Orwell 2+2=5
The words and work of George Orwell have endured in the 75 years after his passing in 1950 because they speak to the concerns of regular individuals. He saw enough in his 47 years of life to understand that imperialism, authoritarianism, and classism was inherently evil, and should be resisted. How many ideas from his most famous work, 1984, are now common place in how we speak about our society now. In his documentary about Orwell, using Orwell’s own words (spoken by Damien Lewis), director Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”) uses the author’s life, work, and observances from the society he lived in, and reflects it in the authoritarian and totalitarianism acts we see today. It is a film whose fundamental conclusions will not be surprising to a lot of people watching it, but which might help illuminate the ways in which his words have come, frighteningly, to life in the modern day.
One of the most distressing aspects of modern life is how the powerful and wealthy have looked at dystopian science fiction not as it’s intended- as cautionary tales- but as a blueprint by which they control society. The disregard for the common worker by the powerful in Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.” The militarized police force in Paul Verhoeven’s “Robocop.” The surveillance state against the people- even when they haven’t done anything (yet)- in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report.” The propaganda pushed towards an unethical invasion in Verhoeven’s “Starship Troopers.” The push for an all-powerful artificial intelligence. Wealthy media barons controlling what gets published. Ultimately, the Zuckerbergs and Musks and Bezos and Ellisons couldn’t care less how we view them, and the shameless hypocrisy of how the art they may bankroll is adamantly against authoritarianism while they help usher the way towards it. Authoritarian leaders like Putin, Orban, Trump, MBS, Xi Jinping and others see military strength and opulent wealth as signs of their worthiness, and dissent is to be punished. Orwell recognized this in his lifetime, and reflected upon it in his writing, both in his personal journal or his fictional work. It’s part of why his work is so enduring.
What Peck does as a filmmaker- much like what he did with James Baldwin’s words in “I Am Not Your Negro”- is to connect the dots from Orwell to the present day, and show how totalitarianism has survived throughout the years, and how Orwell’s work (not just 1984 but Animal Farm) reflects it. We get the phrases and ideas Big Brother and his Thought Police push, and see- through actual footage from the present day- how it is utilized now. We see the impacts of authoritarian violence on the citizen, as well as in places like Gaza, the Sudan and Port-au-Prince, and how authoritarians silence speech they don’t like through violence. It’s harrowing, haunting, and important to consider. Banned books and media complicity are part of how authoritarians exert control. Sadly, too many vote for them, and will not recognize their destructive impacts until it’s too late. As with Peck’s earlier film, this is essential viewing, a warning for those who cannot connect the dots with the past to the present, and cannot see how little has changed. Unfortunately, it might be too late in the case of “Orwell 2+2=5,” but that doesn’t diminish its importance, but only heightens it.
