Brave New World (1998) – Originally written July 2003

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.