Animal Farm (1999 film)

Animal Farm
Theatrical poster
Based on	Animal Farm by George Orwell
Written by	Alan Janes Martyn Burke (teleplay)
Directed by	John Stephenson
Starring	Kelsey Grammer Ian Holm Julia Louis-Dreyfus Patrick Stewart Julia Ormond Paul Scofield Pete Postlethwaite Peter Ustinov
Theme music composer	Richard Harvey
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Greg Smith Robert Halmi
Cinematography	Mike Brewster
Editor	Colin Green
Running time	91 minutes
Budget	$23 million
Original release
Network	TNT
Release	3 October 1999 (1999-10-03)

Animal Farm is a 1999 British-American television movie directed by John Stephenson and written by Alan Janes. Based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell and serving as an allegory of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, it features Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart, Julia Ormond, Paul Scofield, Pete Postlethwaite and Peter Ustinov. In the movie, a group of anthropomorphic animals revolt successfully against their own human owner, only to slide into a more brutal tyranny among themselves.

Plot

Mr Jones, the cruel and rarely sober owner of Manor Farm, invites the Pilkingtons to a gathering he is hosting, wishing to talk about the debts he owes with Pilkington. During the gathering, the animals gather in a meeting where Old Major, the prize Middle White boar, explains to the animals that humanity is their enemy, and while the animals sing a song, Jones accidentally shoots Major while investigating. When Jones goes into town for a drink without feeding the animals, Boxer, a strong and kind-hearted shire horse, leads the animals to break into the food shed to help themselves. When Jones and his cronies investigate, the animals rebel against him, causing Jones to flee with his wife and men to the Red Lion Inn for refuge.

A boar named Snowball renames the place "Animal Farm" and puts down the Seven Commandments of "Animalism" which embody Old Major's feelings and ideas. Meanwhile, Napoleon, a Berkshire boar, calls for a secret meeting in which he has Pincher, one of the farm's dogs, swear loyalty to him and become part of the animal guard before ordering him to sneak out Jessie's newborn puppies, claiming that it is best for them to receive an education from him, despite Jessie's reluctance. Pilkington leads an attack into Animal Farm with the aid of other local farm workers led by Frederick. Though he is defeated, Pilkington considers working with the animals instead. During a meeting, Snowball's plans to build a windmill to better the animals' lives and improve their operations are opposed by Napoleon who summons Jessie's puppies to chase Snowball out of the farm. Napoleon decrees the pigs will decide the future and the animals begin the hard work of building the windmill with Boxer's help. Meanwhile, Pilkington hears over a microphone planted in the barn that the pigs can speak English and begins to trade with Napoleon. Later, Jessie reveals she saw the pigs living in the abandoned farmhouse and sleeping in the beds, though the commandment of sleeping in a bed being altered to not sleeping in a bed with sheets.

Jones conspires with his wife to sabotage Animal Farm by blowing up the almost-complete windmill with dynamite as revenge on the animals for taking his farm. Napoleon blames it on Snowball, pigs consume more food, and blame Snowball for the food shortage and that the hens will have to surrender their eggs to the market. When the hens oppose, Napoleon makes feeding a hen punishable by death. Squealer begins making propaganda films about Napoleon showing animals on trial for working with Snowball that are sentenced to death, as well as animals supposedly happy with Napoleon's rule. It is revealed that the alcohol and killing commandments were altered as well. During the rebuilding of the windmill, Boxer is injured, and Jessie and Benjamin, a wise donkey, realize that the van taking Boxer is from the glue factory, and though they attempt tot save him, they are too late and Boxer is taken to his death. Napoleon is paid by Pilkington for selling Boxer to the glue factory in exchange for more whiskey, and Squealer's latest propaganda film claims the van was previously the glue factory. That night, Jessie watches through a warped glass window as Pilkington and his wife dine with the pigs in the farmhouse. The animals can no longer tell the difference between them. Muriel the goat and Benjamin notice that the final commandment, "All animals are equal", has been extended to include "but some animals are more equal than others." Jessie, Muriel, Benjamin and a few other animals sneak out the farm before things can get any worse, while Napoleon (who now fully resembles a human) enslaves the rest of the farm by declaring all animals free.

