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11 Comments
Timothy Etter
3/11/2018 05:46:29 pm
Plot-wise, this reminded me almost immediately of 1984. It's set in a dystopian future, there's an authoritarian government, the protagonist sees past the government's propoganda, the ending isn't optimistic (what a cool twist too!). Tonally, however, Brazil is much more comedic. It feels much more like a satirization of overly bureaucratic government than a cautionary tale about the overreach of government. From the excessive amount of forms needed to do something as simple as fixing a heating unit to the upper class ignoring a literal terrorist attack going on in front of them, Brazil is full of these absurd moments that somehow mesh to make a ridiculous yet believable vision of a society where sluggish authoritarian bureaucracy is the law of the land.
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Ruta
3/11/2018 10:52:45 pm
This movie was like a bad nightmare, never-ending and worse at every turn. The filmography and acting were superb, but the plot was so severely disturbing and confusing that even the resolution was ambiguous. The disjointed occurrences and the inseparability of dream from reality was reminescent of Paprika, but with an added layer of weirdness because this film was live-action. The set design makes the film seem more self-contained as a universe, since almost all the scenes take place in a factory-like setting, devoid of plant or animal life. In a strange way, this magnifies the animal-like natures of the characters and makes the crazy things that happen seem more realistic. The overall mood of the film can best be described as creepy. The music and surrealism, particularly at the end when Lowry's mind has descended into the dream state, add to this creepy feeling that nothing is as it seems.
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Sophia Moore
3/12/2018 10:12:09 pm
This movie was fricken wild and I loved it so much. The society set up in the film was incredibly interesting to me. I loved that they integrated in all of the different slogans and such into the set. It gave the feel of the kind world war propaganda found in America. They give the impression of the 1984 idea of being under constant observation by the government.
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Andrew Sun
3/13/2018 02:07:22 am
Wonderfully weird and wildly imaginative, Brazil represents one of, if not the finest work in Terry Gilliam's filmography. The Orwellian dystopian nightmare is complimented by the dark humor and equally dark story, coming together to offer biting social criticism of human decay in a retro-futuristic world. The unique visuals are presented with brilliant cinematography, and the ending is one of the most damning twists in film, inspiring many future films to adopt similar themes of internal happiness and external insanity. Pryce and De Niro embrace the weirdness of the film beautifully, contributing phenomenal acting performances to their strange characters. The interwoven dream sequences outlines the importance of the imagination within the film, and perhaps in real life as well, implying an element of metacinema. The dream sequences also beg the question of when Lowry's insanity truly begins: is it only when he is arrested, or is his entire relationship with Jill imagined? The unusual aesthetic of the entire movie brings doubt to any concrete answer, but bring up themes of control, power, and gubernatorial tyranny. Many scholars have pointed out Gilliam's obsession with ducts, but have never quite agreed on what they are meant to represent. I believe the ducts are to represent the dystopian nightmare within the film: the omnipotence of the government. Tuttle's tampering with the ducts and his presence as a conspiratorial character seem to point toward this being true. Meanwhile, Lowry and the ending pose frightening questions about the government's indiscriminate killing and torturing of suspected terrorists as well as more personal questions about mental illness and insanity. One very interesting scene to me involves Sam and Jill at the store in which Sam and Jill are wrestling over the parcel. Much of the scene is seen as Sam and his reflection in the mirror, which covers Jill. It is an interesting choice by Gilliam to omit Jill from the scene, and instead have Sam be struggling with what appears to be himself. His internal struggle is most concrete in this scene, but can also be seen from the divide in Sam's character from the first half to the second half. In the first half, Sam is unambitious, soft-spoken, and generally keeps to himself. In the second half after meeting Jill, Sam is uncharacteristically assertive, as we can see from his struggling with Jill in her truck.
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Aaron Basharain
3/13/2018 02:33:20 pm
What is the overall mood of the film? What contributes to it?
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stephanie lopez
3/13/2018 04:49:48 pm
Brazil was strangely fascinating. The mise en scene seemed futuristic, mechanical and controlled with dark grey colors emanating. There's aluminum pipes and wires inside and outside peoples homes alluding to an environment that is advanced and managed by the state. However theres completely different setting inside Sam's dream. Inside his dream, the colors are soft and warm and he is seen majestically flying through the clouds like a bird. This made me reflect on the fact that his subconscious desires to be free and far from the reality where everything is under close examination. One of the most shocking scenes was when Sam and his mother go out to dinner to discuss his new promotion. As they enter the restaurant, it felt similar to an airport because she had her bags screened and checked. When the red light goes off they demanded to know what was in her bag, and she aggressively answers them its a gift for her son. Even at this fancy restaurant there's pipes running in and out of the walls. At the dinner table, the menu was like a tablet and it displayed the images and number of each food item. I thought it was interesting that instead of saying the food they desired they stated the number and when Sam said "steak" the waiter demanded he say the number. This scene shows how controlled the environment they inhabit is and also the dissociation they have with their food. Especially when they bring out the food and it turns out to be mush with an image of the food its suppose to be. I thought that was so bizarre! To top it off, there is a terrorist attack and they bomb one of the sides of the restaurant. People were injured and bleeding to death while those not affected nonchalantly ate their Gerber food dinner. The waiter even put a divider so they wouldn't see the disaster. Overall the movie was an interesting, unique, and thrilling!
