Marxist Film Theory in The Bee Movie
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| Poster for Bee Movie (2007) |
The Bee Movie (2007, directed by Simon Smith and Steve Hickner) presents itself as a fun kids' movie, starring the lovable Jerry Seinfeld, but upon closer examination, it serves as a revolutionary piece against the bourgeoi-bee.
The bees pretty clearly represent the working class. Their hive is also pretty much a communist society as well. The bees collectively work for one (likely state-owned) company, Honex (if they’re not in the military/being pollen jocks) and they all collectively enjoy the fruits of their labor. It’s a communist system. The human world, however, is not. As the bees are the working class on the macroscopic level, the humans (more specifically the food companies and to a lesser extent Ken) are the bourgeoisie. This is pretty evident. Quotes such as “They make the honey, we make the money”, etc. express this. They oppress the working class and extort the fruit of their labor for themselves. Smith and Hickner (and Seinfeld) are delivering Marxist sentiment here. Barry revolts with the help of Vanessa. However, Barry’s revolt is nonviolent, which strays from traditional Marxism. And when it does get a little violent (when Adam stings the lawyer), there are only negative consequences. Adam ends up in the hospital, almost blowing the case.
Now the narrative is still pretty Marxist at this point. Barry and the working-class bees get their revolution, but they suffer consequences. The communist paradise is not what it seems. The bees, now effectively in power, overthrow institutions such as honey sale/usage, glorification of the bear (which is interesting as the bear is a Soviet symbol), and freedom of speech (Sting’s arrest specifically). Now the bees have the power. The working class is now on top. But there are consequences. There is too much honey. Life shuts down. Pollination ends. All land-based life is doomed.
This is where Barry’s communist revolution fails.
The rest of the movie is pretty simple. They go to California, steal some flowers, "think bee" to land a plane, and repollinate the world. One might think this is where the directors are trying to say that communism always fails and we should settle for capitalism. This is what I thought. However, I remembered that Marx sees work as part of human (or bee) nature, but because of alienation (https://demoskratia.org/marxs-conception-of-alienation-7e9d47b78220) from the fruit of labor, it becomes a ploy of the capitalist bourgeoisie, rather than the expression of our “species-essence”, as Marx would put it. Making honey is the Bee’s “species-essence”. Even when they overthrow the bourgeoisie, they are still alienated from their species essence because of the excess left over from the capitalist bourgeoisie. So it isn’t the fault of the working class that these consequences exist, it is the fault of the bourgeoisie, which separates the working class from its species essence, and does so even after the revolt. When the bees rediscovered their species essence in repollination, the world becomes good again.
We reach a balance at this point. In the aftermath of the revolution, the bees became the exact thing they hated. The became the ruling class. They became the bourgeoibee. But then they rediscovered their species-essence, bringing back balance. In the end they primarily enjoy the fruit of their labor, but generously allow the humans to have honey as well, as long as it is approved by the workers.
The Bee Movie advocates a form of practical Marxism. Instead of a violent and bloody and destructive revolt where the working class ends up becoming the thing they hate, the ideal path is a nonviolent revolution where though the bourgeoisie is removed from power, they are allowed to live as we coexist with them, equal in class and equal in essence, all in all collectively enjoying all the fruits of all labor. The politics of the Bee Movie go beyond that of Bernie Sanders, but stops short of Stalin, Lenin, and other violent revolutionaries, advocating for a nonviolent, Marxist revolution to bring about a peaceful, ideal world.
sources:
DEMOS KRATIA
ROTTEN TOMATOES
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