![]() ![]() ![]() Protagonist Bernard Marx is changed from a psychologist who specialises in the hypnotic conditioning of children to merely a PR man. All aspects about the Henry Ford religion and programmed consumer society have been excised. The genetically pre-programmed class structure aspect is there, although the film now places more emphasis on the hedonist society. Certainly, it follows the book on many general points. This tv movie version conducts a hatchet job on Aldous Huxley’s book. (l to r) Wendy Benson, Lenina Crowne (Rya Kihlshedt) and Bernard Marx (Peter Gallagher) Poorly received, it vanished into obscurity thereafter. This version was mounted as a tv movie by a group of largely unknown names. Brave New World also has undeniable influence on the satiric anti-utopia of Demolition Man (1993), which makes direct references to the book in the names of several characters. The book was subsequently reworked and modernised as the tv mini-series Brave New World (2020), which is far more interesting than this. A cinematic version was also announced in 2009 from Ridley Scott and starring Leonardo DiCaprio but failed to emerge. This was far more faithful to the Aldous Huxley book than the version here. There was Brave New World (1980), a three-hour tv mini-series from Universal starring Bud Cort as Bernard Marx and Keir Dullea as the Director of Hatcheries. The title is an ironic one taken from a line in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611).īrave New World has been filmed before. Brave New World is widely regarded as a classic and has even appeared on some lists of great literary works of the 20th Century. (For a more detailed overview of the genre see Films About Dystopias). The one idea that Huxley created that caught on in science-fiction in a big way was of a world where people are engineered from birth to predestined roles in society. The British-born Huxley was also appalled at the perceived promiscuity of modern Americans – in his future, monogamous relationships and the notion of family are a thing of the past and polygynandry is the norm, while the consumption of drugs (soma) is commonplace. In a critique of the American mass production line, for instance, the citizens in Huxley’s future have elevated Henry Ford to the equivalent of Jesus Christ, swear by his name and are indoctrinated to be good consumers. ![]() ![]() Wells and many elements he despised in the American culture of the day. Huxley wrote several other books in the Dystopian vein with Ape and Essence (1948) and Island (1962), as well as the historical non-fiction book The Devils of Loudon (1962) that later became the basis of the Ken Russell film The Devils (1971).īrave New World was Aldous Huxley’s reaction against the utopian works of H.G. Brave New World was for many years mentioned as a key classic in the Dystopian genre alongside George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). (The one other thing that Huxley is known for is as an advocate of experimentation with LSD). A grandson of the famous biologist Thomas Huxley, Aldous was known throughout his life as an essayist and occasional novelist. Brave New World (1932) is probably the best-known novel of the celebrated British writer Aldous Huxley (1894-1963). ![]()
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