He becomes so disillusioned with this state of affairs that he starts writing a journal, committing his thought crimes to paper and rebels by falling in love with Julia, committing the hideous sin of a sex crime in the process. Can I just say that the phrase “alternate facts” seems to me to be practically interchangeable with “doublethink” ?Īnyway, I think most people are familiar with the basic story of 1984 Winston Smith works in MINREC (Ministry of Records) as one of the workers tasked with rewriting history by changing old news articles to suit the message of the day. With the lie always one step ahead of the truth”ĭoes that sound familiar? Does that sound like a certain President and his newly-selected press officer and spokespeople who just seem to make stuff up on the fly, and then tell the people it’s the truth? Tell a lie often enough and it seeps into the subconscious of the people hearing it until such time as they can’t distinguish the truth from the lies. In 1984, we see Hurt play the main protagonist in George Orwell’s vision of a dystopian future wherein the ruling party controls the people through fear of an outside enemy, constantly rewriting history and, most insidious of all, the use of “doublethink” – altering the perception of reality with lies that people believe alongside what they know was previously truth. Views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect those of the Doctor Who Companion, its contributors, or editors. This is a Doctor Who fan site, not a political platform. Naturally, being somewhat angry at the state of world affairs now with the likes of Trump and Farage running rampant with their brand of doublespeak, or “alternate facts”, I thought I would pay tribute to John Hurt with a review of these two films and how they relate to my view of world affairs right now.ĭISCLAIMER: By the way, I am not looking to enter into a political debate here.
In those films, we see Hurt play both sides of the coin in narratives that depict dystopian totalitarian societies. īut there’s two films that stand out particularly for me – 1984 and V for Vendetta.
Movie 1984 john hurt tv#
The Elephant Man, Alien, Watership Down, some TV thing called Doctor Who, and Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings. I knew he had been ill and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but still… One of the many actors that had always been there for me was now gone. I was shocked when I heard that John Hurt had died.