Written and directed by Raoul Peck, Orwell: 2+2=5 casts an eye-opening spotlight on the life and work of the author of 1984 and Animal Farm. It’s part look at the life of Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, part exploration of the many ways in which the world is stumbling towards the terrible realization of themes that pollute the landscape of 1984. That dreary, nightmare world Orwell fought against and warned us about could sadly be coming to fruition.
Buy Orwell: 2+2=5 from MovieZyngOrwell: 2+2=5 uses Orwell’s own words to narrate the movie as we explore his early life and the events that would affect his work. We see what influenced his writing and shaped his highly troubling masterpiece, 1984. The “text by Orwell,” read by Damian Lewis, is culled from his letters, journals, and published pieces. Sprinkled throughout are photos of Orwell at different stages of his life to aid viewers in getting a better sense of the man himself. Peck also masterfully juxtaposed Orwell’s writings alongside the horrors and aftermath of war and repressive fascist regimes throughout the modern world. Using examples from Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia to the African and Asian Nations as well as recent events in the USA to further point out that the horror is real.
Peck neatly interweaves clips from movies, documentaries, interviews, TV shows, newsreels, and raw footage to illustrate the similarities in the modern world to Orwell’s fiction, primarily Animal Farm and 1984. To further highlight the terror of the novels, Peck uses clips from all filmed versions from early TV productions (British and U.S.) as well as the major movie versions and those films that are heavily influenced by the work. Peck also creatively employs AI-generated images and songs to drive home the point that media can be manipulated extremely easily these days, His segment on “Newspeak” reveals the sinister reality behind such flowery terms as “pacification,” “legal use of force,” and “bailouts.” That segment also points out the repetitive, canned phrases and terms used by various media outlets to describe a situation or event.
Peck highlights which multibillionaires, business leaders, and tech gurus own which numerous media outlets, brands and, retail stores to expose the totalitarian trends taking shape around the world. He also uncovers the enormous sums that certain “super rich” business folks spent on political funding to further their own sometimes nefarious agendas. He also cleverly mixes excerpts from big tech moguls addressing surveillance and privacy issues to further demonstrate that Big Brother is watching in ways Orwell could have never imagined.
George Orwell’s 1984 remains one of the most frightening books ever penned. Orwell: 2+2=5 chronicles how (and sometimes why) we’re all being fed lies, expected to gulp it down, swallow it whole, and to disbelieve our own eyes while doing so. Sadly, it seems the vast majority of people are slurping up the media slop and alternative facts with ease and without a second thought. It seems illogical but sadly easy to imagine that if the Inner Party so desired, they would happily accept and assert that 2+2=5. Everyone should watch this one, but most will not. Its truth is too harsh, too overwhelming, too scary, too true.
Buy Orwell: 2+2=5 from Amazon“The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world.” – George Orwell
While watching Orwell: 2+2=5, Dorian Lynskey’s book The Ministry of Truth; The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 was foremost in my mind. Lynskey wonderfully tells the story of not only Orwell’s life but the impact his writings still have on modern-day readers. A few other books that rushed to mind include Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, The New Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian, and Ryan Holiday’s Trust Me, I’m Lying.
