Review of Brazil (1985) by Spangle — 02 Feb 2017

Simultaneously the second entry into Terry Gilliam's "Trilogy of Imagination" and the first entry in his "Dystopian Trilogy", Brazil is a masterwork of pure satirical genius. More aligned with modern day America than I am comfortable to admit, Brazil is a cautionary tale of government control where freedom is assumed, but is merely an illusion. Working in the Ministry of Information, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a lowly worker who just does as he is told and keeps plugging along with no aspirations for anything better. Except, he keeps having dreams where he is a winged angel and trying to save a mystery girl. Learning that this girl is Jill Layton (Kim Greist), Sam tries to find her, only to discover that the government believes her to be a violent terrorist. Now, he must subvert the government to find the girl that he loves. A visually rich and thematically dense film, Brazil is a hard nut to crack and though this review will make it sound like I know what I am talking about, allow me to assure you that the opposite is in fact true.

In my review of Time Bandits, the first entry in the "Trilogy of Imagination", I highlighted one of the major themes in that work as being materialism. With a psychotic obsession towards material items over their own child, Kevin's parents in that film ignore him at all costs. Gilliam continues this thematic discussion in Brazil, except it takes on a particularly politically charged tone. During the Cold War, the American government equated the communists with being godless heathens. Therefore, to be truly godly, one must be a capitalist. As such, spending and material goods are good and a glory to God. Throughout the film, Gilliam critiques this idea with a visual motif of a glowing blue cross in various shots, but also takes shots at the biggest glorification to capitalism in existence: Christmas. Setting Brazil during Christmas time allowed Gilliam to adorn each scene with a reference to the gift giving holiday. Everybody in the film has some asinine gift they are carrying or give to another person. Sam receives presents from nearly everybody he sees in the film and it is never something he truly wants. Interesting to note as well that nobody says "Merry Christmas" in the film, rather they always say "Happy Christmas". However, Gilliam ensures that this is a religious critique during a sequence in a shopping mall. One boy is carrying what appears to be a folder that reads, "Consumers for Christ" on the cover. Similar to the glowing blue cross, this folder is also blue. Highlighting the capitalist indoctrination disguised as Christianity, Gilliam decries the linking together of religion and mindless consumption above all else. This is further emphasized through Sam's mother (Katherine Helmond) and her friend Mrs. Terrain (Barbara Hicks). The two are constantly getting face lifts to look younger and while Mrs. Lowry's goes fine, Mrs. Terrain is constantly shown with bandages due to her complications having complications. For Gilliam, this is a way of punishing the vanity and mindless materialism and consumption that has gone on in our present society.

This is further underscored in a callback to Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and the famous Odessa steps sequence. In that famous sequence, people are gunned down on the Odessa steps by guards and, as she runs down, a mother's baby carriage gets stuck and begins to tumble down the steps. Gilliam takes this scene as inspiration towards the end as Sam has a dream about escaping from the prison he is held in. During his breakout - with the help of Archibald "Harry" Tuttle (Robert De Niro) - the guards in the Ministry of Information are shooting at the escapees from the stairs and begin walking down them. As they do, a vacuum tumbles down the steps akin to the baby carriage in Battleship Potemkin. Here, Gilliam creates a parallel between the baby and the vacuum, in essence saying that we now serve machines and the system, instead of our children and one another. Our purpose and focus in life has shifted from each other to the soulless machines in the name of innovation. This is further confirmed, in hindsight, by a sequence earlier in the film. The chief torturer of the Ministry of Information is a friend of Sam's named Jack (Michael Palin). While visiting with Jack, Sam sees Jack speak to one of his three children. During this conversation, Jack calls the girl "Amy" and later "Chloe", despite the girl's protests that she is actually "Holly". He seems disinterested and makes a crack about never really knowing anymore. For Jack and for everybody else living in this dystopian society, the only things that matter are work, consumption, and maintaining the status quo determined by those in power. All else fall by the waste side, especially family. Viewed in conjunction with the vacuum/baby carriage parallel, it is clear that Gilliam wishes to highlight this as a major fault in our present society.