ANIMAL FARM
It’s an Anglo-American animated version of George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, released in 1954. The film is 90 minutes long. This film of Animal Farm was secretly funded and scripted by the American intelligence services, principally the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Write a 2,500 word (+/-10%) extended case-study that looks at one of the films from Weeks 3-6 of the module. You are encouraged to make use of and evidence at least 10 strong scholarly sources (academic journal articles and books), and you must respect the School of Humanities referencing parameters.
Choose one of the films looked at in Weeks 3 to 6 of the module. Analyse that film from as many angles as possible in order to contextualise it historically and to explore its relationship to the Cold War. Use the set of questions below to guide you. Think about the importance of each of the questions. Feel free to approach the film from other angles not touched on by these questions:
– When was the film made? What was happening in the Cold War and international affairs around this time?
– Who made the film? How political-minded were they?
– Why was the film made?
– What can you tell us about the film’s production?
– What are the film’s key political messages?
– How are these messages put across? Think about the plot, characters, scenes, music, and so on.
– How was the film received? How did it do at the box office? What was its impact, in the long and short term?
– Which other movies from the same era, or later ones with similar or contrasting messages, would you bring into your analysis in order to contextualise the film?
– What does the film tell us about propaganda and the politics of filmmaking during the Cold War?
– Have historians debated the film? If so, how?
– How does your film relate to historical debates about the Cold War and/or propaganda?
– What is the film’s overall significance to the Cold War?
There is flexibility about how you write this case study. You can simply answer the above questions one by one. Alternatively, you can write the answer in something like essay form, integrating answers to the questions as you go along.
1. Read/watch the two sources below and take copious notes about the film.
Read Tony Shaw, Hollywood’s Cold War (2007), pp. 72-102. Link on Talis or ProQuest Ebook Central – Detail page (Links to an external site.)
For a very basic 3-minute run through of the chief characters in Orwell’s book Animal Farm see this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eYPN9cVchE (Links to an external site.)
Watch film here-2
ANIMAL FARM is 90 minutes long. Link below:
https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/00079BD7?bcast=131100828 (Links to an external site.)
nks to an external site.)
If this fails, find ANIMAL FARM on Box of Broadcasts on Online Library.
3. Clips, images, reviews for potential use in workshop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek8mSzYrhoo (Links to an external site.) (Pathe 3 mins ‘advert’ on making of film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGCo5Tva39s (Links to an external site.) (2 mins upbeat apolitical trailer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx5iLRpw8jg (Links to an external site.) (5 mins Old Major exhorts the animals to revolt at film’s beginning)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5R-3h2aW0Y (Links to an external site.) (2 mins Napoleon reveals himself as dictator)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHuTA3hHko (Links to an external site.) (2 mins Snowball ‘assassinated’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urvwZYd18WM (Links to an external site.) (last 7 mins of film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mj08HnCiCA (Links to an external site.) (full movie of 1984 colorised with ending true to Orwell)