How Brazil Got Its Sci-Fi Dystopia Right
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- 1985’s Brazil depicts, as many films do, a dystopian future. What makes it different, is that future, I think is far closer to reality to most others.
Brazil follows bureaucratic minion Sam Lowy as he resist promotion and becomes, sort of accidentally, embroiled with a resistance group fighting a heavy-handed government. As you might expect from a Terry Gilliam movie, it’s often surreal, it often uses slapstick, and it’s often quite silly.
But, and I think Gilliam does this very well, has some serious moments.
Films Mentioned:
1984 (1984), Brazil (1985).
One thing I like about BRAZIL is the unspoken suggestion that there may not even be terrorists bombing places after all. The civilization's technology is so rickety that everything is failing but the society expressly denies that failure is possible so nothing ever gets truly fixed or innovated. As a result, the "bombings" could literally be a result of malfunctioning systems finally giving out with explosive results. So the State believes in a terrorist boogeyman that doesn't exist because it can't recognize the possibility that it's killing itself.
Weird, I always thought the implication was that the security apparatus was itself perpetuating the bombings to keep people in line and the state pumping along.
Absolutely brilliant, I hadn't seen that and have seen the film more times than I care to mention, actually nowhere do you actually see any terrorists and that is an astute and excellent observation. A bit like the fake war in 1984 or dare I say it ha, wait for it,yes, and I will be censored; COV-ID where you will actually need ID to show you have or have not been vaccinated or are immune to this new CoV; SARS 2.0.
Theomite Also they dress in 1940s clothings symbolic the conservative nature obsession of the good old days of Terry Gilliam Brazil society show there are no creative mind and lack human expression causing everyone to dehumanize themselves further and the only limited liberty is distracted keep watching old movies for eternity.
Theomite i guess
Theomite maybe
Brazil is brilliant! Plus, it has one of my favorite subtle jokes in any movie ever. When Lowry's friend/coworker/eventual torturer is at a party, he introduce's his wife to his manager at work. The manager then proceeds to get the wife's name wrong so, in order to not insult his superior and potentially damage his career, he proceeds to call his wife by that incorrect name throughout the rest of the film. Aside from a brief, shocked look on the wife's face, the film never really draws attention to the gag, but it keeps on popping up.
Yes ! English humor at it's best XD
It could also be a nice little reference to the plot. Helpman (head of the ministry of information) gets her name wrong, just like the ministry got buttle's name wrong. Jack doesn't correct helpman even though he knows he's wrong, like how he says nothing about buttle and tuttle being mixed up. He got the right man.
I watched it when I was kid in the 80s (hopefully the one and only TV channel in Greece broadcasted movies like this!) and it left me with a feeling of nostalgia. I assume that if you work for the CS you get one of those cool cars (the only good thing you can get from them).
Terry Gilliam's American .
One of my favorite lines in the movie is "How are the twins?" "Oh, it's triplets now" "Really? How time flies" (I'm sure I butchered the quote). I always just thought that line was a silly bit of surrealism. But since you mention the thing with the wife's name, now I'm thinking that the movie is implying someone acquired an extra child because of a bureaucratic mistake, which is way more brilliant.
Others have said it before me, but I think the best thing about "Brazil" is how it doesn't have a central villain that is to blame for everything. Everyone is to blame, the greed of some and the apathy of the many. The oppression is subtle and forgiving enough that most people won't bother fighting it. You know, just like in real life.
When there is lack of possibility, then all that's possible seemingly is impossible and inconceivable. The continual fight of the present against the past's dim view of future optionality.
Our world is just as oppressive as Brazil, but it is covered up by a complicit media. The January 6th protestors are still in jail, some of them for decades, for what amounted to trespassing.
I think it's because the real world is mixture of 1984 & the Brave New World. BNW is where the apathy comes from.
When I first heard the term "banality of evil" I immediately thought of this movie
I don't know how many people outside of Brazil know this, but in Brazil there was a Military Dictatorship from 64 to 85, people were captured, tortured, and there were resistances who tried to fight, and I really think this was one of Gillian's inspirations for the movie.
João Aguiar Fake.
João Aguiar Yeah tortured some comunists
I belIeve one also should look into Brasil's flag "ordem e progresso". This National motto is a quote from Auguste Comte, considered as a/the founding father of Sociology. I believe Brazil is one of the greatest movies of modern times (seriously!), anyone who like it should look into the history of the so called "social sciences"...and also watch "The meaning of life", Guilliam's second best movie
@@mrchampipi6278 agreed.
prob a lot don't, so thanks for the historical reminder, of real dystopias
Brazil is one of the greatest underrated films of all time.
Honestly didn't even know this movie existed till I seen him talk about it in a different video. After watching it was like how the hell did I not know about it. Definitely underrated.
