Brazil is a 1985 sci-fi dystopian dark comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. The film stars Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm. The film Centres around Sam Lowry a low-ranking bureaucrat trying to find the woman of his dreams as he works in a world oppressed by a dystopian bureaucratic system. Brazil is ultimately a satire and criticism of 20th century governments and the bureaucracy that helps them maintain such power.
The film starts showcasing a TV interview with a gov3enremt minister promoting a nostalgia driven society as the shop in which the TVs are is blown up in a terrorist attack. This is ultimately an attack in the inefficacy of the state in how they use bureaucracy to keep everyone subservient to the government. The title of the film Brazil is used ironically to make people think of an exotic place but, it is a grim dystopian society. In. the rubble of the explosion the Tv shows the interview with the minister blaming the terrorist attack on people not being happy with the status quo showcasing how this inefficiency is used to benefit the one percent and eradicate change. There is an interesting change of events like a cosmic irony as a fly gets caught in the typewriter changing the name from Tuttle to Buttle. The scene in which Buttle gets kidnapped starts with Judith the love interest in the film watching old comedy films showcasing how. Pepel use nostalgia as a form of escapism to distract them from the horrors of reality.
This happiness is contrasted with the horrors of reality as the government breaks down the walls of a house and wraps the father in a sack. It turns out that this is a government procedure due to there misinformation about him being a terrorist. The coldness of the man in charge of this operation shows that the people in power of these governments have no empathy in contrast with the family’s distress. This all comes from a bureaucratic sate in how this system creates an uncaring machine of ultimate control. The film uses escapism in the form of classic films people watch on their break as a reminder of a better time before the world was swallowed by government and bureaucracy. In Sam’s dream sequence he is shown as like Icarus and like Icarus within the film Sam will fly to close to his sun. Like other people using nostalgia Sam uses his dreams as form of escapism as within the film Judith is Sam’s symbolic sun/angel who is being used as a form of escapism. In Sam’s apartment nothing works properly hence why he is late as his alarm is timer operated, with everything being automated it effectively strips away humanity. The government works on inefficiency allowing them to have control.
In the next scene which involves nuns looking at guns h sowing desensitisation, jack and his old friend talk to each other through a barrier. Most of the characters in the film lack any meaningful connection with each other symbolised by them communicating through barriers. This alienation gives them a lack of empathy as Sam is set up set up with an underachiever with him being distracted by a video of Judith and as his friend points out has never really accomplished anything. As this is happening Judith is being thrown from department to department, this is symbolically like the tubing and the government shuffles people from place to place until they die. A sign on the wall reads suspicion breeds confidence highlighting the dystopian world, Sam and his boss realise the paperwork was a mistake but don’t care because it’s their department the system of government is built on disorganisation as it benefits the people in power as efficiency is considered a crime. Sam at first is very much a cog in the machine as doesn’t want a promotion as he doesn’t want to upset the status quo as he realises it’s just a bigger prison.
Throughout the film Sam’s mum has an addiction to plastic surgery to make her look young as like most of the people in the film she has no meaningful connection to real-life. She ultimately wants to live in a fantasy instead of reality however, with her head wrapped in plastic this fantasy becomes a pervasive reality. In the scene where Sam has lunch with his mum, they pass through a metal detector that goes crazy when a bag is detected showing the power of the state. In this film influence over the state lays a major role as the restaurant owner sucks up to Sam’s mum as she’s somewhat influential but Sam isn’t. in this scene both his mum and his friend get him the same present as they both get him to get a higher position and view him as an object. In the restaurant they have to say the numbers of the dishes as bureaucracy has infiltrated every element of life. The fancy dishes are just flavoured mush as the expensive food is a distraction form the fact that there is no real food and nothings real. A bomb then goes off as people are dead and injured but a cover is just placed Infront of it. The brutality of the government has killed people’s empathy as they have no meaningful connection with one another.
In Sam’s second dream is like the first buildings sprout from the ground blocking Sam showing how restricting your freedoms stop you from having dreams. Tuttle a heating engineer intercepts Sam’s call fixing Sam’s heating without the right paperwork undermining the fabric of society. Workers would come to fix Sam’s boiler, but they can’t do anything without the paperwork and Sam helping Tuttle is a step to deceiving the system. Sam and his boss try and sort out the Tuttle/Buttle situation as his boss shows that different departments have Buttle down as different things, when Sam says his dead his boss’s response is that they’ll never get rid of the check, as throughout the film the characters lack any meaningful connection and empathy with one another. When Sam goes to visit misses Tuttle in reaction to the miss identification, he has no empathetic connection to her. She is inn a daze and he is just carrying out his procedures showing that the system does not care for people’s humanity. In another dream sequence Sam is once again portrayed as an Icarus like character with Jill being the object of his desires. she is dressed like an angel locked in a cage surrounded by demons and as shown by Sam brandishing his sword at the monsters it shows that he must go against the system to achieve his dreams.
When Sam returns to his flat, he finds out it has been sabotaged by the two plumbers is in a mess. The complex ineffectiveness of the system is used to punish people that don’t tow the line. In another dream sequence he battles and defeats a giant samurai that turns out to be himself. This symbolically shows that you must kill the part of you that is the part of the system before you can escape it.
Sam’s mums’ friends’ complication gets worse as Sam’s mum looks younger, throughout the film there is this idea of using plastic surgery to sustain power, wealth, and influence through longevity as otherwise she would become one of the undesirables in the society. Jack repeatedly calls his wife Barbra Alison showcasing the lack of humanity in him, when Mr Heltman talks about Sam’s dad, he calls him the “ghost in the machine” as if humanity is coming to an end through bureaucracy. When Sam meets Mr Warren a punch of people follows him about like a bureaucratic snake with him as the head. The desk in the two office cubicles is shared between Sam and another guy called Harvey Lime, this shows that the government only works when people are pitted against one another.in another dream sequence Jill is trapped in a box as the object of Sam’s desire. Sam envisions himself like a knight trying to rescue her, but a brick monster comes up from the ground in the form of Mr Kurtszman and tires to stop Sam. This shows how bureaucracy and governmental control stops people from achieving their dreams, as he tries to get more info on Jill.
