It is often said that Orwell was really writing about the bleak war-scarred England of his own time (1948) in his great political science (fiction) masterpiece. This Nineteen Eighty-Four manages to get that sense exactly right. Hard to imagine anyone better to play that downtrodden, already-half-broken Winston Smith than John Hurt. I think some may have found the film too gloomy, too resigned, but that really is the mood of the book.
