The Bolshevik revolution is one of the greatest examples of regime changes in history. After many years of oppression and tyranny under the Tsar, the Russian people rose up and forced him out of power creating what was known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Soviet Union was the most influential country during the 20th century;helping spread the Marxist-Leninist ideology around half the world. This ideology was a catalyst in helping colonized countries in the global south rise up against their colonizers. This couldn’t have been done without the use of art, culture, and filmography to influence the youth, the workers, and any proletarian around the world. On the other hand, one of the greatest movies of the 21st century, which is the epitome of worker exploitation awareness and how greedy humans can be, “The Bee Movie(2007)” could not have existed without the Bolshevik Revolution. This article will provide an in depth analysis using chronological evidence to back this seemingly outrageous name.
After the fall of Tsarist Russia, Lenin saw the importance of visual propaganda and thus decreed to abolish tsarist depictions and art and instead focus on depicting revolutionary monuments and slogans. The period between 1917-1920 was the golden era for such propaganda artwork as the number of facilities dedicated to such causes increased from 26 to 453 workshops by 1920. During Lenin’s NEP (New Economic Policy), the Soviet Union was inspired by the limited number of private enterprises’ way of marketing products and thus propaganda distribution became a hybrid mix between what was learnt from the promotion of products of private enterprises and the state’s style of propaganda art.
Cinema and filmography also played a monumental role in this renaissance of propaganda where it was focused on the daily lives of Russians, elements of revolution, and propaganda films but was also influenced by culture of the states within the Soviet Union such as the Azeri SSR and the Kazakh SSR. According to The Wilson Center, one of the most influential film directors and theorists, Sergei Eisenstein was admired by American filmmakers despite him never making a single film about the USA, it was more about the way he directed his movies; the mood, the tone, and the setting of the movie is what influenced these Hollywood directors. But what threw the wrench in the works is the infamous Red Scare or McCarthyism. Which was a period between 1947-1959 that marked a rise in anticommunist sentiment and also marginalization of other groups such as Jewish people, LGBTQA+, and racial minorities. According to an academic paper on American studies, this impacted Hollywood productions which were rendered to depict the “great” aspects of American culture. The FBI also played a huge role in this sentiment in which it monitored and was a contributor to creating anticommunist productions such as the red menace, which depicts a soviet spy convincing a veteran to join the communist party of the united states. The paper concludes that this period changed American filmography forever and created a culture around white supremacy and a huge scare towards activism and the emancipation of workers.
But how could any of this relate to the Bee Movie?
The bee movie was created decades after the fall of the Soviet Union and the dwindling of a leftist state apparatus. However,it consistently shows elements that scream leftist and soviet era propaganda. The movie indicates a lot of Marxist influence and talking points. In some scenes, like the courtroom scene, he talks about the surplus value and recognizes the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the prominent alienation theory. Not only that, but the entire movie holds a leftist message and talks about the exploitation of the laborers’ surplus value or in simplified terms the fruits of his labor by the greedy capitalist. Hence, it is arguable that without the influence of the Bolshevik revolution and its outcome, no such revolutionary movie would’ve been made. It is clear from the amount of communist innuendos that there exists a complete connection between Lenin and Barry B. Benson. There has been a lot of literature around the Marxist analysis about the Bee Movie but not its connection directly to the Bolshevik revolution.
And it is clear, without the expansion of the propaganda movement of the USSR to the global south and the countries around it, there wouldn’t have been a significant catalyst to create such a movie. The spread of the Marxist literature worldwide through radio broadcasting and inspiration from the Soviet Union, as a document by the CIA suggests, wouldn’t have created the in-depth Marxist talking points present in the movie. As said before, many US filmmakers were influenced by soviet filmmakers and thus some movies had the same undertones that soviet movies also had. The financial crash in 2008 which is around the time frame in which the movie was made film and also the living struggles of many people at that time made It is normal for such a “memey” movie to be produced that carries an important message about the need to be aware about exploitation and the horrors of capitalism.
In conclusion, the Bee movie has become an internet sensation and also a point of debate among many scholars. We wouldn’t have such a heart-touching movie had the Bolshevik revolution never happened and the events that followed, thus we really shouldn’t take such movies for granted as they entail and reflect on the state of the world. It should be a concern to why such movies are produced even after the red scare and the fall of the Soviet Union and a need to reflect upon the state of the system we live in. I hope you guys like Jazz.
Edited by Christy Abou Saad and Amin Kharrat