Old Major Movie Critique - Essay Example

At the beginning of the film Old Major, an esteemed pig, gathers a group of talking animals together for an important meeting. Old Major begins to speak about a dream he recently had. In his dream, he imagines an environment where there are no humans around to control and oppress them. He tells all the animals that they must attempt to achieve this reality; then all the animals break into song about rebellion. Soon after, Old Major dies. Still, the animals were very receptive to his idea. Three younger pigs, named Squealer, Snowball, and Napoleon, form his ideas into a sort of manifesto.

Soon later the animals put their plan into effect. This means that they defeat the owner of the farm and take over the land for the animals. The animals then rename the farm animal farm and begin to explore their new existence, with one animal developing the slogan ‘I will work harder’. At first, the animal farm is highly effective and there is limited in-fighting among the animals. The original pigs educate new animals about the ways of Animalism, or animal dominance much like Old Major had envisioned. At one point the farmer returns to attempt to reclaim the land and the group of animals defeats him. They name this confrontation the Battle of Cowshed. During this time of the film, the pigs begin to argue amongst themselves and the viewer begins to detect that the animal rule is experiencing several challenges that may lead to its demise. They develop ideas, like an electrically generated windmill, but one of the pigs objects to the idea. Napoleon uses the dogs that were trained earlier in the movie to chase Snowball from the farm and assume control for himself and declares that the pigs will be the ones making the decisions for all the animals.

As Napoleon assumes control he decides to complete the windmill project. After working on the project the animals discover that one day it is toppled. They are not sure what happened to the windmill, but they play Snowball. As a response, they set about undertaking a purge of the animals on the farm that may be opposed to their rule. Napoleon has his attack dogs kill these animals which may be contrary to his supreme rule. During this period Napoleon begins to re-write history and also begins to act more and more like a human. This involves sleeping in bed and drinking liquor. Even though Old Major’s original concept of animal rule strictly went against these actions, Napoleon bent these rules to fit his concept of power and rulership. Soon Napoleon finds himself at battle with a neighbouring farmer who has destroyed his windmill and invaded the farm. While the animals ultimately win the battle Boxer is injured. It is later discovered that Napoleon sells boxers to a factory to gain money to purchase more whiskey. Towards the end of the film, years pass and the animals act more and more like humans. A single slogan emerges that states, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. After the film, Napoleon agrees to ally with a human against the labouring classes of animals. Ultimately, the lines between animals and humans are blurred.