I enjoyed watching ‘Orwell 2+2= 5’ even though I felt that the point its trying to make is one we already know: that we now live in a 1984-esque world of constant surveillance where we are taught to mistrust the evidence of our own eyes and believe the opposite of what we see as true. All those terms Orwell introduced in his novel – newspeak, doublethink, sex crimes, unpersons, people disappeared or vaporised — are now all familiar to us from the news. Thus, we are led to think that ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength’ etc. One just has to see Karoline Levitt’s press briefings to see to what extent Orwell’s dystopia has become our reality. This is now not brought about through Stalinist torture and purges but through billionaires’ concentration of the media internationally to serve their own private interests.
The film is superb at gathering extraordinary footage from every Orwell-related work you can think of. The filmmakers have had access to Sonia Orwell’s archive so there are all kinds of photograph and letters (read beautifully by Damien Lewis) that are textured into the film. What I liked best was the beginning, demonstrating how Orwell was a child of Empire, born in India, educated at Eton, later serving in the Burmese Police Force. Ther’s a wonderful description of his class, which he describes as lower upper: one or two live-in servants at most; knows how to ride but can’t afford to keep horses; knows how to shoot but doesn’t own grounds in which to do so; conscious of the cut of a suit but can’t afford the best tailors; knows how to order in restaurants but can rarely afford to eat in them; won’t go into trade so it’s church, navy or the civil service; they make up the class that goes work in the far corners are the empire because that’s what permits them to live like the upper upper class these gentlemen are conscious of not belonging to.
The rest of the film weaves Orwell’s political thinking as an explanatory framework for what we’ve recently seen in Myanmar, El Salvador, Honduras, Gaza etc. as well as the rise of Modi, Orban, and Trump. Aside from the early passages showing what made Orwell Orwell I didn’t feel I learnt anything though I enjoyed watching it all. I was particularly moved by the footage of Milan Kundera explaining how he’d criticised Orwell in his youth but how he’d been wrong and why the work is of continued relevance. The film lays its hopes for the world on common decency and collective action. A textured, informative and entertaining film but perhaps lacking in original insight.
José Arroyo
