Review of Brazil (1985) by Zombiehampster — 28 Oct 2010

I originally saw Brazil when I was 8 or 9 years old, and man did that movie leave a mark on my psyche. For years I thought about its images until one day I tracked it down at Blockbuster and re-watched it.

This movie joins the many groundbreaking films that bombed at the box office and only achieved greatness in retrospect (for many at least). This is definitely Gilliam's masterpiece (for now) and shows off his strengths and the caliber of imagination that he possesses.

Brazils dystopian society is nothing new, Orwell wrote of 1984 and this movie is inspired by his book. It takes many of the fears/concepts of 1984 and modernizes them, eventually leaving behind the source of inspiration and developing into its own mythos.

The movie reflects a much distorted look at what humanity and society can become and views the world through twisted, fun-house mirror lenses. The effect is definitely more shocking in how he takes very ordinary things, like an automated printer that can issue a warrant for arrest, and shows just how dangerous it can be to take the human elements out of society in an attempt to make things run "smoothly and sterile".

He is definitely trying to make a point at what terrifies him in the modern world: past, present, and future; but underneath all the social commentary is really a story about a man who wants to be free in many ways.

Sam Lowry is a man with no joy in life; having a unsatisfying job, living in a overly bureaucratic, fear-mongering society, along with his materialistic and superficially-obsessed mother who has never heard of the word nepotism.

His life is crushingly without options, and so he does what many do, fantasizes about another life, another world. This of course leads him to trouble and as the story progresses, things become grim.

..in a darkly funny way. The movie is essentially a comedy, although of the darker kind. Not so much in a gross or unbelievable kind of way, but more in a frighteningly plausible form that does not poke but stab at the fabric of our current society.

The movie is not for everyone, especially if you can't take a good jab from something that may not sit well with your established view of the world. In order to help enjoy this movie, being open to many possibilities is important, as this movie likes to shake up the established order.

The cast is excellent, with strong performances from pretty much everyone, but then seeing the caliber of actors in the movie, its no wonder. Michael Palin is frighteningly nonchalant/creepy in his "business as usual" demeanor, and you can't help but pity poor Sam Lowry as a doomed dreamer whom you have the sneaking suspicion that his life won't end well.

Brazil is a movie that very few people would have the guts to make. Gilliam to me isn't a director as much as an artist, and depending on how you view the purpose of movies and the role of directors, this can be a good or a bad thing.

To me a director tries to make a movie that the public might want to see, while an artist makes a movie that he wants to see. Self indulgent or not, whenever Gilliam makes a movie, I sit back and let him tell me his tale.

Whether I like it or not is not that important, as I would rather watch an unfiltered story from the source, as opposed to something that has been through the "demographic machine". Watch this movie, a person like Terry Gilliam comes around very rarely.