Animal Farm

Animal Farm (1999)

I haven't read the book by George Orwell prior to the film viewing so I didn't know anything about the story. At first, I was skeptical about the whole animal talking and doing human activities; I thought of it as a child's dream coming to life. It was very amusing though; and I found it very creative how the author depicted the deeper meaning of the story.

In a nutshell, the story is about communism. Farmer Jones, who was depicted as the enemy in the beginning of the story is the leader of the country, in this case, Russia therefore him being the Russian Czar Nicolas II. According to my sources, Farmer Jones symbolizes the evils of capitalism and that humans fall prey to the capitalistic ideas. Old Major, the pig who stands as the leader of the animals is the symbol for Karl Marx. His ideas shaped greatly the idea of Animalism and though he died before his plans unfolded, much like Karl Marx, the animals followed his commandments faithfully.

After Old Major's death, Snowball took his place as the leader though gained much respect from the other animals, he didn't achieve the certain fear that a leader should disperse to his followers. He ruled with leniency and reached a lot of goals for the farm. He represents Leon Trotsky.

Napoleon, Squealer and the other pigs represent the Communist Party loyalists. At first, they were concerned with the wellbeing of the people but as they realized their power, they began to take advantage of it. When Snowball was banished from the farm, Napoleon took his place and began to gradually change the commandments of Animalism and no one noticed it because Squealer manipulated the minds of the other animals. Eventually, the pigs acted in the same manner in which the humans did.

The windmill represents the Russian industry. Napoleon stole Snowball's idea of industrializing the farm. The animals are of course skeptical with the idea of working for something they don't really understand but we see in the film that the windmill quickly rose and the animals had electricity which made their lives a lot easier.

In the end, all the commandments of Animalism were replaced by only one rule "All men are equal but some men are more equal than others." This is so because the farm had grown richer but the animals didn't, only the pigs