I like the movie “Brave New World” which was made in 1998.  It helped me to understand the themes of the novel, more than I had previously. However, the movie has and missed a few of the main points that the author expresses in his writing.  The movie has a happy ending, Lenina and Bernard escape from the sterile, perfectly controlled world and make the decision to keep a baby and raise their own child.  It is a subtle change that inspires more sympathy for the movie characters then the sympathy created for the book characters.

John creates conflict in the movie between savages and civilization and his persona is slightly different in the movie. Further, John plays a more significant and deeper role in the movie. However, he is not the main character. Conversely, the book ends when he kills himself.

In the movie, John’s character has a profound influence on Lenina.  She starts to view his relationship with Bernard differently, and realizes that the civilization creates artificial happiness and that traditional family attachment is much more important. In the movie she comments,“ Screen with mother  was beautiful”.  Then Linda and John make her feel needed. She is struggling to fight her need for escapism. She even rejects to take soma, when in the book her character was never able to exhibit that strength.  In essence, she still has some connection with John, but not the same way as in the book. In the book,  Lenina and John fall in love with each other. In the movie, Lenina likes John, she observes and admires his behavior and she desires to have a physical connection with John, only because it’s her duty as a citizen.  However, she and Bernard have always had a special relationship and sympathy for each other, as John observes several times in the movie, that something is going on between them.  Society makes them suppress this feeling as it does not fit into the sterilized notion of relationship and reproduction prevalent in society.The movie doesn’t have the characters of Helmotz and Ford, they are completely omitted. It makes the role that Bernard plays even more important in the movie.  Also, it contributes to creating even more conflict between The Director and Bernard.

I like the scene with the children, as it signifies the hope of a new generation and that societal progress will depend on them. The movie begins with kids, and it also ends with a scene where one kid elects to listen to the dystopian propaganda. The propaganda that promotes the artificial world designed to numb people into happiness.  It creates a view civilization of as a flawed creation and happy place and these kid will be the protagonist of the system. The scene in the center of death was very painful and scary, in the way that make you view and understand that this society, has no reaction and any real human emotion. They teach young children that death is happy. When John sees Linda in the center of death and has a break down , people are incapable of understanding his emotions .This scene is very similar with the book.   It contrasts the different value system between the “civilization” world and “savage” world.