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Maddie Matsumoto-Duyan
3/13/2018 05:08:37 pm
Brazil is a very odd, futuristic film. The gadgets at the beginning reminded me of the opening sequence in Back to the Future. The rest of the film has both eccentric and ominous undertones. The dream sequences were especially strange, but not as chaotic and weird as the dreams in Paprika. Instead, they were more straightforward about their place in the story. Another example of the ominous undertones is the secretary character who appears to just be typing with a strange device on her hand but is actually dictating the cries of people being tortured which she listens to on headphones. Other elements were simply ridiculous, like the mother character who was always getting plastic surgery done and wore a shoe on her head. The set design was pretty fitting. Sam's apartment was pretty dull, much like his life, until Tuttle starts showing up. The dismantling of the apartment seems symbolic of Sam's life falling apart. Also, his claustrophobic office and lack of computer reflected the oppressive and secretive nature of his job. I'm not sure what the significance is of the giant torture chamber at the end. Overall, this movie was extremely weird and entertaining.
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Brittany Chiu
3/13/2018 05:33:56 pm
A strangely humorous yet dark film, Brazil immediately reminded me of the novel 1984, with its dystopian world featuring an oppressive and highly regulated government and society. As for the set of the film itself, it featured mostly dark and drab colors and made much use of futuristic looking props such as devices with many bright lights and wires attached, pipes and ducts, and many chrome background pieces. The majority of the film was set in either a factory or office setting as well, lending to an oppressive mood that conveyed the monotonous nature of that society. This served to bolster the ethereal mood of the scenes that were set in Lowry's dream world, which featured blue skies and green pastures. The film also emphasized over-the-top action and explosions, creating a juxtaposition between the thrilling motion and the tedium of the dystopian society. However, if there is one criticism I could make of the film, it would be the way it addressed the insurgents and the romantic subplot. It seemed extremely rushed the way Jill went from distrusting Lowry one moment to passionately kissing him the next, and I would have liked to have seen the film explore Tuttle's involvement with the secret group of rebels more.
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Rien Hu
3/13/2018 05:49:36 pm
I felt that the film really portrayed the environment and its events as absurd -- people noticing and worrying about all the wrong things, the ridiculous gaudiness of the high-class society, Sam's own betrayal of the state and increasingly drastic actions. It felt like the state is trying to be a monolithic, bureaucratic 1984-esque entity, but is so marred by ineptitude and inefficiency and its operations so undermined by human carelessness that it will never do its job right. Take information retrieval. It's introduced with this grand lobby that seems to hint that unlike records, this department is competent and the embodiment of the panopticon state. Then this cold inhumanity is immediately contrasted with the frenzied mob that is the actual people at work. I don't know, I'm not really making a point here.
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Joshua Rafael Sanchez
3/29/2018 10:18:38 pm
What a horrifying accurate depiction of society, which is only getting more true by the minute (including Berkeley’s bureaucracy). It is sad that, while trying to strive towards “greater goals” such as order, law, and common sense, humans are grotesquely unraveling the very nature of humanity itself by promoting this social fabric which everyone feels that he or she needs to adhere to. My favorite character is Harry Tuttle, an engineer who, to me, represents the character of independence and freedom. One scene was funny to me, which was when Sam imagined himself being saved by Tuttle; in fact, Sam’s dream revealed how the human spirit, while amidst living in a reality of order still longs for a sense of freedom and independence. Truly, the mood of the set of the film was downright depressing, as many people, while all longing to break loose of the rigid lifestyle, allow themselves to be stuck in this monotonous, mentally degrading, and altogether unproductive cycle. Brazil reminded me of Wall-E’s movie commercial through its office scene music and 1984’s plot, particularly through its dystopian vibes of losing humanity through social law and order.
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Luke
3/30/2018 05:08:53 am
The film seems to be a parody upon the film noir archetype. It features an incredibly dystopian society that is filled with an over-reliance on a central government that controls every aspect of the layman's life. While normally such a film is rendered in solemn respect of such a horrifying society, Brazil manages to be both repulsive yet slapstick--drawing upon bizarre comedy that somehow manages to turn the viewer's stomach. It is also interesting to note that while most science fiction shows a progression between the relationship of society and technology, Brazil manages to convey an unhealthy dependence that manages to thwart most people's attempts to harass the available resources.
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