So,so underrated.this movie is the greatest thing ever made and I want the tune playing at my funeral.what could be better.
Y’all just be saying anything Brazil is considered to be one of the best films of the 80s and one of the best sci fi flicks ever
TWENTY SEVEN B STROKE SIX?!?!? TWENTY SEVEN B STROKE SIX?!?!?
I think it's an amazing Easter egg. It was George Orwell's address.
sodiepopper Is this true or a joke?
sodiepopper wasn't it Winston' s address in 1984?
Apartment 6, 27B Canonbury Square, Islington London was indeed George Orwell's address .. I think Winston Smith lived in Victory Towers
sea pea Oh, I thought it was Winston's room number.
I hope you have attained all proper clearances to express an opinion here at this corporate web-address.
I'm a bit of a stickler for paperwork, you see.
The most chilling moment in the film isn’t when it is established that the guy will be tortured, but when his supervisor is speaking to him dressed as Father Xmas (for some bullshit charity event) right before the torture is about to happen.
I think the most chilling thing is that the people who torture him are more or less very friendly with him throughout the film. They don't really enjoy torturing him, but if the papers say they have to do it then they do it without questioning it. Personal relationships and feelings are completely ignored in that situation.
Like many other dystopian stories made in the "plastic age", Brazil shows the world as a very cold place. I suppose it's not that far from the truth.
Oh Gilliam. You deserved so much more than a 3 minute reference in Jupiter Ascending
Anyone else bothered that the heroine of that movie was named Jupiter? "Jupiter", the most masculine, patriarchal Greek god of all time. That's like having a boy and naming them Tinkerbell.
Here's hope the Don Quixote movie will be good.
And "Jupiter" comes from "deus pater" which literally means "sky/heavenly/god father".
Its odd to me that its finally getting made. I wonder if its going to use any of the footage shot w/ Depp from forever ago
Mila Kunis makes the reference immediately after she's met Terry Gilliam himself, as the bureaucratic hacker.
Dude, I hope you didn't submit a 27B-6 instead of a 27B/6.... you'll be in a world of hurt.
Yes... not that similar, and the credit line is overwhelmed because of covid
I'm from Brazil and I can attest the veracity of this movie.
In what way?
Do you have a sense of humour? Don't mind answering, it was a rhetorical question.
Raziel No i mean, its kinda accurate.. But depends on what way you see it. I was just curious, you dont need to mad man.
Aliás, tú é br?
Well, I said I'm from Brazil in my first comment, so yeah, I'm "HueHue BR BR". Not very proud of it, though.
Raziel Yep, not very proud. I tought you were from the us but was joking when you said your comment was a joke (even tho its accurate) XD
Somewhat ironic to see Simon Jones, whose most memorably role has been Arthur Dent in the Hitch Hiker's series - a series lampooning bureaucracy and Dent as a occasional victim of bureaucracy - playing a bureaucrat.
Brazil is maybe my favorite movie. It's a very unique, different and odd semi-surreal movie so these negatives don't look like negatives to me. I think Brazil and Dr. Strangelove are the perfect political satires with the perfect balance of black humor and thought provoking serious tones and undertones.
The other big reason (almost the main season) I love this movie is the visuals, the tone and the music. Everything looks and sounds like things that don't belong together (theatrical sketches, industrial and retro-technology setting with jazz music and surreal atmosphere, with silly costumes and slapstick) but they actually do and I absolutely love the result. It's like a bad dream, a nightmare world and the ending made it clear, so the "underdevelope " story is part of the experience.
What used to confuse about this movie as a brazillian, is that the title seems to place brazil as this escapist paradise, when the real brazil is just another bureaucratic hell, especially in 1985 when there was a military dictatorship installed.
I know Brazil is just the idea of escapism, it just seemed odd to me when I first saw it.
It's not the real place that's Sam's idealisation of escape, it's the Brazil in the old song "Brazil" that gets repeated through the film.
You are a brazilian and you don't know that in 1985 the "military dictatorship" actually ended. Shame! (ding, ding)
frankstrawnation you're right and Ive realized this after I made the comment.
However, it had just ended at the time, and it was still suffering from what it left, it definetly wasnt paradise all of the sudden. Also The film was in development way before that year, so, during the dictatorship. Maybe even intentionally, like "Kiss of the Spider Woman", which is set in the dictatorship and was only released in 1985 after it ended.
mouseketeery yeah, fair enough. But I didnt conclude that it was about the real place tho, I just meant to say it was kind of ironic due to the circumstances
Brazil also is a stupid nation where you can find stupid natives who rather live in a dictatorial country, deprived of individual liberties, than in a free democracy. This ass just right up here is a good example.