In the present day, during a disastrous rainstorm, the others investigate the remains of a destroyed farm. They find Napoleon dead though few animals have survived the fall, a few of them being her puppies. Jessie finds out a new family has purchased the farm, and vows to not let them make the same mistakes as Jones and Napoleon.

Cast

• Pete Postlethwaite as Jones, the original owner of Manor Farm who is overthrown by his own animals due to his abusive behaviour towards them, likely because of his drunkenness. He represents Czar Nicholas II.
• Caroline Gray as Mrs. Jones, Jones' shrewish wife.
• Alan Stanford as Pilkington, the owner of Foxwood Farm and neighbor of Jones who later works for Napoleon, thus is the only human who trades with him. He represents the British ruling class.
• Gail Fitzpatrick as Mrs. Pilkington, Pilkington's unfaithful wife.
• Gerard Walsh as Frederick, the owner of Pinchfield Farm. He represents Adolf Hitler.

Voices

• Julia Ormond as Jessie, a wise and virtuous Border collie who serves as the narrator of the film. She represents one of the oppressed masses under Stalin or under any other dictator. In the book, she had no general role, but her character now seems to derive from Clover, the motherly mare.
• Kelsey Grammer as Snowball, a noble domestic pig who is in charge of Animal Farm after the exile of Mr. Jones until he is later overthrown by Napoleon. He represents Leon Trotsky.
• Patrick Stewart as Napoleon, a greedy, sadistic Berkshire boar and the oppressive ruler of Animal Farm after Snowball's banishment. He represents Joseph Stalin.
• Ian Holm as Squealer, a sinister and intelligent Tamworth pig who is Napoleon's assistant and acts as the minister of propaganda. He represents Vyacheslav Molotov.
• Paul Scofield as Boxer, a kind-hearted shire horse and the gentle giant of all the animals who serves as the strongest and is later taken away to a glue factory, where he would be made into glue. He represents Alexey Stakhanov.
• Pete Postlethwaite as Benjamin, a wise donkey and a friend of Boxer who is the oldest of all the animals. He represents the Menshevik intelligentsia. Postlethwaite also played Mr. Jones in the film.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Mollie, a young mare who is obsessed with ribbons. She represents the petit bourgeoisie that fled from Russia a few years after the Russian Revolution.
• Peter Ustinov as Old Major, a benevolent Middle White boar who is the original chief of Manor Farm until his death. He represents Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
• Charles Dale as Moses, a dim-witted raven with a sense of humour and the former pet of Jones who is later a minion of Napoleon. He represents organized religion.
  • Dale also plays Pincher, a Rottweiler who serves as Napoleon's head of his personal guard and chief enforcer, thus is responsible for taking away Jessie's puppies so that Napoleon can raise them as his private security. He represents Lavrentiy Beria.
• Jean Beith as Muriel, an elderly Saanen goat.

Production

Filming began on 25 August 1998 and ended on 6 November. Because of the extensive CGI work and other post-production requirements, the film was not delivered to TNT and Hallmark Entertainment until June 1999.

Fourteen animals were built to represent the animals of Animal Farm at Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London: four pigs (Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer), two horses (Boxer and Mollie), a sheepdog (Jessie), a donkey (Benjamin), a raven (Moses), a goat (Muriel), a sheep, a rat, a chicken, a duck, a cat, and a dove.

Ten dogs were cast into the film from Fircroft Kennels. Their Border collie, Spice, played the role of Jessie.

In early screenplays done by Martyn Burke for this film, Jessie was set to be a male character, rather than a female.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. It holds a 40% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on five reviews. It was criticized for its loose adaptation of the book, its simplicity and lack of subtlety, and for being too dark and political for children while being too familiar and simplistic for adults.

The film won Best Special Effects and was nominated for best film in the 2000s Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award.

The film's director John Stephenson was nominated for Starboy Award in the 2000s Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival.

