I’m a sucker for talking animals. I don’t know why. For some reason, I really want to believe that they can speak. And also plot revolutions.
As a very thinly veiled allegory of Stalinism, Animal Farm shows how the main principles of communism (or in this case, “animalism”) –unity, equality, and comradeship—were perverted by those in power, twisted and manipulated by a regime even more oppressive than the one it replaced. Nevertheless, there are those who remain true to its ideals and original intent.
The humans in this film are truly despicable. The adults are drunk and debauched, the kids cruel and abusive. The animals are starved and over-worked, so it’s no wonder they finally get fed up and decide to rebel. Inspired by Old Major, a wise old pig, they are able to organize and effectively defeat the humans, gaining control of the farm. But when leadership is taken over and abused by Napoleon, a scheming, greedy, pig, things start to go awry. Napoleon and his goons bend the laws to suit their own needs, eventually going against the most basic and fundamental tenets of Animal Farm. Drunk with power and literally drunk on whiskey, the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans that they defeated.
Animal Farm the book was published in 1945, but I think that its message is as timely now as it was then. It is interesting that the pigs distract the other animals with television so that they won’t be outraged by what’s happening to the farm. The pigs also become masters at producing propaganda and spreading disinformation, which the sheep (yes, literally sheep) swallow readily. It just might make you think about a current news network that coincidentally is named for an animal that can often be found on or around farms…
Animal Farm (1999)
DVD Date of Release: January 2000