Fahrenheit 451
Excerpts From the Movie
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1 Main Titles: The Burning
Captain:
By the way, what does Montag do with his day off duty?
Montag:
Not very much, sir—mow the lawn.
Captain:
And what if the law forbids that?
Montag:
Just watch it grow, sir.
Captain:
Uh-huh. Good.
2 Neighbors
Clarisse:
Anyway, you don’t frighten me.
Montag:
Why should I?
Clarisse:
No reason, really. The uniform, I suppose. Most people are—frightened, frightened of firemen.
Montag:
This is my stop now.
Clarisse:
Mine, too!
Clarisse:
Tell me, that number you all wear, what’s it mean?
Montag:
Oh, Fahrenheit 451.
Clarisse:
Why 451 rather than 813 or 121 or—
Montag:
Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and starts to burn.
Was Benjamin Franklin the First Book-burner?
Clarisse:
Is it true that, a long time ago, firemen used to put out fires and not burn books?
Clarisse:
Tell me, why do you burn books?
Montag:
What?
Well, it’s a job like any other. Good work, with lots of variety—Monday we burn Miller; Tuesday, Tolstoy; Wednesday, Walt Whitman; Friday, Faulkner; and Saturday and Sunday, Schopenhauer and Satre. We burn them to ashes, and then burn the ashes—that’s our official motto.
Clarisse:
You don’t like books, then?
Montag:
Do you like the rain?
Clarisse:
Yes, I adore it!
Montag:
Books are just so much…rubbish. They have no interest.
Clarisse:
Then why do some people still read them although it’s so dangerous?
Montag:
Precisely because it is forbidden.
Clarisse:
Why is it forbidden?
Montag:
Because it makes people unhappy.
Clarisse:
Do you really believe that?
Montag:
Oh, yes! Books disturb people; they make them antisocial.
Clarisse:
One more question.
Montag:
Another one?
Clarisse:
Just a little tiny one.
Montag:
What is it?
Clarisse:
Do you ever read the books you burn?
Montag:
Why should I? First, I’m not interested; second, I’ve better things to do; and third, it is forbidden.
Clarisse:
Of course!
Are you happy?
Montag:
What?
Of course I’m happy…
3 One of the Family
Cousin
Claudette:…our campaign against the enemies of the public peace is gaining momentum. Today’s figures for operations in the urban areas alone account for the elimination of a total of two thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds of conventional editions. Eight hundred and thirty-six pounds of first editions and seventeen pounds of manuscripts were also destroyed. Twenty-three antisocial elements were detained, pending re-education. …
4 Up for Promotion
Captain:
Like gymnastics, Montag?
Montag:
Yes, sir.
Captain:
And what about hockey? D’you like hockey?
Montag:
Yes I do, sir.
Captain:
And golf?
Montag:
Very much, sir?
Captain:
Mmm hmm, and football?
Montag:
Wonderful, sir.
Captain:
Billiards? Basketball?
Montag:
Oh, dear—all very fine sports.
Captain:
Then increase the dosage: more sports for everyone. Hmm? Strengthen the group spirit. Organise the fun. Hmm? Just keep them busy and you keep them happy—that’s what matters. Hmm? Am I right?
Montag:
Absolutely, sir.
5 The Overdose
6 David Copperfield
Cousin
Claudette:But some boys still boycott the barbershops. Here you see a mop-up squad at work on one of these messy know-it-alls. It all goes to show: law enforcement can be fun!
7 Dismissed
8 Back to the School
Montag’s Confession to Clarisse
Clarisse:
Why?
Montag:
What?
Clarisse:
How did it come about? What made it begin? What made you want to do—? How could someone, like you, be doing this kind of work? I know everyone says that, but you—you’re not like them. When I say something to you, you look at me. Why did you choose this job? For you it doesn’t make any sense.
Montag:
Do you remember what you asked me the other day? If I ever read the books I burn—remember?
Clarisse:
Mmm hmm.
Montag:
Last night, I read one.
9 Montag’s Passion
Montag:
Behind each of these books, there’s a man—that’s what interests me so.
10 House of Flames
Old Woman:
“Play the man, Master Ridley. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, as I trust shall never be put out.”
Books Lead to Differences of Opinion
Captain:
Ah, Montag. I knew it, I knew it. Of course, all this— The existence of a secret library was known in high places, but there was no way of getting at it. Only once before have I seen so many books in one place. I was just an ordinary fireman at the time. I wasn’t even qualified to use the flamethrower. It’s all ours, Montag!
Listen to me, Montag. Once to each fireman, at least once in his career—he just itches to know what these books are all about. He just aches to know—isn’t that so? Well, take my word for it, Montag: there’s nothing there. The books have nothing to say!
