Brazil is one of the best works created by Terry Gilliam in 1985. This movie is one of those masterpieces, which may be comprehensible not by every viewer, but if a person gets a clear understanding of the plot, the results and impression will be amazing. Brazil is a cooperative work of Gilliam with Charles McKeown and Tom Stoppard.
These people create a cult-favorite movie about the future society tied with one of so-called red tapes and bureaucracy and about a man, who decides to fight against the existed programs and society in order to be free and be able to love. In the movie Brazil, Terry Gilliam tries to present a magnificent imaginative portrait of future society with wrong socio-political structure and the consequences, which wait for any person, who will try to break down this system and be out of it.
In this movie, it is rather easy to trace the peculiar features of Kafka’s, Orwell’s, and Kubrick’s stories. Their ideas about possible future and the society that is under control of a certain group of people captivate lots of readers. People always want to know what is waiting for them in future.
Those writers, who make an attempt to look a bit ahead of time, are usually criticized by lots of people. To my mind, many people prefer to criticize such attempts because of their disabilities to use their imagination and present possible development of the events by themselves.
Brazil displays Gilliam’s really wild and vivid imagination and wittiness. Future socio-political system is perfect and weak at the same time. The life of each inhabitant is under control of one concrete system. When something goes wrong, the government can easily fix the mistake and not bother the rest of the population. One day, the governmental mistake leads to a death of an innocent person.
When certain people, such as Sam Lowry, get to know about this mistake, they cannot believe that such mishap and the innocent death should be forgotten. Such mistakes cause lots of misunderstandings and desire to get out of this terrible system that is not already as perfect as it seemed before. Unfortunately, the ruling system is much more powerful than a single person, and Lowry’s objections do not count. In order to save the existed socio-political structure, it is necessary to liquidate anyone, who can put it in jeopardy.
Cinematic imagery, presented in the movie, cannot leave any viewer indifferent to the methods used against people. Mysterious disappearance of Harry Tuttle, Sam’s presence at funerals, and all his dreams – this is what makes the movie really futuristic and unforgettable.
People have the right to dream, and the society usually tries to deprive them from such an opportunity. Terry Gilliam creates one of the possible options of our future, where bureaucratic government and machines may control every person’s life.
Is it possible to trace the trends, described in Brazil, nowadays? Of course, it is possible. Nowadays, people are so anxious about their rights and freedom, that they can hardly notice how the government tries to control their lives.
In order to be hired and have an opportunity to earn enough money for living, people have to pass numerous tests. In order to leave a country for some time, it is necessary to pass numerous controls and correspond to all the requirements. In fact, there are lots of similar cases, when human destiny is in the hands of a certain system and the government.
In Brazil, Terry Gilliam introduces his own vision of the futuristic socio-political structure, where everything is under control of government. Nowadays, our society is on its way to be under control of a certain system, and it is high time to decide whether we are ready to be under control or we should try to fight and protect our interests and the interests of our generations.