See, it’s all about this future where intellectuality of any kind is regarded as so inherently dangerous that books are burned by the fire department so that the minds of the population at large becomes ever more crimped and defenseless by relentless entertainment distractions and disinformation.

It’s times like these that I thank God for President Ronald Reagan who ended the cold war and left office the most popular president in history and who, unlike some presidents I could name, took responsibility for his error in Iran Contra by heroically explaining that he forgot all about trading arms for hostages.

And yet people still persist in taking Bradbury seriously.

Disgusting.

Oskar Werner’s performance as the conflicted Montag torn between his job of enforcing ignorance and his thirst for knowledge is first rate.

Julie Christie plays both Montag’s vaccuous wife as well as his subversive, intelligent, book-reading girlfriend – the dual role dichotomy extremely effective with an actress of such range.

Cyril Cusak nearly steals the show though as Montag’s boss. Thoroughly corporatized, he argues the party line with a passion that would make even the most die-hard Bushie envious.

Truffaut’s direction is very stylized and sometimes borders on absurdism, but complements well the ‘up-is-down’, ‘firemen start fires’ theme. His creepy depiction of the sacchrine, perfect home predates the first ‘Stepford Wives’ movie by more than a decade. I especially liked the scene where Montag and his wife are watching television and she gets to ‘participate’ in the teleplay.

The script is faithful to the book but, like most adaptations, is not literal. Still, the movie perfectly captures the image of an underground resistance striving mightily to preserve the knowledge and wisdom of the past against the full tide of a totalitarian society that lauds ignorance as virtue. Bloggers take note.

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As far as Bradbury is concerned, it sounds to me like he’s playing up his ‘outrage’ to ride the running boards of the vast publicity wagon accompanying the release of Moore’s documentary. It is perfectly plausible, as Amanda suggests, that Bradbury would use whatever ancillary notariety the title suggests to spur Mel Gibson into producing a remake, or at least sell a few more copies of the book -which is well worth the purchase if you don’t already have a copy.

Ray’s a big cry-baby. seems like he’s just trying to drum up publicity for the re-release of his book. his whole argument is ridiculous.