Comparison: Minority Report and 1984
Is it inhumane to arrest and convict a person of terrible crimes, even if it is not yet committed, if it is certain that it will be? Utopia is an imaginary place in which everything is perfect; in comparison, dystopia is an imaginary state in which the condition of life is extremely bad as from deprivation, oppression, or terror. George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), is a novel based on life in a dystopian setting, with a totalitarian government centered on war and hatred. Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002) is a film in a futuristic setting with a system which predicts future murders so that citizens live a homicide-free utopian life. Winston Smith is the main character in 1984. His rebelious views on his society and government cause his arrest for ‘thoughtcrime,’ for which he is brainwashed until he complies to his society’s views. In Minority Report, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) begins by completely trusting the system which allegedly predicts murders before they happen. In fact, Anderton is an officer of precrime himself, and is responsible for figuring out the specific details of the murders. However, when it is revealed in the film that Anderton will murder a man he has not even met, he tries to fight the system to prove his innocence. The idea that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is the central message of both 1984 and Minority Report. This is because technology is used to enforce power, it is purported to be infallible, and the result of the misuse of power is corruption. The use of technology to enforce corrupt power is comparable in both 1984 and Minority Report. Firstly, in both societies technology is used to give the citizens statistics about how much the state of living has improved since the source of power was created. In 1984, the announcer on the telescreen reads, “‘Attention comrades! We have glorious news for you... the standard of living has risen by no less than 20 per cent over the past year.’” (Orwell 61). Similarly, in