Sam’s friend Jacks job with the film is ultimately that of a torturer as the sectary types up his victims screams as if she was taking notes. Jack forgets is children’s names showing that through this regime he has no meaningful connection with anyone and no empathy. Jack states that he didn’t get the wrong man and that another sector is ultimately responsible for Buttles death, this again shows that throughout the film the characters lack empathy and a connection with one another showing how government and bureaucracy has destroyed people’s humanity. Jack says Tuttle’s crime is that he is freelance, and Jill will be killed.
Whilst trying to save Jill they escape because the guards are too caught up in their Bureaucracy, as due to Sam’s new ranking in Jacks suit, he outranks the officers, so they stand down. Sam climbs into the truck and Jill escapes, and she tries to shake him lose with makes perfect sense from her perspective as Jill doesn’t know Sam and just sees him as a crazy guy trying to follow her. As shown in a scene where the gas workers are playing netball, inefficiency is somewhat encouraged as it allows the government to grow unchecked and shelters its agents from accountability. Sam then incorrectly summarises that jill has a bomb and is planning a terrorist act. The film plays with this idea that there are no actual terrorists and that terrorists are just used as a scary buzz word given to enemies of the state. In the action scene Sam ditches the house on the lorry causing the vehicles to crash and blow up he is happy until he sees someone burn to death processing the reality of the situation.
Sam then turns into his mum’s friend who has more plastic surgery bandages as artificially de-ageing herself and looking younger comes at the oats of her body and life. As a terrorist attack happens Sam finds Jill and believes she set off the bomb, jill gets mad and shows him what she had was one of those executive toys as a bribe, Sam and Jill then help the bomb victims as Sam’s has gained empathy for going against the system. Sam then has another fantasy where he is again fighting a giant samurai, as this form of escapism is the only way Sam can feel powerful however he is knocked out and taken. The solider then knock out Sam again for trying to find Jill but not out of anger but regulation.
Back at work Sam’s boss is angry at him due to the amount of miss managed paperwork that now must be sorted. This again is a criticism of the government and bureaucracy in its ability to grind the everyman into dust. Sam then destroys the piping system making paper rain throughout the office. He is ultimately trying to destroy the bureaucratic underpinning of society and the government. When Sam returns home hew find out that the two central services heating engineers have destroyed Sam’s apartment by freezing it and by using bureaucratic paperwork, they have used the system to destroy the everyman. Sam and Tuttle then reroute the waste into there suits killing them and taking them down as symbols of the boreoarctic government. Finally, Sam and Jill kiss and fall in love. Sam the decides he is going to use and exploit the boreoarctic system of government to save Jills life by putting her down as deceased in the legal fields turning their bureaucracy against them.
Jill is the finally shown as the symbolic object of Sam’s desires and escape as she is wearing the white dress and blonde wig as she was in Sam’s dreams and they have sex, this is the emotional climax of the sort as shown with him becoming the Icarus knight again with Jill in his arms. Reality then literary crashes through like the begging of the film with the guards killing Jill and knocking out Sam. Different legal people are then shown in a fever dream like way with creatures wearing mask as Sam has now become part of the dammed. Sam then meets Mr Helpmann again now dressed as Santa in some sort of perverse joke at his demise. He seems almost happy about the situation as his old boss addresses him in a non-shallot way with no empathy or emotion especially when he tells him Jill is dead.
Sam is tortured by his old friend Jack. Jack wears a baby mask like the one is Sam’s nightmares, showing that those creatures were the people Jack killed. As Sam leads with Jack for his life Jack calls him selfish and is angry at him by putting him in this position, he is also detached from the situation as he sees torturing Sam as mealy business. Jack is then shot in the head by Tuttle as him and his terrorist members come to rescue Sam. They ultimately all escape in a shootout, as the security uses a robot to blow up some of the terrorists showing the emotionless detachment from reality, Sam and Tuttle then literally and metaphorically blow up the governmental building/system. Tuttle is then covered in paper and disappears showing that Tuttle who is seemly above the system is ultimately consumed by it. After running past a sign that says happiness were all in it together, he runs into the funeral of his mum’s friend who despite having lots of surgery died, showing how her quest to be young and perfect came at the cost of her life. Sam’s mum is also shown younger and resembling Jill that’s to cosmetics. She does not care for Sam’s plight or her dead friend however, showcasing how the government and bureaucracy breeds alienation and a lack of empathy, as Jills dead friend is just a Skellington showing how the system took her life. The guards then storm the area as Sam falls through the coffin into a black void and escapes down an alleyway, he then climbs a mountain of pipes as he is confronted by guards, Santa, children and the face creatures as symbolic representations of his fears and personal demons. He the escapes through a door into a house on a truck driven by Jill, as the drive off together and live in a little isolated house in a typical happy ending. This happy ending is fake however as Jack and Mr Helpmann come into frame Sam is still strapped to torture chair and they declare him to have gone insane. The film ends as they leave the room. As Sam hums the song Brazil showing that you cannot fight against the totalitarian regime and the only way to find freedom is though insanity.
Brazil is a criticism on government and the bureaucracy that gives them power. Brazil shows that there is no possible way of standing up to the totalitarian regimes that control your life and the only form of escape you have is through your own mind and insanity.