Brazil

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Have any of you guys seen the movie "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam?

I would qualify it as a more comic variation on the book 1984 by Orwell, as it doesn't focus only on political aspects, but generally makes a rather dark satire of today's society, projected in a gloomy totalitarian scenario, which could be associated with the pre-war world in Fallout.

If you get the chance, obtain it somehow, it's worth the download time/ few bucks, it really is a good flick.
 
Brazil is an excellent flick

As a bonus, it has Bob Hoskins. Rock-fucking-age.

Brazil is a pretty serious flick, though, and it takes another spin at the whole doomy scenario-thing that Orwell did in 1984.

1984 was about totalitarian dictatorships taking over, pure and simple. Brave New World, on the other hand, was about the spirit of Ford's factories taking control of society, and the whole of humanity becoming a kind of automated machine, each part the same as the next, every bit planned

Brazil is about something else, it's about bureacracy, pure and simple. Society is so chocked up on paperwork it ceases to be a society, and rather becomes this huge, dark machination where every person is just a part rather than an individual. Nobody really matters. Ideals, good or evil, don't matter. All that really matters is the bloody paperwork.

Thematically and in the main storyline, Brazil shares a lot with 1984. In background story, though, it's a lot more similar to that other doom-scenario classic; Huxley's a Brave New World (mentioned above). I think your estimation of Brazil's society as totalitarian is rather of the mark. Note how there's no central dictator or party in the storyline. There's the nation, in a sense, but mostly there's the machination of bureaucracy, and of course the vague notion of "them".

And done
 
Kharn is entirely correct, but it has more in common with Brave New World, and alot more even with WE by Eugene Zamiatin. 1984 is a world in reverse, a world breaking down into small communes to create immortality. Brazil is just a totalitarian state with some oddities.
 
Great flick.

Apparently Gilliam got the idea while laying on the beach. He saw the scene with the bureaucrats tossing around letters while the song Brazil was going on in the background. Great scene. Great movie. Definitely worth it.
 
:lol: funny enough, many times i had people ask me in boards if my "Location: Brazil" was a metaphor about the movie, or the real country.


(its the later, if you are wondering)
 
Well, you didn't have the whole "central dictator" aspect, represented in 1984 by Big Brother, but again, Big Brother was a fictional character, more like the god of a totalitarian bureaucracy rather than the dictator-god himself.

I know this is debating over minimal differences, but I still think Brazil is deeply influenced, if not based on 1984. Take a look as how Gilliam takes over most of Orwell's scenario: The importance of the ministries, "information retrieval", The propaganda posters, the telescreens, the *terrorist* bombings, which are in fact sponsored by the government...

Anyways, we all agree that it is a great movie, and it's the only thing that ultimately matters :)

Welsh: I read somewhere that the inspiation for the flick was given when the author saw, on an absolutely disgusting, dirty, grey beach, a refinery worker, eating his lunch and listening to the radio to the song Brazil...
 
I agree wholeheartedly that Brazil is a great film. It is, in fact, probably my favorite.

I also agree that it clearly owes much of its genesis to 1984--the number of similarities pointed out in the previous post suggest the connection well (I'd make the addition of the importance of dream sequences in both).

However, I think there is one fundamental difference in the two; in 1984 after Winston is tortured into giving up Julia he actually truly loves Big Brother--and because he is "the last man" this is meant to show that no one can stand up against that sort of totalitarianism. In Brazil, however, Sam's will is never really broken. Instead of caving in to the system, he remains free of it.

So...yeah, that's what I think anyway.
 
Brazil is quite good. It's been a while since i've seen it. Though i believe it really is about the machinations of a bureaucratic beast which was created by people but got out of hand, being intangible but definitely real, fueled by those which, strangely, fight against it. 1984 is somewhat different, as it entails a totalitarian state governed bt a cabal of self-perpetuating leaders, who also created the Big Brother as a power to be feared.
 
Well, the thing is, the bureaucracy itself isn't evil. That's the insidious nature of it. Individuals perform actions that are, taken separately, not that evil--a man purchases train cars to carry people to death camps, for example--that then together add up to something monumentally catastrophic.

In both 1984 and Brazil you basically have an idea (in Brazil massive paperwork and in 1984 a fictional Fascist leader) that is created by men to control, but that ends up controlling them.
 
There's so much going on in Brazil that I don't think it can be boiled down to just one idea, but I've always taken it as being mainly about reality vs. imagination and that the Brave New World/1984 references and aethetics are meant to emphasize that more than just be a statement by themselves - how someone who is more interested in daydreams than day to day life would percieve the world, in other words. For Sam daydreams offer much more than reality can, so he has his life arranged to avoid coming into contact with the world as much as possible. When he sees Jill though his imaginary life starts spilling out into his real life, creating a chain of events which causes him to retreat further into his daydreams until finally he's lost all touch with reality. Sam never really notices or cares about the bureaucracy, terrorism, etc. going on until Jill, and even then it never really touches him - he doesn't really care about it, he's just so taken by meeting "the girl of his dreams" that he's willing to do whatever is necessary to win her love. It's mainly a dramatic contrast, in my view - when you have as active a fantasy life as Sam, how can reality not seem dull, routine, petty, restricting, etc.

Just my take on the movie though. That's the thing I love most about Gilliam's movies - so many people have different opinions on them, none more right or wrong than the next, and the movies are as deep or as superficial as you want them to be.
 
I love his movie on Baron Munchhausen, he did something way more interesting than simply turning the book into a movie - so I can't wait to see his Don Quixote! Probably will be amazing!
 
Didn't know there would be a Don Quixote film by Gilliam. I liked Munchhausen and all the neat cameos, but I probably liked Time Bandits best of all.

Napolean- "I want to see little people, hurting other little people."

Robin Hood, "Oh you'd like the poor. They don't have a red cent, but then they wouldn't be poor, would they?"

Kid, "Mom, Dad. It's evil, don't touch it!"

Liked the Fisher King too. Did Gilliam do 12 Monkeys?
 
Yeah, 12 Monkeys is Gilliam. As far as I know the Don Quixote project was cancelled due to lack of funding. I was really looking forward to that movie, too. :(
 
Zoe said:
I love his movie on Baron Munchhausen, he did something way more interesting than simply turning the book into a movie - so I can't wait to see his Don Quixote! Probably will be amazing!
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I loved "The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen" it truly was one of the greats out there.
 
Zoe said:
:crazy: they canceled it? Ah :(

I so wanted to see that movie !
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The story is kinda complex, but the Gilliam's Quixote project is decades old. Literally. He's been wanting to do it foerever, and has been actually working on it since...ugh...long ago. You can see pictures from the set here and there too, mostly of Depp ;)

Yeah, it's a shame, the project goes on and off every now and again. It got cancelled, again, though a huge series of misfortunes which would make a good movie themselves, and ended up with financial trouble. Methinks he wants to continue it, but no chance.
 
I read that Gilliam is turning another movie, based on a novel partially written by Pratchett. The movie is called "Good Omens"
 
Wooz69 said:
I read that Gilliam is turning another movie, based on a novel partially written by Pratchett. The movie is called "Good Omens"
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Right after he's done with the Brothers Grimm, yip
 
Actually, he did a movie about Don Quixote's failure. Pretty funny, actually. Probably Gilliams first film sense 12.

He still plans to do Quixote though.
 
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