Animal Farm (1954)

Political correctness

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Nov 13, 2004 | 2 out of 2 found this Animal Farm (1954) review helpful

Pros: First British Cartoon

Cons: Stifled by politics

George Orwell wrote a child's allegorical tale about a worthy revolution that was betrayed. It was a warning about the dangers that the Russian Revolution faced and when it was published, it was picked up by the world as THE warning of the impending doom that the Soviet Union faced.

Attempts were made to make the movie in the USA, but at the time of McCarthy and his witch hunts, it was seen as too hot a potato. So it fell to the British to make it and while much of the warnings contained in the book are still visible, it was given a very typically British perspective and at the time was heavily criticised because it failed to take a strong stand which people in the USA (whipped up by the "Reds under the bed" scares) demanded.

Now its 50+ years on, and whether you know ANYTHING about the Revolution in Russia, or what went on in the former Soviet Union, this is a film which has stood the test of time and, given there are two new generations since this was made, reveals not only a strong story which new viewers should find absorbing, even terrifying, but now serves as a warning not just about the dangers of revolution, but the dangers of giving ANYONE absolute power in the name of fear.

As for the movie, it begins with Old Major proclaiming before he dies that there has to be a revolution on the Jones Farm because the farmer is destroying it.

But despite the proclamation, nothing happens, in fact things get worse.

Farmer Jones gets drunk, the animals don't get fed (In Russia this happened too, as it did in France, both events sparking revolutions).

But the Russian allegories continue after the revolution when counter-revolutionary farmers attacked the farm and failed (for those who did not know, capitalist states like the USA and Britain invaded Russia in 1919 to support the White Russian forces who were fighting against the revolution and which was one of the main reasons why the Soviets never trusted the West).

One pig, Snowball (obviously a reference to Leon Trotsky), makes a futile attempt to spread the revolution to other farms, but is murdered by Napoleon (Josef Stalin), who prefers to consolidate his power at home.

There's a lot more, much more. But to simply dismiss this movie as a bad cartoon or a bad adaptation is to miss the history. This movie was made at a time when Communism was seen as the same evil that Muslim fundamentalists are seen today. The world was held in the grip of nuclear terror, fuelled by governments who sought to suppress their populations by using Communism in the same way that governments use Al Quida today.

Quite simply: The movie could not have been made any other way because had it stuck too faithfully to the book, it would never have been released in the USA (a country which once banned Errol Flynn's Robin Hood because it was seen as a pro-communist movie).

So, given the political -- and financial -- restraints the producers and directora were under, this is a worthy adaptation and a worthy addition to any DVD collection.