Differences Between Animal Farm 1999 Movie and Book Essay

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Animal Farm Book vs. MovieThe 1999 film Animal Farm is much different from the 1945 Orwell novel of the same name. For one thing, the film opens up with one of the animals musing on the fall of Napoleon and all his evil ambitions—a scene that is nowhere to be found in the novel but a scene that is added most likely to reflect the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. For another thing, the film focuses on the cruelty of the humans to the animals in its opening, with the human children slinging rocks at the sheep and their father allowing it because it is fun for them. The novel opens on the other hand with Old Major’s dream of revolution, and the animals are obviously representative of the Soviet leaders, Trostky, Lenin, Stalin, and so on. Thirdly, the film is more dramatic than it is satirical, whereas the novel is much more satirical than it is dramatic; the film is somewhat sentimental whereas the novel is bleak, dark, and dreadfully funny—and heavy with symbolism.The theme of the film is presented in its opening with one of the animals reflecting on the fall of Animal Farm. She states that era of oppression is over. Oppression is the main idea of the movie, therefore. And the big change in the film is that the oppression is only momentary. This change is an obvious reference to the fall of communism in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed. Considering that the film was made a few years after this fall, it is not surprising that the filmmakers decided to take this route with the film. They wanted to give audiences hope, which Orwell did not have in 1945 when he wrote the book. The novel does not end with the fall of Animal Farm but rather with the leader pigs acting like humans and being indistinguishable from them. Although the farm is re-named Manor Farm in the book, it is still very much in control of the pigs who have sold out the vision of Snowball and have enriched themselves in the process, much…

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…to show how ridiculous communism is, since its leaders are inevitably motivated by a bad, egoistical spirit.

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The film, however, concludes with the animals having run off, waiting in a hideout for years until Napoleon’s experiment in brutality should finally collapse on its own. When that happens the animals emerge from their hideout to declare Napoleon’s era of oppression over. In the novel, Orwell does not allude to any such event. Instead, he suggests that the totalitarian spirit is alive and well anywhere leaders exist who are motivated by self-interest, greed and power for power’s sake.In conclusion, the 1999 film adaptation of Orwell’s 1945 novel is much different in terms of tone, theme, and characterization. It is more sentimental, and it characterizes the animals and humans in more simplistic terms. It does not really reveal the way the novel does the absurdities at the heart of totalitarian communism. The novel does not offer hope but rather criticizes with a sharp satirical edge. The film wants to reflect the fall of Communism in the early 1990s and gives a theme….....

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