Look, these are all novels. All about people that never existed. The people that read them, it makes them unhappy with their own lives—makes them want to live in other ways that can never really be.
Come on, Montag. All this philosophy, let’s get rid of it. It’s even worse than the novels. Thinkers, philosophers, all of them saying exactly the same thing: “Only I am right; the others are all idiots.” One century, they tell you man’s destiny is predetermined; the next, they say he has freedom of choice. Nah, it’s just a matter of fashion, that’s all—philosophy—just like—short dresses this year, long dresses next year.
Look. All stories of the dead—biography, that’s called. And autobiography. My Life. My Diary. My Memoirs. My Intimate Memoirs. Of course, when they started out, well, it was just the urge to write. Then after the second or third book, all they wanted was to satisfy their own vanity, to stand out from the crowd, to be different—to be able to look down on all the others.
Ah, Critic’s Prize. Ah, this is a good one. Of course, he had the critics on his side. Lucky fellow.
Just tell me this, Montag, at a guess: how many literary awards were made in this country, on average, each year? Five, ten, forty? Hmm? No less than one thousand, two hundred. Anybody that put pen to paper was bound to win some prize someday.
Ah, Robinson Crusoe. The Negroes didn’t like that because of his man, Friday. And Nietzsche—ah, Nietzsche. The Jews didn’t like Nietzsche. Now here’s a book about lung cancer. You see, all the cigarette smokers got into a panic, so for everybody’s peace of mind, we burn it. Ah, now this one must be very profound. The Ethics of Aristotle. Now anybody that read that must believe he’s a cut above anybody that hadn’t. You see, it’s—it’s no good, Montag; we’ve all got to be alike. The only way to be happy is for everyone to be made equal. So…we must burn the books, Montag. All the books.
11 A Captive Audience
Montag:
When an old woman, cousins, chose to be burned with her books rather than being separated from them.
Helen:
If that’s a joke, it’s not in very good taste.
Montag:
You would like to think that, wouldn’t you?
Helen:
Don’t be silly, Montag; things like that don’t happen.
Montag:
You mean you don’t hear about it. I saw it!
Jackie:
My husband says—
Montag:
Oh, your husband! You don’t even know where he is—your husband!
Linda:
Montag!
Jackie:
Of course I know: He’s been called on reserve for some field training.
Montag:
Or to fight a little war, perhaps! You never know, do you?
Helen:
Why d’you call it that?
Jackie:
Well, even if he was, what about it? He’s not allowed to call me until it’s all over. It’ll only be about a week or two.
Doris:
Anyway, he’ll be all right. The point about war is, if you want to call them that, it’s only other women’s husbands who get killed.
Helen:
That’s true. I never knew anyone who got killed in a—not anyone whose husband died like that. Getting run over, jumping out of a window, yes. Like Gloria’s husband a few nights ago. But never that other way. Anyway, that’s life, isn’t it?
Montag:
I’ve got to read. I’ve got to…catch up with the remembrance of the past!
12 Nightmare
13 A List of Addresses
Clarisse:
People who vanished—some were arrested and managed to escape, others who were released— Some didn’t even wait to be arrested; they just hid themselves away. Up in the farm country—the woods and the hills: they live there, in little groups. And the law can’t touch them. They live quite peacefully and do nothing that’s forbidden. Although, if they came into the city, they might not last long.
Montag:
But how can you call them Book People—if they don’t do anything against the law?
Clasisse:
They are books. Each one, man and woman—everyone—commits a book they’ve chosen to memory, and they become the books. Of course, every now and then, someone gets stopped—arrested—which is why they live so cautiously—because the secret they carry is the most precious secret in the world. With them, all human knowledge would pass away.
14 The Last Call
Linda:
I couldn’t bear it. I just couldn’t bear it, anymore.
Captain:
Novels aren’t life. What did Montag hope to get out of all this print? Happiness? What a poor idiot you must have been. This gibberish is enough to drive a man mad. Thought you could learn from these how to walk on water, did you? Montag must learn to think a little—consider how all these writings, all these recipes for happiness, disagree. Now let this heap of contradictions burn itself out. You know, it’s we who, at this moment, are working for man’s happiness.
Look, isn’t that lovely? The pages, like flower petals or butterflies, luminous and black. Who can explain the fascination of fire? What draws us to it?—whether we’re young or old.
15 The Fugitive
16 The Book People
The Journal
of Henry
Briland by
Stendhal:Oh, it wasn’t planned. It just so happened that a man here and a man there loved some book and, rather than lose it, he learned it. And we came together.
We’re a minority of undesirables, crying out in the wilderness. But it won’t always be so. One day, we shall be called on, one by one, to recite what we’ve learned, and then books will be printed again.
Copyright © 1966 by Vineyard Films, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
