The CIAs Animal Farm

April 17, 2003 8:04 AM

Many know about the WWII propaganda films made by Warner Bros & Disney. But few know of the CIAs efforts to produce Cold War propaganda films. Like this take on George Orwells, Animal Farm.
posted by Dreamghost (5 comments total)

Thanks for the post, Dreamghost. How the ending to Animal Farm got changed and why is interesting, though I wish they'd dug a little deeper into it.

"My own feeling about Animal Farm is that the influence was possibly as much commercial as political."

Possibly, except that in countries where capitalism is king, commerce is political and politics is commercial, so the distinction isn't as neat as all that.
posted by soyjoy at 8:53 AM on April 17, 2003

Great link, Dreamghost.
posted by synecdoche at 9:43 AM on April 17, 2003

Don't know if they're still doing the same quality work or not...

The banality of a certain segment of America never fails to amuse.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 9:58 AM on April 17, 2003

We watched an animated Animal Farm in high school that definitely portrayed cold war thought processes. I don't think our teacher was aware of the CIA's involvement, but a great discussion ensued about the differences between the movie and the book.
posted by rhapsodie at 11:50 AM on April 17, 2003

its the same video rapsodie... if you look closely at the pictures, thats definately the film we watched.
posted by Satapher at 3:17 PM on April 17, 2003