Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984 film)

Nineteen Eighty-Four
British theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Radford
Written byMichael Radford
Based onNineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell
Produced bySimon Perry
Starring
CinematographyRoger Deakins
Edited byTom Priestley
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byVirgin Films[a] (United Kingdom)
Release date
  • 10 October 1984 (1984-10-10) (United Kingdom)
Running time
110 minutes[1][b]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget£5.5 million[4]
Box office$8.4 million (United States)[5]

Nineteen Eighty-Four (stylized as 1984) is a 1984 dystopian film written and directed by Michael Radford, based upon George Orwell's 1949 novel. Starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, and Cyril Cusack, the film follows the life of Winston Smith (Hurt), a low-ranking civil servant in a war-torn London ruled by Oceania, a totalitarian superstate.[6] Smith struggles to maintain his sanity and his grip on reality as the regime's overwhelming power and influence persecutes individualism and individual thinking on both a political and personal level.

Nineteen Eighty-Four was Burton's last screen appearance; it was released two months after his death and is dedicated to him.[7] The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 10, 1984, by Virgin Films. It received positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Art Direction, and won two Evening Standard British Film Awards for Best Film and Best Actor.


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  1. ^ "Nineteen Eighty-Four". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 14 January 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference canby was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c "Nineteen-Eighty Four (1984)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 3 June 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  4. ^ Alexander Walker, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties, Harrap 1986 p257
  5. ^ Nineteen Eighty-Four at Box Office Mojo
  6. ^ Kieni, Fiona. "John Hurt on Nineteen Eighty-Four". Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine.
  7. ^ "MISCELLANEOUS NOTES". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 5 August 2014.