r/behindthebastards • u/grapp • Jun 25 '24
Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff Do you think there will ever be major biopic about George Orwell or do you think socialism being such a big part of his life would prevent Hollywood from ever going for it?
Like you know how Openhimer managed to be vague about if he was actually a Marxist or just very pro-labour, you can’t do that with Orwell. Socialism was a giant part of his identity
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u/MariachiMacabre Jun 25 '24
The fact that Oppenheimer put as much focus on his views as it did is pretty shocking, honestly. Attitudes towards socialism have warmed so significantly over the last few years in the US, I can absolutely see an Orwell biopic that highlights his beliefs being made in the future.
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u/Never-Bloomberg Jun 25 '24
Oppenheimer, Lucy and Desi, and Trumbo are really just movies about cancel culture.
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u/Speedygonzales24 Jun 25 '24
At this point, I agree that it’s possible. It’s shocking that we got to this point, though. I didn’t even know that Orwell was a lifelong, committed, democratic socialist until I started learning about the Spanish Civil War a couple of years ago. Up until then all I heard was republicans and conservatives quoting Orwell every time an LGBT person’s rights were respected in public.
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u/JumpyWord Jun 25 '24
They love to use Animal Farm to be like "Hey, see? He hated socialism and communism!" And that's the basis for why they think 1984 reflects their views. They never read anything else Orwell ever wrote and can't fathom that at the end of the day he was mostly anti-authoritarian and anti-colonialism/imperialism. Dude wasn't at all subtle about his actual political beliefs but that's because conservatives have two brain cells fighting REALLY hard to figure out which one wins.
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u/Speedygonzales24 Jun 25 '24
That, and socialists, communists, and liberals are the same thing to many if not most conservatives. So if you try telling them that Orwell was part of an anti communist, pro Marxist militia, it flies right over their heads.
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u/JumpyWord Jun 25 '24
I come from a pretty conservative family and I constantly have to bite my tongue to keep the peace instead of saying "learn what fucking words mean" lol
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u/Speedygonzales24 Jun 26 '24
On a similar note, not only do I live in a very conservative area but I lived in Europe for a while, so I’m constantly having to stop myself from explaining that the American political spectrum is fucking insane, and that liberals are actually on the center right. Basically every time my #resistance mom acts like universal healthcare and a living wage are a form of revolutionary socialism.
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u/JumpyWord Jun 26 '24
Oh my parents think anyone left of Reagan is a socialist. It's funny because on paper, if you asked them to explain their political views, they WOULD actually be liberals. They'd rather not vote than vote for a Democrat though so I guess that's something, but I'm in a pretty blue state though so it doesn't matter much.
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u/Speedygonzales24 Jun 26 '24
It’s similar with mine; she actually would come close to being a democratic socialist, or at the very least a social democrat, but she’s so inundated with red scare bullshit from her childhood that I think she’s afraid to say. Which is funny because my dad grew up archconservative, is a very well paid doctor, and is very vocal about how much he agrees with Karl Marx.
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u/JumpyWord Jun 26 '24
Funny how when you lay it all out on paper without applying political alignment, they agree lol
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u/Elman89 Jun 26 '24
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.”
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u/JumpyWord Jun 26 '24
I think the thing that turned me on Orwell (initially, because growing up on Animal Farm and 1984 only) was Shooting an Elephant. It's a wonderful piece of writing.
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u/gardenald Jun 25 '24
if so they'll play up the anti Soviet angle for sure
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u/Domovric Jun 25 '24
Of course. Any movie even touching on the Spanish civil war would have to in order to avoid painting Franco and the facists as what they were.
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u/Daztur Jun 25 '24
I don't think Hollywood would have any problem with painting Franco as a Very Bad Man, they'd just downplay the anarchism.
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u/Professional_Quit281 Jun 25 '24
Because we don't know enough about Eileen Blair, his first wife who's existence was hidden as hard as they could cause she was likely his coauthor on his early, and best, works.
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u/Bleepblorp44 Jun 26 '24
WTF?! That’s a rabbit hole I need to find out more about.
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u/ssshhhutup Jun 26 '24
BBC History Extra did a podcast about her
Very interesting listen- I was particularly shocked by the fact that she was in Barcelona and actively supporting the anti fascist effort which Orwell fails to mention in Homage to Catalonia
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u/familyguy20 Jun 25 '24
According to some communists/leftists, even Orwell sucks ass apparently lol. I just learned this the other day. But I guess there isn’t that much love between anarchists and socialists and communists soooo
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u/Laehioe_Tonttu Jun 25 '24
Almost anything can be co-opted.
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u/redisdead__ Jun 25 '24
Just look at Judas and the black Messiah where they make a movie about Fred Hampton and barely got into the politics.
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u/abbaeecedarian Jun 26 '24
There was a dramatised biopic about him twenty years ago or so.
....unfortunately it starred Chris Langham, so that's a whole other problem.
https://youtu.be/s6txpumkY5I?si=beliNOVO4UcSbrcj
I love the scene with him showing how to defend a home with a hand grenade.
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u/CHOLO_ORACLE Jun 26 '24
They won’t do a biopic not because of the socialism but probably because his views on libertarian socialism or anarchism. I don’t think producers want to touch that stuff, and making a biopic without those things would only prompt conversations about them.
And despite how much this country has moved on socialism, I don’t think it’s fond of anarchists or their fellow travelers. Not even this sub seems that fond of them despite the host being one
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u/Strelochka Jun 25 '24
Why would there ever be a big Hollywood biopic about Orwell? Communist or not, Hollywood only shoots biopics about rock stars, heads of state, or rarer - actors or serial killers. Brits make movies about their local heroes but they are small time compared to even small Hollywood biopics, and frequently get into those people being ‘outcasts’ (homosexuals, communists, spies, or all of it together!) Nolan is the only person in the world who could get a blank check to get Oppenheimer made, and his interest in Oppenheimer is singular and came from reading a book, similar to how Lin-Manuel Miranda got interested in Hamilton after reading a fawning book on him. So I guess the answer is, yes, there might be, if you manage to catch a Hollywood darling of a director when they have nothing to read, and give them a really captivating book about Orwell that goes into detail about his political views.
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u/proletariate54 Jun 25 '24
Orwell wasn't actually a socialist though, he was a fucking rat.
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u/HansBrickface Jun 25 '24
This is a myth.
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u/proletariate54 Jun 25 '24
Dude, he literally ratted out the communist party to the british police. He was a wolf in sheeps clothing, a reactionary, and a pedophile to boot.
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u/HansBrickface Jun 25 '24 edited Jun 25 '24
Source please on any of that? The truth behind your “rat” accusation in particular is entirely underwhelming.
ETA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell's_list?wprov=sfti1#
You said that he ratted out the entire British Communist Party to the police. This makes no sense, because it wasn’t illegal to be a communist. What actually happened was Orwell gave a list of ~35 names to a secret government propaganda office. It was a dubiously dickish thing to do, but there’s a big difference between saying “Hey, you probably shouldn’t hire these guys because I think they’re crypto-Stalinists” and actually putting them in jail. The worst thing that happened to any of those 35 people is that they didn’t get hired at the Information Research Department.
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u/TheToddestTodd Jun 25 '24
Fascists have co-opted him, which is hilarious considering he went to Spain to shoot them.