by Julian Spivey

Francois Truffaut is regarded by many as one of the finest directors in cinema history and possibly the greatest foreign film director of all time.

Truffaut directed the critically acclaimed French classics Quatre cents coups, Les (The 400 Bows) and Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim). Truffaut is recognized by many as the father of the French New Wave movement.

Despite his many French-film successes, Truffaut did take a chance and made one English-language film. The film Truffaut chose – what would become the only English film of his career – was an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic science-fiction novel Fahrenheit 451.

As far as movie adaptations from novels go, Fahrenheit 451 (1966) doesn't quite live up to the same prestige as John Ford's 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath or Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, but it is in its own right a cinematic classic.

The film, like the book, takes its name from the suspected temperature at which books burn. The story is about a time in the not-so-distant future when firemen no longer put out fires, but start them by burning books. Bradbury himself admitted that he didn't check his facts, he simply asked a fireman about the temperature at which books burn.

The lead character of the film is Guy Montag, played by German actor Oskar Werner, after Truffaut failed to get his first choice, Paul Newman. Montag is a fireman, who at the beginning of the movie becomes intrigued with a young woman named Clarisse, played by Julie Christie. Christie played dual roles in the film, as she also portrayed Montag's wife, Linda.

Even though it is strictly forbidden in the future society, Montag begins to take an interest in the books he had previously been paid to destroy. The film takes its most dramatic turn when Montag is suspected by his captain, played by Cyril Cusack, of possessing books. Montag is forced to run for his life and find a new world where people are allowed to be free and read.

One of the most brilliant things about Truffaut's film is the opening credits. Most films have the credits flash or roll by on the screen for the audience to read, but Fahrenheit 451's credits are entirely spoken. This little and often-overlooked uniqueness of the film perfectly sets the mood for a world in which people are not allowed to read.

The performances by Werner, Christie and Cusack are all superbly done, and Truffaut's direction and vision is what truly makes the film great.

There are certain things about the movie that do seem outdated because of film technology and computer graphics, but fans should take the film for what it's worth and realize that what they are seeing was top notch for the mid-1960s. Also, fans of Bradbury's novel might be angered to learn that important character Faber was left out of the film, although he is alluded to in a short scene.