Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Two Winstons

This movie was somewhat enjoyable. I enjoyed the way they made parallels between Orwell and Churchill. It was fascinating how their lives were oddly alike, but also very different. They seemed to be paralleled opposites of each other, which was very interesting to see in the film. Both men had wealthy parents, Churchill's was royalty, a Duke, and Orwell's father was an opium mogul. Both men went off to boarding school. However, Churchill was very interested in History, to go as far as it was nearly his religion. Orwell wasn't that interested in History, or anything else for that matter. Where Churchill was excelling in school, Orwell couldn't care less. He was indifferent and became slightly rebellious in his academic apathy. Churchill pulled his strings and got to be in the action of WWI, but Orwell couldn't, and felt a guilt for not experiencing the horrors of war. While Churchill was working as the First Lord of the Admiralty the first time, Orwell was in Burma, working for the police. He defected from the police to become an author, and became a homeless tramp to gain experiences to write about. Likewise, Churchill's fame was dwindling, and his party was tired of his politics. Having been demoted, Churchill began to write books himself. Oddly enough, Orwell went to Spain during this time to help train rebels fighting against the fascist socialists taking over Spain.
Their entire life interetwined in an oddly parallel way, at least, through the eyes of the movie. The film did a great job of comparing the two men, though the similarities and intertwinement may have been exaggerated.

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