The Animal Farm Movie

The Mormon company Angel Studios set the world on fire with their attempted adaptation of George Orwell's classical novel Animal Farm.

Directed by Andy Serkis, this adaptation has been attacked for ignoring the serious subject matter of the book for the sake of turning the story into  a childish comedy. 

To be fair, Angel Studios has NEVER been known for treating serious topics with maturity. One only needs to remember this was the studio that wrote Jesus Christ (yes, Jesus Christ) into making farting noises TWICE!. 

So forgive me for not being shocked that Angel Studios would treat this book without respect. However, what could the message of this parody of itself be? Today, in the Pasture of Knowledge, I will offer my opinion on this upcoming movie. 

The Message of the Original Book

Some people work under the misconception that George Orwell was a fanatical anti-communist. This however couldn't be further from the truth. Orwell was a socialist who went to fight against Franco in Spain. The reason Orwell wrote Animal Farm was to attack the Soviet Union, because he believed their  communism was authoritarian and abusive. In other words, we only need to remember the mantra of western socialism: Stalin bad, Trotsky good. 

In Animal Farm we have a group of domestic critters who rebel against their owner (Mr. Jones) after an elderly pig calls for rebellion against mankind. The initial revolution is successful and the animals are happy to be free from their abusive master. However, two of the pigs start competing against each other for supremacy: Napoleon and Snowball.

Napoleon has a down to earth, dry approach to things, while Snowball is more idealistic and wants to modernize the farm with technology. Since Napoleon exiles his rival and erects an authoritarian farm were he kills rebels, everyone who knows a little bit of history identifies Napoleon as Stalin pig and Snowball as Trotsky pig. 

Through the book the revolution that the farm animals make against their owners is never explicitly condemned, and is actually portrayed positively in some instances. After all, the oppression of the pigs did not start as soon as Jones was expelled; this is the story of a revolution that degraded itself, not a revolution that was corrupt from the very beginning. While the novel is written in such a way that even the strongest anti-communist can relate to it, only those whose knowledge of the story is minimal would say that it was written by an enemy of communism. 

The reality is that Orwell isn't as subversive as many seem to believe. Stalin Bad, Trotsky Good isn't that offensive because the western establishment wanted people, at least for a while, to hate Stalin. 

If his writings are useful, we can study them, but we shouldn't lionize Orwell for something he was not. There is a reason why this books are mandatory reading in some High School programs. 

What do the Mormons want to Tell Us? 

It is very important to consider that remakes and reboots are often used to promote new messages by movie makers. For example, in an attempt to make the film more feminist, Aladdin 2019 had a musical number about Princess Jasmine empowering herself 

It is also very important to consider that Angel Studios is selling the movie to anti-communist evangelicals. The tagline of the movie is "A Cautionary Tail", suggesting to the audiences that a communist nation that "works" (ie., that keeps it's inhabitants happier than those in regular countries) is an impossibility and will always end up worse than it's neighbors. 

However, a closer examination of the trailer reveals that this movie might not be as anti-communist as it's promoters would like us to believe. There are multiple signs that it will just be a generic critique of capital greed. Let me explain: 

In the book, the problem for the animals was not that the farm "sold out" to an abusive human master, but rather, that the pigs learned to be abusive, using politics and propaganda for their exclusive benefit. The humans were never a direct cause for this.

However, the trailer suggests the movie is about Napoleon trying to sell the farm to a corporate tech lady, a plot not much different from other family movies. 

This not only takes away the creativity of the novel but also turns the story into a vacuous critique of capitalism when the book focused on Stalinism. While some stones are thrown to the regular economic system, the intent of the book is not the outside treat of anti-communists but the possibility of communists becoming what they swore to destroy. 

This disloyalty becomes infuriating when we consider that Angel Studios goes out of their way to make their movies acceptable to all audiences in an attempt to make more money. 

Another reason this movie isn't going to be pure-bred anti-communist starts with a simple reason: the slaughter truck at the beginning of the trailer. All the farm animals are stuck in the lorry and realize they will be killed, after which they rebel and install their own farm. 

The purpose of the animals being treated violently and abusively in the novel was to show Orwell's conviction that socialism was based on genuine grievances. But if Angel Studios wanted to attack communism itself as an intrinsically corrupt system, why preserve the slaughter of the animals? Of course they are going to rebel if they are going to die! If the original purpose of the analogy has been misunderstood, how are we supposed to expect the criticism towards communists will remain? 

Conclusion:  

As of today, I can only predict that this film will be bad even if it turns out to be better than the trailer shows. It is a childish comedy adapted from a serious novel. It is a critique of authoritarianism made by a company whose owners belong to a cult. It condemns those who sell out to the greed of foreigners which is precisely what Angel Studios has done with Jesus Christ in other properties. 

Hopefully it will not be as bad as it looks, but let us meditate on the following for a moment: Is this the price we are willing to pay for high-budget "christian" movies?