Orwell: 2+2=5

My nephew was very eager to see Orwell: 2+2=5 so it was the first in a double feature at the Broadway last night.  It is an incredibly insightful (and deeply upsetting) look at the life and writings of George Orwell that is, unfortunately, very relevant in the world today.  It takes a nonlinear approach to show how his life experiences informed his world view and his work, most notably Nineteen Eighty-Four, with Damian Lewis narrating as the voice of the author.  Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under the pen name George Orwell, was born into what he called the lower-upper-middle-class in which he felt his status very keenly, especially while at Eton, and came to abhor social classes.  His family was unable to afford university and his marks were not good enough for a scholarship so he joined the police force in what was then Burma.  He saw first hand the oppression of the powerless by the British and developed a hatred for imperialism.  He eventually volunteered to fight against Franco's military uprising during the Spanish Civil War where he experienced the evils of fascism and totalitarianism and also worked for the BBC for a time during World War II but resigned after observing media manipulation.  He began writing as a way to call attention to these issues.  The documentary then highlights the themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four by reiterating the motto of Oceania (War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength) and then applying it to the global situation today by highlighting the military invasions of Iraq, Ukraine, and Palestine; the growing income inequality around the world; and the spread of misinformation, anti-intellectualism, AI, and book banning.  For me the most chilling motif, shown multiple times with footage from the various movie adaptations of Nineteen Eight-Four, is when the protagonist Winston is forced to agree that 2+2=5 during his interrogation because I think that people have willingly abandoned what they know to be true in favor of what is expedient in our current political climate.  As distressing as this is to watch, it does end with the belief that people will not abandon their common decency and will eventually heed Orwell's warnings.  I think this is an important documentary for everyone to see and I highly recommend it.