Part two of three on showing Marx’s influence to celebrate his 200th birthday is the movie 1984, which also was Richard Burton’s last performance. There were many jokes made about the film’s release…the Spring of 1985. If you stayed to watch the credits, the producers explain the “delay,” they filmed during the estimated dates from Orwell’s novel. Besides, the nightmarish Oceania remained a possibility because the Soviet Union still existed and retained some desire to conquer the world. The general public just didn’t know America’s nemesis was on life support and we can thank Reagan and Thatcher’s lying for the spread of disinformation.
Orwell’s warning isn’t necessarily something Marx wrote about, desired or even left a blueprint for. It’s more Stalinism cranked up to 11 since Marx didn’t write down a practical application of his writings. Ergo, he was a typical philosopher in my opinion. To blame Marx for Stalinism and Oceania is on par with blaming Charles Darwin for Eugenics and why the One Percent think they’re allowed to behave like pricks. Darwin only wrote about the theory on how species adapter to their surroundings, situations, etc. He never made recommendations on how to make it applicable to governing or economics.
Besides, if you’ve read the book you can see how this realm could also a Fascist regime (they share Stalin’s cult of personality) or a Corporate state (with all the media consolidation and infotainment), plus marketing types make up dumb words as their dialect of NewSpeak, hell Fox News keeps changing their stories to coincide with whatever subjective “truth” fits their aging, uneducated audience’s rage. With the movie’s opening, Winston could’ve been at a Donald Trump, especially how batshit crazy his worshippers would get if you subbed Goldstein’s image with Clinton’s, Obama’s and maybe Sanders’.
As for the movie, 1984 is incredible in its design. Everywhere you go there’s rot, neglect, decay covered in Big Brother posters or video screens. Like an army plowed through London (aka Airstrip One) and nobody bothered to rebuild. Despite it being Spring, you feel very cold through all the gray tones in Winston’s apartment and work space. There’s one exception, O’Brien’s office, it’s the only place which is clean, orderly and relatively modern looking.
The final act is pretty gruesome and probably would bore most audiences today yet O’Brien’s torture and re-education of Winston remains a key element in the story. Personally, something similar goes on all the time in America. Employees and citizens are cowed by our version of the Inner Party (executives) who warp reality into getting others to believe in dumb business plans, wealth consolidation into making jobs and somehow, they’re better at running a nation. Say that to the victims of Sears, K-Mart and Toys R Us and eventually Fox and Disney should the evil Mouse get his way. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox News watchers and proponents of corporate welfare believe that two plus two is five, it’s only four to the elitist, educated Libruls and mongrels (their private word for mixed races).
My only complaint is the ending. In the movie, it just fades out with Winston sitting in the cafe, grateful the war against Eurasia is going well. They needed to have O’Brien walk up behind him to shoot him in the head since the goal is to break people down and execute them when they truly love Big Brother.
1984 has left Hulu as of June 1. Should it appear by other means, give it another look. I readily admit it’s depressing but so is the truth.