ORWELL: 2+2=5 Review: The Prophecy of an Educated Imagination
In our current world, too many countries are ruled by governments of various authoritarian types, not at least from a military and economic perspective, the most powerful country. Many have been calling writers such as Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, and George Orwell prophetic, for their books (such as Parable of the Sower, The Handmaid's Tale, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, respectively), which seemed to predict various current government and societal changes that are negative for the vast majority. But this both gives these writers too much credit (in that they weren't trying to predict the future as such) not gives them enough credit, for being authors who studied the past, observed the present, and came to conclusions about what could possibly happen.
Raoul Peck (I am Not Your Negro, The Young Karl Marx) understands this, and sets out for a deep examination of how someone is able to seem 'prophetic, when really they are both a) very observant b) take time to educate themselves and c) a great writer. Orwell: 2+2=5 takes a long look at George Orwell, his life history, how he came to understand the horrors of totalitarianism from personal experience and observation, and how he came to writer about it, in his famous and sadly still very relevant novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Like his previous films, Peck does not impose himself directly into the story; rather, he lets the subject speak for themselves. In some ways, this is easy when your subject ius a writer, and one whose work has crossed into other media such as cinema. Peck uses Orwell's time on the Isle of Jura, during which he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, as a frame to bring in Orwell's writings on his life, his observations, his growing political awareness and attitudes towards colonialism, fascism, as well as notes about his family life, and how that accumulated in his work. This is paired with clips from four adaptations of the book: a television one from 1953 starring Eddie Albert, the 1954 and 1956 version directed by Rudolph Cartier and Michael Anderson respectively, and likely the most well-known, the 1984 version starring John Hurt as the lowly party member Winston, who (temporarily) defies Big Brother.
Peck then structures his story around the three famous slogans of the party (War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength) and how we can see these not only in other films, but in our own recent history, through documentary footage, news archives, and interviews with philosophers and historians. The level of detail is admirable, and the ambition rewarding in its scope. While another documentary, then, might have been content simply to look at Orwell's life and how that life and experience lead to Nineteen Eighty-Four, given the state of the world, Peck knew that we must understand why this book has remained relevant for more than 75 years.
The world has seen successive governments operating as semi- or complete authoritarian states (Spain, Argentina, Cambodia, and Italy, for example, but also in our own time, Hungary, Russia, and lately, the United States) and while Orwell might seem prophetic, it's important to understand that he simply applied history and experience to his understanding of the world, and his need to express that understanding, and his fears for the future.
The clips from news footage, archives and interviews, about how the world is crashing headlong into authoritarianism, helped by modern technology and capitalist greed, will come as little surprise to the audience. But seeing the footage edited together makes for disturbing and often upsetting viewing, as we watch the destruction of Mauripol, the genocide in Gaza, boats of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean: there is no denying how bad the world seems to have become, how powerless anyone but the extremely wealthy are to have the ear of politicians to make any real change.
And yet, we hear Orwell, his letters and diary entries, read by Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers), and he reminds us that he, too, had to put the pieces together. He astutely analyses the socioeconomic class in which he was raised and its failings; how was a part of learned to reject the colonialism on which the wealth and power of his nation was maintained. He describes his learning of the necessities of activism, his reasons for joining the International Brigade to fight fascist forces in Spain (where he met his first wife), and how all these pieces led to an understanding of the forces that creep upon a world sideways, 'asking questions' and planting seeds of hatred of the imagined Other, that allows for totalitarian governments to come to power. What is happening now, has happened before; it might look a little different, but it's still the scourge of white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, and wealth, working together to oppress equality and justice and enough for all.
The combination of this look at Orwell's upbringing, with his own written observations about how his personal politics evolved, combined with the various news footage and clips from the adaptations of his book, risks putting a viewer in a state of despair. And perhaps this is a risk Peck is willing to take: desperate times calling for desperate measures, in that we have to understand that this has happened before. But it is not without hope. Orwell, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, had Winston express that since the majority were outside of power, they had strength in numbers to overthrow the government. So we, too, have overcome oppression, even when it has seemed overwhelming.
Orwell: 2+2=5 is part biography, part history, and part rallying cry. At times it might feel a little like a kind of school lesson in totalitarianism 101, but sometimes this is what is needed to show in both intelligent and visual language, what is happening, how we can recognize it, and the knowledge that with knowledge comes solidarity and power. Peck has crafted a memorable tribute to a great work, and a sombre ode to our current political precipice.
Orwell: 2+2=5 is currently in cinemas in the USA, and will be in cinemas in Canada on Friday, October 10th.
