1984: DYSTOPIA REVISITED
In an attempt to escape the Orwellian dystopia of 2020 we travel back in time to that real-life doomed year 1984; smack down in the middle of an era marked by Cold War tensions and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and characterized by big hair, spandex, Ray-bans and Rubik’s cubes, 1984 remains a strangely fascinating year in film history inhabited by Terminators, Karate Kids, Talkings Heads and Beverly Hills Cop’s…
For those of us too young to have experienced the tragedies of WOII or the nuclear angst of the 80’s the current crisis is the closest we’ve come to the dystopia’s predicted by so many great science fiction novels and films. George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, is one of the prime examples of dystopian science fiction literature and its title has become synonymous with a future plagued by totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviors within society. But Orwell’s predicted 1984 came and went and looking at 2020 he might’ve gotten his dates mixed up… Looking back at the real-life year 1984 in film history we find a very different future in our past. One of neon lights and spandex jumpsuits, early Terminator models and streetwise cops in Beverly Hills. 1984 in film offers a perfect from 2020…