Differences between the book and the film

Hoof and Horn flag used in the film

Second version of the flag seen at the end of the film

• In the movie, there is an implication that Pilkington might have been the cause of everything, from refusing to help Jones with his money problems to persuading Napoleon to be more dictator-like. In the book, the cause of the Jones' downfall was his drinking and neglect. No mention in the book was made of financial problems aside from Jones "having becoming much disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit."
• In the movie, Jessie is set as the main character and the events are told from her point of view. There is no central character in the book. She could possibly be taking over the role of Clover the horse, who is not in the film, though a black horse seen several times is presumed by people to be her.
• Like the 1954 adaptation of the film, Jessie's mate, Bluebell was not seen nor mentioned. Pincher, however, is in the film and works as Napoleon's bodyguard.
• Jones's drinking is scaled down in the movie.
• In the movie, Jones cheats on his wife with Pilkington's wife. This never happens in the book.
• There are only four pigs in the movie (Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer). While in the book, there are several who begin to run the farm and to oversee the work done by the other animals.
• Old Major dies of old age three days after his speech in the book and is buried. In the movie, he dies after getting accidentally shot and falls; his body is then cut up into joints which were discovered by the other animals when they look around the house.
• The animals' rebellion takes place during midday in the book, while in the movie, it takes place during the night.
• In the movie, it was Boxer the horse who breaks open the door to the feed shed, while in the book, it was one of the cows.
• In the book, when Jones realizes that the animals had broken into the feed shed, he and his helpers march inside. And started cracking whips in order to drive the animals out. In the movie, they just go and see what is going on before the animals start attacking them. They also don't have whips, although Jones has a shotgun with him.
• In the book, the animals begin burning all the things owned by Jones, including whips, harnesses, butcher's knives, and chains, and start singing "Beasts of England" around it. While in the movie, the animals are seen singing around a large fire. This fire is started by a lantern that was kicked over.
• In the movie, there is an implication that Napoleon and Squealer were plotting to take over the farm even seconds after the revolution.
• The humans use a hidden microphone to eavesdrop on the animals in the movie. This never happens in the book.
• The humans try to retake the farm twice in the book, while they only try once in the movie.
• In the book, the puppies who would later become Napoleon's savage secret police and guards are the offspring of Jessie and Bluebell. In the movie, they are Jessie's own children, as Bluebell has been adapted out.
• Mr Frederick, the other named human farmer besides Pilkington, has a different role in the film than in the book: In the book, he is the one that begins trade with Animal Farm but pays them with counterfeit money, and leads the second attempt to retake the farm after the pigs discover the deceit and declare war on him. In the film, it is Mr Pilkington who trades with the animals with shady deals while Mr Frederick has a reduced role and even expresses sympathy for the animals at one point.
• Mollie the mare has a larger and different role in the film than in the book, and instead of leaving for another farm after the revolution in the book, in the film, she only leaves with the other animals after Boxer's death.
• The pigs use a television set and film to spread their propaganda in the movie, which doesn't happen in the book.
• In the book, the windmill gets destroyed twice: first by a storm (which Napoleon attributes falsely to the exiled Snowball), then by the second human attempt to retake the farm. In the movie, Mr Jones destroys the windmill with dynamite before fleeing with his wife, although their truck is also destroyed in the process, with its wreck later added to the rebuilt windmill.
• In the book, Boxer gets shot in the leg after the second attempt by the humans to retake the farm; this, along with overworking to rebuilt the windmill, causes him to badly damage his leg and to retire from work. In the movie, he does not get shot in the leg and it is the overworking that causes him to have an accident. But in both the book and the film, the pigs deliberately send him off to the glue factory while lying that he is going to a hospital for animals.
• In the book, a new generation of pigs are born after Napoleon takes over as leader. This doesn't happen in the movie, seeing that Napoleon and Squealer are the only pigs present on the farm at that point.
• In the book, the animals discover to their horror that they cannot tell the difference between the pigs and humans when they eavesdrop on a meeting between the pigs and the farmers. In the movie, it is Jessie who realizes it when she sees Napoleon and Squealer entertaining Pilkington and his wife, through a dirty window that warps their faces. In addition, only Pilkington and his wife attend as opposed to several humans in the book, and there is no brawl over an Ace of Spades in the film.
• In the book, all of the pigs begin to walk on their back legs and to wear human clothing. In the movie, only Napoleon is seen standing upright and wearing clothes. Squealer is also seen wearing a spectacle in the movie.
• In the movie, some of the animals (including Jessie) manage to escape into the nearby woods and only returned after Napoleon's dictatorship led the farm into self-destruction. In the book, they don't and there is no happy ending, with Muriel the goat having died prior to the book's ending.
• At the end of the movie, a new and kinder family moves into the farm who the surviving animals will work alongside to produce a better future. This never happens in the book.

External links

• Animal Farm at IMDb