The grimy, tolitarian state is very effectively conveyed and pretty hard to watch, and if the film's direction lacks a bit of subtletly at times it's aided in this respect by the very naturalistic performances all round. It's also the most emotionally involving of the three adaptations, though I'm not so sure Orwell would've liked that himself (or the ending.) The 1984 version is not flawless but is perhaps, the best it perhaps best shows the vision Orwell was trying to convey with its blend of the viscerally haunting, and the unnerving implications of them. It was deemed fairly shocking and provocative for its day but nowadays seems relatively tame I can definitely see how it had such a tremendous impact and elicited such protests and even a House of Commons debate. The 1954 version in my view is a fine version, bit dated in terms of setting but with good performances all round and quite a palatable sense of dread in the atmosphere it generates. It's not without merit though as there are several good performances that help to overcome some of the weaker material.
Many of the deeper psychological elements of the source material are briskly skimmed over and there's plenty of miscasting all round. I will say that of all 3, the 1956 American version has dated the most horrendously especially in the way it tries to mould Orwell's war-torn Britain into a frankly rather cheesy-looking 1954 setting. While the novel's power is never lessened by context, the films inadvertently lend themselves to this inevitable fault. Before going any further, I have to say that while '1984' is most certainly a dystopian masterpiece, its themes of oppression and limiting of autonomy, the singularities of human purpose, still prevalent nowadays, to make a film of those themes in a very precise, culturally relevant manner runs the risk of making it very, very quickly dated.
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