1984 was also an extrapolation of the present of 1948 post war London (apparently) - with the rationing and decaying Victorian housing and victory cigarettes and posters of a chap saying "let me be your big brother" etc.
Anthony Burgess wrote some good essays on the subject. I believe Orwell even wanted to call the novel '1948' but the censors wouldn't let him.
Brazil is my favourite film. For its message and how it is all portrayed. Every single dialogue and visual is intended and means a lot. I first watched it in 1990 on air TV, I was 8, and I couldn't watch it all, I had flashes of the truck scene where Jill almost runs him over. Then, in 2000, I spotted it in the cable guide and I looked foward to watching it almost counting day by day, I was anxious to finally watch it all. And the tremendous oppressing enviroment stroke me for a couple of days.
Regards from Buenos Aires!
Hola! Soy porteña también y Brazil también es mi película también! Che qué coincidencia!
Thanks for this. Brazil is in my top ten favorite films of all time.
It's certainly way different in it's delivery, but you may also "enjoy" Burnt By The Sun. A Russian film that explores similar themes, but it is not fantasy/sci-fi based.
If you are having trouble understanding the character's motivations I can only assume you've never encountered unthinking ridiculous bureaucracy. There is no individual motivation. It is just the way it is and people are so powerless to fight it to the point that they don't even understand the concept of fighting it. They just trudge along through the process. They are no longer people. They are just a part of the machine. A cog that rotates because a cog connected to them rotated and they react by pushing the next cog along. Any cog that breaks just makes the whole process infinitely more painful and only then will they fight to regain order.
Anyway, got to go. I have some Kale sweating in the pantry and those internet petitions won't sign themselves
No u
nice, but in terms of film, a character needs to have motivations to be compelling
Thanks for clearing it up, I found the movie boring AF, but I did see the indifferent system that couldn't care less if you were innocent or not.
There is an obvious issue here, that an unthinking cog is not an interesting character. That is part of the problem I have with Orwell's writing in general, his characters serve to show off the world, and as such the role they have to play severely limits their ability to develop as a character. It's really shooting yourself in the foot as far as writing goes. I understand that Brazil is supposed to be a pastiche of 1984, so that explains why the character development here is also inadequate.
I think the trick is to not think of them as individual characters but rather a collective entity. The bureaucracy itself is a single character, the antagonist, with multiple actors playing parts of it.
This is my new favorite YT channel. His video essays are precise, thoughtful, witty and clever. He also has a very calming presence. Thank you Georg for these insightful videos.
While it's not out-dated, you can totally see it was made in the "plastic age" and during that economic era.
Still, one of my all time favourite films.
I find that even during the silliest slapstick moments there's I deep message (i.e. that scene where the protagonist is struggling to gain control of his desk territory over his co-worker makes me think of the vanity of human kind when giving its best effort to hold on to materialistic 'treasures' which thinks they truly deserve and are worth fighting for)
Thanks for helping me find the words to explain why Brazil is one of my favorite films ever!
This is such a richly detailed movie. I feel one could do thesis work on it. One of my favorite details is the elevator that no longer makes it to the floor, but opens the door with three or four feet to go. The whole society that is only functioning just enough is brilliantly captured in this one detail...how he just hoists himself out so matter of factly is brilliant.
Where is the real lava lamp!
This is NOT REALITY
Look, I'm sorry about the balls! It was a lucky shot, that's all!
Do you read sutter cane?
Well he must get real one xD
The real one, or rather the previous one, died in an earthquake.
Interesting. I always remember watching Brazil for the first time thinking it was unlike any Hollywood film I had ever seen.
Obviously “Nineteen Eighty Four” wasn’t just about a dystopian future. You should do a video about that, particularly on the limitations of its critique of Stalinism and especially on Orwell’s views of the BBC and the start of the Cold War.
A decade long bombing campaign that everyone is ignoring?
That sounds disturbingly familiar.
I know you've probably gotten a lot of comments like this, but I think it's important to point out that Eric Blair's book 1984 wasn't intended to represent any ideology. Fascism, Communism, what-have-you. Instead, it was supposed to represent totalitarianism, and a part of how totalitarianism works is adopting hte jargon and lingo of other ideologies ot pass itself off as something that it's not. The Party in 1984 does claim to be socialist, but simultaneoulsy the Party claims that socialism doesn't work. The party claims that it is a bastion of Democracy, but also that Democracy is a foolish system that leads to national ruin. It's an extremely important part of the cognitive dissonance associated with Doublethink that anything the Party says is simply a means for the party to remain in power, even if it's nonsensical and contradictory.
Which drives me so battsh!t crazy when seeing all the virtue signaling libtard/punch-a-Nazi crowds that sincerely cannot self-reference their complicit natures on-line. Although I *am* sympathetic to how that middle of the road can be just as sterile as watching from the sidelines.
