Documentarian Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5 looks at the titular author’s ability to examine the dark sides of politics, society, and mass media in ways that make him look like a soothsayer decades after his passing. Not much is known about Animal Farm and 1984 author George Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair) that wasn’t featured in his own writings, so Peck’s approach is less biographical and more analytical. While close reading of Orwell is commonplace within sociological and literary circles, Peck’s film applies such analysis and places it within the modern context of a world that slouches continually towards the march of totalitarianism.
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Endorsed in part by the author’s estate, Orwell: 2+2=5 is a visual mosaic that draws a line between the writer’s experiences and how they shaped his views. A member of the “lower-upper middle class” from birth, Orwell and his family spent much of their time on the Indian subcontinent, where they could make a more prosperous living, and eventually leading to him becoming a police officer in Burma as an adult (a job that solidified his views on the police state).
Actor Damian Lewis narrates Orwell’s journals, articles, and works, while Peck (I Am Not Your Negro, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found) pulls from history and other works of pop culture (lots of Ken Loach, various productions of Animal Farm and 1984, and David Wheatley’s TV movie Road to 1984) to illustrate his prescience.
Orwell’s classic turns of phrase and use of language pop up frequently throughout Peck’s film, not to unsurprising effect. The way the concept of “newspeak” helps the media to make atrocities sound cuddlier (“special military exercises”), the familiar refrain that strength can be found in ignorance (the way Trump supporters find him infallible), and the always present gaze of the state (which now helps protect the wealthy and influential) are all looked at, and while many know about all of these things already and how Orwell talked about them back when 1984 was written back in 1946 (not long before he would pass away after a lengthy battle with tuberculosis), Peck tries to keep things fresh and modern.
Orwell: 2+2=5 reexamines the author amid an age where fear, anger, and hatred move across culture at the speed of light, and corporately owned and operated media often moves in lockstep with those in positions of power. There’s not much new in here on an academic level, and even less when it comes to learning about Orwell, but Peck offers a great refresher on how the issues the writer wanted readers to pay heed and consider.
Monday, September 8, 2025 – 2:45 pm – Scotiabank Theatre 4
Tuesday, September, 9, 2025 – 12:10 pm – Soctiabank Theatre 8
