Brave New World

In spite of the many attempts to maintain perfection, that is one thing that cannot be achieved to its fullest extent in reality. Unfortunately, that is practically the one thing that is misunderstood in the Brave New World.

This TV movie reinterprets a classic novel of how the human soul is compromised to the never-ending quest for perfection. In the story, everybody is born in science labs, and their destiny is determined for them from Day One. They spend their whole lives being conditioned (and reconditioned), their thoughts and emotions suppressed with soma, and all else that virtually eliminates the human soul.

This is all what Aldous Huxley was thinking of human civilization all the way back in 1932, back when communism, socialism, and fascism were still major threats to world societies. While some of these thoughts may seem dated today, there are SOME aspects to modern society, even in a democratic gov't, that brings relevance to this story.

However, because the Brave New World is NOT perfect, there are a few who have their own ways of thinking. One is Bernard Marx, who's persistent in initiating his own forms of human conditioning. Another, Lenina, is one who experiences true happiness, after having spent her entire life deprived of true freedom. Then there's John, a Savage who lives on a Reservation seperated from the World State.

John is one who still has a firm grip on religion, art, literature, and history, all of which are banned in society, but still exists on the Reservation. Bernard and Lenina, both on a temporary holiday, takes John to visit the Brave New World, only for John to discover the horror that had become of the human race.

This was an interesting movie. It retained a lot of what was in the original novel. But there were a few major liberties taken to make the story more accessible to modern tastes. For one thing, the Savages are not Indians (thanks in part to an evil form of liberalism called "political correctness"), but are more like the modern version of Americana, which, 600 years from now, will be considered primitive. Also, the novel did not have a sub-plot about a Delta being reconditioned, and later brainwashed into trying to kill Bernard Marx. It's kinda funny, because that somewhat defies the society's purpose of "no crime, no violence, etc.". Some such things as the worship of Ford, and "orgy-porgy" were eliminated, which makes this movie less intense than the novel. The ending was changed a little, just to present the novel's message in a different light.

I get the impression that the production team wanted more from this movie, but had to work with what came to be the result. It's a wonder why this presentation is an obscure TV movie, rather than a theatrical. I think that some parts of Brave New World would be difficult to reinterpret into a theatrical, because the production team wouldn't be able to reinterpret the story without doing a considerable amount of retooling, as this shows us.

Overall, this was an okay movie. But having read the Brave New World novel not too long ago, I feel as if there are some aspects of our democratic society that I feel make this story more relevant than people realize.

The Brave New World novel is available at your local library.

Why do they do it? Why do they pick a novel like this which obviously has a following (seeing how it's still around after 75 years), and screw around with the story line? Are the writers thinking "Yeah, that Aldous guy is OK, but I'm much better." Or are they thinking that we simply wouldn't understand the story in it's original form? This trash is going to offend anyone that can actually finish a book without pictures in it. Watching what they did to this classic is similar to watching "Romeo and Juliette" rewritten to have a happy ending. I can't think of any demographic that's going to be pleased with the result. I would seriously like to attend the brainstorming session where they worked out the screenplay just to hear the rational behind rewriting a classic.

The "Brave New World (TV Movie 1980)" from the BBC was a billion times better, you can find references to that adaptation in IMDb

Just watch the BBC version or read the book, there is nothing in this one to redeem itself, awful.

The 3 hours long BBC version and the book can be found in the website Huxley dot net at the very bottom, there are the links to the book and the movie Sadly the copy came from a bad VHS, but watchable. There is no better copy as far as I know. A bit cartooned in style, worth it anyway, so the book.

Bottom line, do yourself a favor, watch the BBC version or read the book

What would Huxley think? His masterwork now fodder for the MTV culture of the world. It was interesting that the writer and director chose this particular style to shoot BNW from. Granted the cliche' of Hollywood and American culture in general may seem like a Huxleyian paradigm but really, here it seems a little pretentious, as if to make some vocal statement saying "America has finally caught up to the novel's vision." Oh brother! This almost cynical disregard for respecting the author's true vision of his own work is pretty sad, as every nuance of Huxley's story has its meaning and characters stomped upon with references to rave culture, soap opera scandal type revelations and media blitz culture. The video and vocal overlays that are supposed to drive us through the films locations....superfluous. THe concepts of life inside the Brave New World become so much pseudo intellectual rambilng, the characters merely philosophical mouthpieces. If I didn't know any better I would have thought this film was French in origin. One can almost sense a level of shame being heaped upon us, the viewers as if this is the world we want and the writer and director know what we WILL become in the future. How odd. This is the second movie I have seen based upon the novel, the first being the 1980 movie with Bud Cort and Marsha Strassman. Somehow they never seem to quite get it right, but this one missed the mark the furthest in my opinon. Definately skip this version.

When I first read "Brave New World" five or six years ago now, I remember thinking about how Huxley was a genius. Whilst not a big fan of his first book "Chrome Yellow", he still always put a point across. In this film though, they lost a lot of the ideas. I always used to wonder what a film adaptation would be like and not long after finishing the book for the third time I realised that deep down there could never be a decent adaptation. Simply put, despite being over 75 years old, the book still talks of ideas which modern society is scared to accept. For one thing, could you really imagine a major Blockbuster movie in which children played erotic games at the start? In a world where a mild swear word is condemned, that sort of imagery would be instantly condemned & banned. With this in mind, a decent adaptation could never be done. Therefore, it's admirable that they make any sort of effort to recreate Huxley's book. However for a book which would influence me in such a powerful way, it's disappointing they didn't realise that it's better to not touch something rather than create a half decent version. Ah well. That's Hollywood for you.