1999 ANIMAL FARM MOVIE BAD
A UK made-for-TV adaptation of "Animal Farm" was produced in 1999 and distributed in America in 2001 by Turner-Time-Warner, a modern-day department of the "Ministry of Truth".
It's hard to believe that anything could be as bad as the movie version of "1984" but the movie version of "Animal Farm" regrettably is. Opening scenes show Mr Jones in his upstairs bedroom having sex with the wife of neighbouring farmer, Mr. Pilkington who is passed out drunk downstairs.
The rest of the movie is equally warped and ridiculously mixes in high-tech surveillance themes from "1984". A phony mushy-gushy politically-correct ending turns a minor female character into a heroine who saves the day.
After everything Orwell's second wife Sonia went through to retrieve ownership of his stolen copyrights and pass them on in her will to his son Richard, it's a travesty they allowed such a film to be made in Orwell's name. If Sonia were alive she would never have allowed such a misrepresentation, nor, of course, would Orwell. He called such productions "prolefeed".
All the best,
Jackie Jura
*Reader Martin points out a character confusion typo in the "Animal Farm A Bad Movie" review
Reader Lynn asks about the rumour that some intelligence organisation (CIA maybe) bought the rights to Animal Farm and changed the ending
COMMUNIST CAPITALIST ORWELL MOVIES
1984 A BAD MOVIE
"...Warburg's main purpose would have been the effect of the huge film publicity on his sales (in 1954 he published an edition of Animal Farm with illustrations from the CIA-backed Halas and Bachelor cartoon), though he had also come to commit himself to the Cold War offensive, and was fully aware of the true funding behind Encounter. Later Sonia quarelled with Warburg, but at the outset of her literary executorship (from which Rees seems to have been simply excluded either by the 'bustling' Sonia or the calculating Warburg) she must have put her trust in the publisher's judgement and that of advisers such as Fyvel and Muggeridge." Inevitably, the takeover of the film rights of Orwell's last two books produced movies tailored to ideological ends. In the cartoon version of Animal Farm the banquet at which the pigs become indistinguishable from their human oppressors was changed. Orwell's pessimistic intention was thereby obscured and the messge that the tyrannical Stalinist pigs are no different from the cruel capitalist farmers was lost...."[excerpt from Inside George Orwell by Gordon Bowker]
Reader asks about Orwell's film rights. Nov 10, 2004
ORWELL A WRITER WRONGED (George Orwell saw none of the millions earned by Animal Farm or Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nor did his widow, Sonia. New legal evidence points to flagrant fraud. Sunday Times, Aug 15, 2004
16.Ministry of Truth and 25.Prolefeed
Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~
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