Brazil
- Jun 3
- 2 min read
In the history of film, the stories of fights between filmmakers and the studios that financed their latest pictures are legendary; legendary and utterly commonplace. Once productions are complete, movies are often taken out of the hands of the frustrated filmmaker and recut into a version that the studio believes will make it more marketable. The results, as you might imagine, are often a mixed bag, or a downright mess.
One of the most famous films that ended up in such a dogfight for creative control is Brazil. Made in 1985 and directed by Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, the movie is a surrealistic, black comedy nightmare in the vein of George Orwell’s 1984. Set in a heavily industrialized dystopian future where Big Brother is always watching and where work is a dysfunctional, hamster wheel of pointless drudgery, the story concerns a low-level, hapless office worker named Sam Lowry who accidentally becomes an enemy of the state when he discovers that a woman who’s been appearing in his dreams, calling for him to save her, is real and he decides to find her. That decision costs Sam dearly since he soon learns that government agents are after her as well, believing that she’s connected with a terrorist organization that is exploding bombs around the city. Soon the agents are chasing Sam as well, and his quest to elude capture and save the girl leads him into a never-ending kaleidoscope of totalitarian darkness.
There can be no conversation about Brazil without talking about the wildly inventive production design. Epic in scope, the world of Brazil is gorgeously retro in style. But it’s also an ominous and bleak world where technology rarely works. Where bureaucratic chaos reigns. And where the walls inside buildings are crammed with miles of sewage and air conditioning ducts that heave and groan with distress.
For people living in squalor on the street, there is no escape from this nightmare. But for the wealthy, one means of escape is to get cosmetic surgery that guarantees you will look forever young, even if the process might wreck your smiling face. What a hideous circus the world is. Sound familiar?
What a hideous circus this world is.
So why is the film called Brazil? Because Terry Gilliam uses a classic 1939 song called “Brazil” as a theme in the movie; a joyful, toe-tapping song that stands in sharp contrast to the dark, Orwellian world in the film.
With a cast that features Jonathan Pryce and terrific cameos by Michael Palin, Robert De Niro and Bob Hoskins, I give Brazil four out of four stars. It’s a highly imaginative satire on the increasingly dystopian world in which we live. No wonder my son Dominic—a surrealist and dystopian junkie—counts it as one of his favorite films.
