Whether you love it or loathe it (I am of the former category), you cannot deny that reading George Orwell's modern literary Dystopian classic is one hell of a depressing experience. The book realises every fear that one could possibly harbour against governments, feeding the reader's suspicions of 'their obedient servants' possible totalitarian tendencies and reducing them to nothing but paranoid carapaces of their former selves. Well, this little known comedy short should act as the perfect tonic for accelerating your convalescence.
'Me and the Big Guy' tells the story of Citizen 43275-B, a subject of the oppressive Oceanian regime, whom eerily celebrates his oppressed lifestyle whilst maintaining a disposition so jovial that any sane man would want to put a bullet in the back of his head within five minutes of meeting him. Each and every evening, he returns to his sterile apartment to engage in a somewhat one-sided conversation with a live, two-way video-feed of 'the Big Guy' (known by the greater populace as 'Big Brother'). One day, after Citizen 43275-B tells a story so mind- numbingly inane that even the cast of that pathetic sitcom 'Gavin and Stacy' would take offense, 'the Big Guy' vents his frustrations on this scrawny dapifer of verbal diarrhea and, after 43275-B tries to play word games and all other manner of flippant activities with the very manifestation of omniscient authoritarian callousness, permanently shuts off the surveillance feed. It is then that we learn that 43275-B is in fact a closet political dissenter and aspiring revolutionary whom has just tricked the pansophical Big Brother into switching off the telescreen. 43275-B then retrieves a hidden diary and mentally recites an alleged quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre: "So long as a man can look into the eyes of his oppressor, he is free."
It is a genuinely inspirational message (a rarity) that makes you wonder why Winston Smith just didn't feign masochistic inclinations when O'Brien was 'coercing' him into proclaiming that two plus two equals five. For that matter, why was he so blatantly morose all the time?! Surely the thought police would have been focusing their iniquitous gazes on the introverted intellectuals rather than the loud and obnoxious patriots. As Mel Brooks once said, 'if you're loud and annoying, people don't notice you'.
In terms of the short's production values and acting, I wasn't exactly mesmerised. The two principles were by no means bad, but neither did they exactly excel at playing their respective parts. Frankly though, none of that interests me here. I was just too damned inspired by that supposed quotation.
'Me and the Big Guy' tells the story of Citizen 43275-B, a subject of the oppressive Oceanian regime, whom eerily celebrates his oppressed lifestyle whilst maintaining a disposition so jovial that any sane man would want to put a bullet in the back of his head within five minutes of meeting him. Each and every evening, he returns to his sterile apartment to engage in a somewhat one-sided conversation with a live, two-way video-feed of 'the Big Guy' (known by the greater populace as 'Big Brother'). One day, after Citizen 43275-B tells a story so mind- numbingly inane that even the cast of that pathetic sitcom 'Gavin and Stacy' would take offense, 'the Big Guy' vents his frustrations on this scrawny dapifer of verbal diarrhea and, after 43275-B tries to play word games and all other manner of flippant activities with the very manifestation of omniscient authoritarian callousness, permanently shuts off the surveillance feed. It is then that we learn that 43275-B is in fact a closet political dissenter and aspiring revolutionary whom has just tricked the pansophical Big Brother into switching off the telescreen. 43275-B then retrieves a hidden diary and mentally recites an alleged quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre: "So long as a man can look into the eyes of his oppressor, he is free."
It is a genuinely inspirational message (a rarity) that makes you wonder why Winston Smith just didn't feign masochistic inclinations when O'Brien was 'coercing' him into proclaiming that two plus two equals five. For that matter, why was he so blatantly morose all the time?! Surely the thought police would have been focusing their iniquitous gazes on the introverted intellectuals rather than the loud and obnoxious patriots. As Mel Brooks once said, 'if you're loud and annoying, people don't notice you'.
In terms of the short's production values and acting, I wasn't exactly mesmerised. The two principles were by no means bad, but neither did they exactly excel at playing their respective parts. Frankly though, none of that interests me here. I was just too damned inspired by that supposed quotation.
