Orwell Rolls in His Grave (2003)

Just perfect...

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Mere access to information (or, more aptly, MISinformation) is meaningless without the critical thinking skills that are required to sort the Truth from the Untruths. Television (as it's been practiced in this country since the Reagan Reich began) is an immoral monster that trivializes the Truth- deliberate mass media misinformation and manipulation on a scale even Orwell himself couldn't have imagined. When the Republican Reich foreclosed on the fourth estate, they simply paved it over with the tombstones of those they'd ousted and turned it into a pay-as-you-go parking lot. ("See no Evil" war coverage; how's THAT for Orwellian...?) It comes as no surprise, then, that the single most powerful lobby in politics is- viola!- The Media. Reichmaster Reagan left the FCC toothless and the Public truthless. He who controls the media in the U.$., controls the mindless masses. And we who sit and watch and do nothing are complicit.

Robert Kane Pappas' documentary "Orwell Rolls in His Grave" presents the case that the future which George Orwell wrote about in his 1948 novel 1984 might actually be our modern day. The film brings together a slew of interesting voices, from filmmakers, to politicians, to media experts, to discuss the current state of the mass media. Large corporations have been buying up more and more media outlets, whether film companies or newspapers, for a number of years, and the film warns of the conflict of interest between the media and these corporations and the politicians who share their pockets. Although the film offers occasional quotes from the landmark novel, there's a certain expectation that the viewer has already read and digested it. Certainly the concept of "Big Brother" has been in the mainstream for some time, but some of the correlations will likely be lost on some who might need this film the most. Regardless the film is a highly disturbing, if manipulative and homemade-looking, peek into the complete loss of power and overall hopeless outlook for the future of the United States.

A shocking and very well developed argument regarding American media. Pappas accurately draws numerous parallels between Orwell's '1984' and the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany. The culmination of the film focuses on the de-regulation of corporate media, that would allow fewer and fewer gigantic companies to own as many media affiliates as they can buy up. Another ramification of de-regulation, is the unchecked slanting of the news to favor the interests of one side, namely the media owners, and their political affiliates. This is a film that is extremely important. Watch it, for your own sake, and share it with others.

goodness gracious, where to begin. Orwell's premise was the inevitable evolution of socialism into a totalitarian society. I don't believe Zinn and Chomsky belong with Orwell. At best Zinn and Chomsky are examples of half truths and naiveté that are their own form of new speak. Both of these two make valid points on the way to their misdirection, something both sides of the political spectrum are guilty of. Bear this in mind when watching this movie. I've read Zinn and listened to Chomsky speak, but they are ideological dinosaurs who make a lot of sense until the fruits of their ideology is realized. It is not that they are fraudulent as many politicians and at least one movie maker are. It is that they refuse to recognize how much socialism has debilitated humanity.