Equilibrium vs. 1984

Synopsis of Equilibrium
After World War Three, a new government rose in the country of Libria. The Tetragrammaton Council, lead by Father, created the Grammaton Clerics whose mission it is to seek out and eradicate, with the use of drugs, Man's ability to feel . But a resistance exist: the Underground. After Cleric John Preston misses one of his doses, he starts doubting himself and the Council. He becomes the Underground's champion.

Message of the two stories: Human life had no point if it is without feeling. Kurt Wimmer, producer of Equilibrium, was more effective than George Orwell in delivering the message with the many tools he used to deliver it.

In the movie, you didn't sense as much fear in the atmosphere. For exemple: in George Orwell's 1984, you could practically feel the eyes of the telescreens following you everywhere. Winston never showed a hint of feeling on his face that wasn't neutral indifference or contentment (p.39, paragraphe 3 – His face remained completly inscrutable ) and he knew enough not to move when he was threatened because he understood that there would be not point (p.232, last line--- He stood dead still. No one had hit him yet). Preston flinched at animals being killed after a raid, ran across a building in a panic trying to save a rebel's life and glanced at guns being loaded around him when he thought he was being threatened in the Vice-Council's office . Of course, Preston is capable of defending himself but I have to assume that he wouldn't need to cock his head at the sound of a gun being loaded, and thus giving away is tension, because at the very begginning of the movie he didn't need to even see the enemy to kill everyone in the room. Kurt Wimmer made Libria into a stark, cold and dead country, just like Oceania, but unlike George Orwell, he installed many scenes of nature's beauty to make up for it : the puppy, the sunset, the Beethoven music...

The most important difference between the stories of 1984 and Equilibrium is the method of surveillance. In 1984, telescreens are everywhere and someone could be watching you at any moment so you have to assume you are watched all the time. In Equilibrium, you are watched at all times because humans police themselves. They don't rely on cameras as much so they are a lot more attentive and trained to watch for the any sign of abnormal behavior.

The characters are lifelike most of the time.
Vice-Council DuPont who, despite his position as the leader of an unfeeling country, has the strange habit of yelling when he is angry (an emotion suposedly eradicated) and hitting tables with his fist like a cheesy villain in an old movie.
Preston, the formidable hero, the best of the best at his job and a secret rebel, is careless. When he keeps a forbidden book, he tells his partner he is going to get it where it should go himself because the people in charge of doing that don't always do it so well. That is the exact same excuse his partner used on him when he did the same thing and he ended up dead because Preston watched the footage of the conversation and figured out what he was doing. The footage that is presumably still in the computer system and eccessible to anyone who would want to know more about John's former partner. Like his new partner for perhaps?
Mary was the most lifelike of them all because a rebel having a relationship with one of the elite in law enforcement would have been a great asset in countries at war in our world too. It is completly plausible that she was actually a spy or that Preston's former partner was.

The plot would have been unbelievable but it wasn't. Kurt Wimmer mannaged to twist religion ,where the familiar sentecne “God's Will” is repeated many times, by changing “God” for “Father”, making the unfeeling government suddenly seem like dangerous extremists. Vice-Council DuPont explained this when he said that to obey “Father's Will”, you require faith. It changes the story from the far-fetched outcome of a war that hasn't and probably won't happen for a long time to a reality a little closer to home. That means he leaves a deeper impression. In George Orwell's 1984, the plot is believable mostly because when it was published, World War Two had just ended and the Cold War was just beginning. It exploited the political issues all over Europe instead of the religious issues that are constant.

The setting is essential to the story. Preston's desk and that of everyone else around him is exactly the same. When he tries to change it, it suggest an external manifestation of the changes going on inside him. The dark and sterile buildings of Libria are similar to George Orwell's description of Airship 1. But in Equilibrum, they make a stark contrast to the Underground's hide-away : big, dirty rooms that are nontheless welcoming with it's wide windows of bright-colored glass bathing the wide space in a rainbow of sunlight.
 
Special effects were impressive but a few mistakes were made. For exemple: Preston goes into a rage at the end that makes him start a killing spree. Blood is spurting everywhere from the hits made by bullets and swords but his clean, fitted, white suit remains intact.

To conclude, 1984 and Equilibrium both deliver the message that life must be experienced to be worth living and the way to communicate it are similar with a few minor differences that nonetheless reveal themselves to be essential to the story. The message left a deeper impression in Equilibrium because it showed the beauty and good that life could be as much as the ugly and bad that is the life at the present.