ORWELL: 2+2=5 – Review by Diane Carson
Orwell: 2+2=5 explores George Orwell’s life and his astute social analysis
Director Raoul Peck’s brilliant, sobering documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 interprets Orwell’s staggering and frightening insights into ways authoritarians gain and retain power. Though Orwell’s 1984 (1949) and Animal Farm (1945) have been quoted for decades, it is Peck who definitively interprets their dire warnings through a diverse and inclusive selection of archival news and film clips plus a summary of Orwell’s life that led to his social analyses. Calm and engaging narration read by Damian Lewis guides the exploration that needs no sensationalistic enhancement so impactful is the sheer accumulation of historical and contemporary examples.
Born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in Bengal, India, Orwell took his pen name in homage to East Anglia’s beautiful River Orwell. After he witnessed first-hand the oppressive brutality of British imperialism in his position as an Assistant District Superintendent in Burma’s Imperial Police, he resigned. Through police work and equally edifying experiences in London, Paris, and Spain, Orwell processed the micro and macro aspects of despotic practices. His perceptive understanding of disinformation and subjugation explain what he observed and experienced. Moreover, his recognition of the insidious ways autocrats stifle the press, obstruct justice, and instill fear is mindboggling, considering Orwell wrote 75 years ago and still accurately describes today’s political subversion of reason, hence the title inclusion of 2+2=5 which subjects agree to. In collaboration with the Orwell estate, Peck selects representative global examples from past and recent events, making this warning that much more vital. Clips include Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003 asserting the existence of weapons of mass destruction, Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022 justifying his invasion of Ukraine, the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack by supporters of President Trump, in addition to many more illustrative selections.
An immensely empathic individual, Orwell asserts, “My starting point is always a feeling of injustice.” And his articulation of political exploitation is encapsulated in his astute observations. He writes, “The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world. This concept frightens me much more than bombs.” “Totalitarianism demands the continuous alteration of the past and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.” “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” And “Totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.” Orwell exposes the signs of despotism. His penetrating wisdom resonates horrifically today. We have been informed, are alerted, and as Orwell encourages, it’s time to resist. Orwell: 2+2=5 runs 120 minutes and is at cinemas.
