"And so Peck's new documentary, Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5, shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone. Even when it runs the author (real name: Eric Arthur Blair) and his most famous literary creations through a suitably rough-house examination that stretches from Orwell's dubious British Empire beginnings all the way to the present-day madcap global political scene."
"Born in the Bengal Presidency of India in 1903, the son of a career civil servant who held the post of Sub-Deputy Opium Agent, the young Blair-he adopted the Orwell pen name in 1932-had a first-hand view of the excesses of colonialism. At one point he served as a police officer in Burma, an experience that opened his eyes. As he wrote later, "In order to hate imperialism, you have got to be part of it.""
"proceeds in chronological fashion across a minefield of Orwell's political and literary provocations, from Hitler to Stalin to Franco to MI6 to rival leftist journalists to Wigan Pier to his own ill health. The injustices Orwell saw raised hackles that stayed with him for a lifetime: "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism." He was often besieged but never bewildered by the 20 th century's turbulence."
Raoul Peck's documentary traces George Orwell's life from colonial Bengal origins through his experiences as a police officer in Burma and his political awakenings. The film draws on diaries and published writings and moves chronologically through Orwell's encounters with fascism, Stalinism, Franco, MI6, leftist rivals, Wigan Pier, and declining health. The documentary emphasizes Orwell's lifelong opposition to totalitarianism and highlights coinages such as proles, doublethink, newspeak, Ingsoc, and thoughtcrime. Peck frames Orwell's skepticism and leftwing commitment against twentieth-century turbulence and examines how early imperial service shaped Orwell's critique of power and injustice.
Read at Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley's Leading Weekly
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]