Knowledge is a dangerous thing

Last night I feel asleep while listening to a hobo dig through a dumpster outside of my bedroom window downtown. Just before that, I watched Fahrenheit 451 on HBO Max. In today's post I will be focusing on the movie, rather than the treasures that the homeless man discovered in my trash. Fahrenheit 451 stars Michael B. Jordan as Guy Montag and Michael Shannon as Captain Beatty. The two are social media's most popular firemen. Except instead of putting out fires, they start them.

If you see something, say something

This movie is based on the book written by Ray Bradbury in 1953. There was an original movie released in 1966, but this modern adaption does an even better job of bringing the book to life. I was actually forced to read this book in high school, or at least they tried to force me. I probably would have really enjoyed the book, but I found a way to skip reading it. Whether it be asking a friend for answers, or just straight making things up to get a good grade. I do not like being forced to do things, which is ironic because that is a lot of what this film is about. If you would have told me 10+ years ago that I’d be willingly writing about this very same book in it's movie form, I’d have told you that you were damn crazy.

Everything that you lose comes back in another form

If you don't know the story of Fahrenheit 451, I will elaborate a bit. It takes place in the near future in Cleveland, OH. I mentioned before that firemen start fires instead of extinguishing them. Their main objective is to burn all books in existence and keep the public unaware of their true history. Most people these days are more than happy to obey the principles sat out by the government. This means there isn't many fires to put out, besides when an Eel (or book reader) is uncovered. Regular citizens have all willingly accepted what their government has told them to do and the real history evaporates with the start of new generations. The eels on the other hand do not wish to bow to the government's command. This is all over control of knowledge, which makes for an interesting story to say the least.

The government provides eye drops that erase memories of an era when art existed. It monitors its citizens with an all-seeing, Alexa-like apparatus called Yuxie, which is a standard part of every home. It publicly shames those who go against the official word of the government. ^{^{QUOTE BY SORAYA NADIA MCDONALD}}

The Nine is this film's equal to our real life fake news in 2021. Everything is uploaded and streamed for the world to tune into. It is heavily censored and any one who disobeys is outcasted. They even go so far as to burning Eel's finger prints off to erase their identity. There are a lot of wild concepts that all tie together quite nicely in Fahrenheit 451 (the supposed temperature that books burn.)

To live is to suffer, to survive is finding meaning in suffering

Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest writers of all time. He offers many quotable moments to remember. It may have taken a professional production to get me to give this story a chance, but I am happy that I finally did. There were some moments where things felt a little weird, such as when Guy and Cap were going live while they burned books. It was awkward, but then again so are most trending Tik Tok videos today. Our current reality is vastly similar to the strict way of living in Fahrenheit 451. It seems as though we often suffer through things voluntarily, without giving something else another chance. They say to not give a choice, but choose for them. Really you must not give them a choice at all, then you will have total control.

It was a pleasure to burn

My official opinion on this movie is that it is FIRE! No seriously, it's pretty good. The best part is that it really makes you think about your own life. Is it odd that most rush to put their masks on these days, only to obey an invisible principle? Perhaps our future humans will not even think twice about never seeing another mouth. They may even consider it taboo like "private parts." Why don't we just wrap ourselves like a mummy just to be safe, don't want to show any skin now. Imagine they actually rewrote Egyptian history and told us that mummies were just trying to stay healthy. People would be scrambling to wrap each other with toilet paper. This is what the all powerful establishment has done in Fahrenheit 451. Fuck it sucks, but this movie lets you see it without having to truly endure it. That is what makes it so enjoyable.

Watch the trailer

I always get hyped from a good trailer. This one will probably get you interested in watching the movie, if my blog hasn't done that to you already of course.

^{More info on IMDB}