Product Details

• Actors: George Orwell
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: April 25, 2006
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000ETRADW
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #91,202 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Drawing on old maps, contemporary drawings and paintings, portraits and other archive material, the excellent Famous Authors series not only presents a factual outline of the writers’ lives, but also conveys a clear visual picture of the social and historical background to their writing. Recommended for all ages." –THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE English novelist, essayist, and critic, Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) was born in India where his father was in the civil service. He won a scholarship to Eton but was financially unable to go on to Oxford or Cambridge. Instead he spent five years with the Imperial Police in Burma. His experiences there provided the background for his Burmese Days, an attack on British Imperialism. Homage To Catalonia expresses Orwell’s disillusionment during the Spanish Civil War, in which he fought on the Republican side. After this point, Orwell said all of his writings were directed against totalitarianism in all forms. This commitment is manifest in his two greatest novels, Animal Farm and 1984.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Succinctness Approved, February 12, 2007

By	Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Most documentaries are an hour long, but sometimes that's too long. I like learning the basic skeleton of Orwell's life. The thirty minutes here did it all for me. The brevity would make it easier to show this during one high school class period.

I hate cheesy reenactments, which History Channel does often. This has no such reenactments. However, seeing one black-and-white photo after the other seemed slow too. They show moving footage of modern times, but little of Orwell's times which had moving recordings.

Orwell worked as a police officer in Burma (now Myanmar). I knew of British imperialism in India and Africa, but not Southeast Asia. The work describes Orwell as incredibly solitary, but it sounds like he was a successful husband, father, and employee. Even though married, he went to fight fascism in Spain. This fact makes me rethink the details behind Nicole Kidman's "The Others" as being realistic.

The narrator says Orwell and his first wife couldn't have biological children. I wonder who was fertile. Much discussion is written and filmed about the infertility of Marilyn Monroe, Frida Kahlo, and Josephine Baker. I would love to know how famous men deal with that issue. It's implied that Orwell and his first wife died of cancer. Perhaps his fans may learn an anti-smoking lesson from their struggle.

This work says little about "1984" and "Animal Farm" besides describing under what conditions a publisher was willing to produce them. I think the work supposes you read both texts and want to know more only about the author. So students think this can be their Cliffnotes should beware.