Brazil (1985)
| Comedy,Drama,Fantasy
English
"It's only a state of mind. " A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.
|
Intriguing mixture of comedy and dystopia
One of the truest statements about originality in art comes from T.S.
Eliot: "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal." Terry Gilliam is
one of cinema's mature poets. His "Brazil" features homages to numerous
other films, ranging from "Modern Times" to "The Empire Strikes Back,"
and its plot is broadly similar to "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Yet the
result is intriguingly fresh and creative.
The best adjective to describe the movie's tone is "whimsical." It's
the type of sci-fi film with an almost childlike fascination with
strange sights and happenings. Rarely has a film so pessimistic been
this much fun. Many sci-fi films since "Brazil" have attempted a
similar approach, usually with little success. The chief problem with
most such films (e.g. "The Fifth Element") is that they get bogged down
in plot at the expense of emotional resonance. "Brazil" avoids this
fate: while the movie possesses psychological and thematic complexity,
its plot is fairly simple, and the humor, quirky as it is, never relies
on throwaway gags. Even the oddest moments have a certain poignance.
The story seems to take place in a fascist alternative world. It isn't
"the future" exactly. The technology is weird-looking but hardly
superior to anything in our world. Money transactions are sent through
pipes in what looks sort of like a crude version of ATM. (One of the
film's several nods to silent movies occurs after a character tries to
stuff one of these pipes with wads of paper.) The pop culture
references are positively retro, from the title song to scenes from the
film "Casablanca."
The evil of the government in this film is driven not so much by
cruelty as by bureaucratic incompetence, much of which is played for
laughs. But some of the scenes look eerie today, in our post-9/11
world, and are good fodder for conspiracy theorists. Pay particular
attention to the scene where the official boasts that the government is
winning its war against "the terrorists." The movie is ambiguous as to
whether there are any real terrorists, and we have a sneaking suspicion
that the explosions are caused by the government itself. The plot is
set in motion by a typographical error leading an innocent man to be
arrested instead of a suspected terrorist. The movie is not about this
man but about a meek government worker, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce),
who's observing from the sidelines. Robert De Niro has a cameo as the
wanted "terrorist" whose crime, from what we see, consists of doing
home repairs without the proper paperwork.
I have noticed that most of the classic dystopian tales are
fundamentally similar to one another. But "Brazil" approaches the genre
in a uniquely psychological way. Sam Lowry is different from the
standard protagonist who rebels against the government due to noble
motives. He doesn't seem to have any larger goals than his own personal
ones. He isn't trying to make the world a better place. He's only
longing for a better life for himself, one more exciting and romantic
than the humdrum existence he currently occupies, where he's beset by
an overbearing mother, a pitiful boss, and a dull job. In the midst of
this bureaucratic nightmare state, he cares only about such matters as
getting his air conditioning fixed and stalking a female stranger who
physically resembles his fantasy woman--or so he perceives. The woman,
as played by Kim Greist, appears in his fantasies as a helpless damsel
with long, flowing hair and a silky dress who sits in a cage while he
battles a giant Samurai warrior. The real-life woman he pursues, also
played by Greist, sports a butch haircut, drives a large truck, and has
a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth.
It's a testament to Pryce's performance that he commands our total
sympathy the whole time. We feel for him and go along with the romantic
adventure he attempts to create for himself. His nervous, stammering
personality is one that would have been easy to overdo, yet Pryce
strikes just the right note, especially as we begin questioning the
character's sanity. At one point, another character tells him that
"You're paranoid; you've got no sense of reality." But who wouldn't be
paranoid in such a setting? The scene brings to mind the old joke that
goes "You're not paranoid. Everyone really is out to get you." The
movie inhabits such a whacky, surreal world full of strange people and
sights that Sam Lowry almost seems sensible by comparison. Creating a
character like this was a fresh, innovative twist on a genre that
normally loses sight of human personalities.
