Essentials: Brazil

Year: 1985 (USA)
Genre: Sci-Fi Comedy/Satire
Directed: Terry Gilliam
Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Jim Broadbent, Charles McKeown
Production: Embassy International Pictures

From Metropolis (1927) to The Hunger Games (2012), dystopian futures have become a perennial subject in science-fiction. Generations after generation have made their mark on the genre each having their strengths and weaknesses. They all have the same clichés; a totalitarian government, an "everyman" hero, future technologies etc. But out of all of them, 1985's Brazil remains, in this writer's opinion the most prolific, unforgettable and foreboding.

Pencil pushing? You'll have to fill out a form for that

The story starts with a mix-up in the Ministry of Information where a man named Buttle is mistaken for a terrorist and is arrested, interrogated and killed. Sam (Jonathan Pryce) a daydreaming low-level pencil pusher with connections takes on the task of refunding the family for interrogation costs. He then meets the girl of his dreams (Kim Greist) and thus begins his baptism by fire.

Brazil plays like a cross between George Orwell's ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and a Roadrunner cartoon. Bulky Rube Goldberg-like machines and unattractive air ducts populate the screen only to be outdone by a vast and ineffectual bureaucracy. "This is Information Retrieval not Information Dispersal," utters Michael Palin's Jack with unintended irony. Those who fight the bureaucracy like rogue air-condition repairman Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), are enemies of the state poised to end up like our good friend Buttle. Meanwhile poor, meek Sam struggles to keep his head low and eventually becomes overwhelmed by the sheer madness of it all.

Giant samurai on the attack? Must be a Monday

In many ways the audience is meant to feel the same sense of bewilderment. Our senses are assaulted with what looks like director Terry Gilliam's mind run amok. The set pieces blur what is real with what Sam imagines in his mind while creating an otherworldly timelessness. The film potentially takes place nowhere yet anywhere in space and time. The last fifteen minutes becomes increasingly frantic and there are points where the story just seems to be let loose like a large dog out of a small child's hands. Some may find the feelings evoked by this film to be mind-boggling and ultimately not worth the director approved 132 minute running time.

What? You lookin' at me? I'm the only one here

I don't blame them but I can't help but love this film. The plot is not as convoluted as many would insinuate. Sam's main motivation is the girl and his vivid daydreams and the garish set pieces are only the icing on the cake. The acting is superb all around. Jonathan Pryce bungles across the screen like a cocaine addled Don Knotts and the ever competent Robert De Niro steals every scene he's in. Also look out for British darlings like Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent and Ian Holm as Sam's grossly incompetent boss.

Ultimately while some may poo-poo the film for perceived faults, there is no denying its imagery is imaginative, mesmerizing, off-kilter and terrifying. Terry Gilliam once said that he wants his work to stick with you like “large shards of glass in your head”. Those familiar with his macabre animation featured in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974) and his later live-action work in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) will no doubt agree with the maverick auteur. In this writers opinion however, Brazil is his most ambitious and brilliant work and one of the defining dystopian worlds ever to be put on screen.

Final Grade: A