Watch Brave New World For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Fresh and Exciting

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

When it aired in 1980, I wondered what the heck happened to the promised BNW miniseries with a one-night broadcast that left so much out.Almost three decades later, due to the miracle of the Internet, I saw the entire version as broadcast by the BBC & then bought the DVD. I totally loved it. The cartoonish Gil Gerard Buck Rogers-ish special effects and the superficial characterization, much disdained, totally fit the "soulless streamlined Eden" of the book.Btw, back in 1980, I was fortunate enough to buy the PB tie-in, which I still own.Please put this on official DVD!

This 1980 made-for-TV film is the first attempt to adapt Huxley's landmark novel to the screen. I read the book for the first time over twenty-five years ago, and recently had occasion to re-read it. Some books are so much their own identity that one can be excused for considering them possibly unfilmable; for me BNW was one of these until I stumbled across this odd but audacious effort.In the minute details, this telefilm is not as faithful to the novel as it might be; John Savage's backstory is moved from the center of the novel to the beginning of the film, and the low budget shows mostly in the wobbly sets and what can only be described as a valiant attempt to create the Brave New World on a shoestring budget. The futuristic society should have looked more like LOGAN'S RUN than a bunch of plastic sets, one of which is so obviously the interior of a 747 that it is almost laughable.Yet despite the technical flaws, this film has considerably more power than one would expect, mainly because of a splendid cast including the great Keir Dullea, the legendary Ron O'Neal, Bud Cort in yet another superb performance, the wonderful but underrated Marcia Strassman, and a carefully culled bunch of the finest character actors including such names as Jeannetta Arnette, Jonelle Allen, Kristoffer Tabori, Dick Anthony Williams, and Valerie Curtin.The script is merely serviceable; it works hard to be as faithful to the novel as possible, but some of what was sinister in the book comes across as merely silly on the screen. This isn't the fault of the actors, who mostly play their roles with the glaze of mindlessness that one envisions when reading the novel (the exceptions here are Cort, Williams, Tabori, Cobb, and Strassman towards the end). In fact it's the performances that bring across just how sinister the Brave New World really is.This is a clunky production and it is easy to get distracted by the cheapness of the sets and some of the silliness of the basic scenario, but for a television film it is surprisingly effective thanks to a well-chosen cast that performs brilliantly; performances such as are seen here were a bit rare in television in 1980. At the very least it is good enough to make me want to see the other versions as a comparison.

This is naturally a low-budget TV version, but it's long enough to go into the themes of the book in some depth, and follows the plot and dialogue accurately enough. It gives the impression of a theatre version really, with the cheap sets and costumes: or maybe the original Star Trek is closer to it, with the pyjamas. So you never forget that it's an adaptation of a novel; which I realise must be a problem for those expecting Blade Runner or something. I thought everyone did a commendable job on this given the limitations of the budget, and while it's not great cinema, it captures the spirit of Huxley's work, and in particular it was nice to hear the Shakespeare quotations very nicely done.

If you haven't read the book, this 1980 made-for-TV rendition will do quite nicely. It strikes the right balance between humour and futuristic melodrama to hold interest but always remain credible. Julie Cobb is hysterical in her supporting role, and Jonelle Allen is wonderful. It does a great job of illustrating Huxley's vision of what could be the future, and its potential downside.