@@kiba000 anarchism isn't a left wing ideology it is literally the idea of dismantling the left wing and right wing
Eric Blair? Who's that?
@@saucevc8353 : "better known by his pen name George Orwell"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
As a Brazilian I confirm everything he said under law 13.274 paragraph 86
Thought i am afraid more search will be necessary for understanding your future charges, so as constitutional act, and as a citizen and part of the military by law of the sovereignty citizen, i here declare
*YOU MUST COME TO BRAZIL*
Edit: don't forget your towel
The scan-line filter placed over the lava lamp is extremely awesome looking. It was a subtle, but amazing thing to add, and while I'm not sure why, it somehow fit with feel of the film perfectly. Great job making that decision and great job on the video; it was excellent, as always.
I watched Brazil as a young boy who didn't do heavy thoughtful films but I loved Brazil.
Been waiting a long time for this Georg, is one of my favourite films, so thank you very much for covering it.
Brazil highlights the absurdity of authoritarianism. Look at the pageants and marches and demonstrations the Nazis, the Soviets, and the Chinese did, and the present day North Koreans do. It's practically a stage play comedy played straight with the stupid levels of fanaticism. Much like the film itself with its physical comedy, it's hilarious until it's *SUDDENLY NOT* in the worst way possible. Much like in reality there is no comic book level super villain emperor that's evil for the sake of being evil. It's complex levels of mind numbing bureaucracy where no one person is truly at fault for the crimes against humanity the government commits. It's about 95% cubicle workers and desk clerks trying to rush through paperwork to get home on time to have dinner and enough sleep to do it again tomorrow. The only difference is that their new boring paperwork is life and death for people they don't know and will most likely never meet.
inability to introspection and blindness of people is stunning.
I guess if I had done 8 hours work in some Soviet Union Office I'd care more about going home and having dinner with my family than on some random name on a form I'd just signed. It's not worth complaining about
That's one hell of a big text that I'm not reading
I think the movie is much more about the current state of affairs on the worldwide nations, west included, than a specific critique of Nazis, Soviets and the CCP. Modern gadgets do wonder but none really works very well, system failures and hacks are constant and if you ever had to depend on omniscient google maps to get somewhere you don't know you'll sure run into rough roads; there is always a contract where you not entirely own your own devices (see right to repair movement for example), software is now mostly on pay and when your new windows have a problem you're out of luck because help is just a same routine spilled by a online technician bot , you're under constant surveillance from the government under pretense to fight off barely named "the terrorists of the year" (depends where you're from, may be called "the terrorists", "the communists", "the criminals"), a organization which holds absolutely no power at all and at the same time seems to be undestructible and ultrapervasive. Inequality and debt worldwide is rampant and ads are everywhere, just like the covered landscapes of the movie. In some countries like US, France, U.K. and now Russia, there is an eternal war and everyday bombings yet somehow the society acts like its mostly nothing, there is a brief commotion and then carry on.
@@milicoA Also they want to know what you wrote in messenger. Google
Australia's encryption bill
Brazil is here and now.
There aren’t really any indifferent people rather even the traditional baddies have been consumed by the apparatus. It is a TOTAL totalitarian state. Battle is the last man who recognizes there might be something external to the systems of the state but ultimately he is assimilated as well except for his fantasy world. The film is a holistic nightmare. Pure genius.
That moment when the lava lamp is different
Happiness:
We're all in it together!
Ah, possibly my personal favorite. Some of the scenes you mention are only in the director's cut. I believe that only the edited version made it to movie houses here in the U.S. It's quite a difference. As I put it, one version of the movie ends among the clouds, the other ends at the bottom of a well. It really shapes how you view the movie altogether. Thinking about it now (with rum in my tum) I respect the movie for how much it doesn't explain, and thus leaves to the viewer to imagine how everyday life is like in Brazil. I find little nuggets in the movie that make me question the motivations of the operating society. How much of it is the citizenry feeding into the politics, or how much is the government spoon feeding its citizens, or both? Brazil has enthralled my imagination and fostered my love for dystopian environs since I saw it.
Almost as big a story as Brazil was how it almost wasn't released. Gilliam and Milchan on one side and Universal and Sid Sheinberg on the other. A ridiculous Universal edit was released but when the full version found its way to the LA Film Critics who declared it the best film of the year. Very ironic that Gilliam stood up to the system and won with a film that showed Sam Lowry standing up to the system and losing.
The technology in the movie is bureaucratic too. That’s one of my favorite parts.
Lava lamp only exists in the parallel universe where Brazil is a reality.
One thing that I think about this movie is that only Brazillians that live opressed by infinity buriocracy could deeply understand that movie, and why this tittle makes sense. After all Brazil is the country of the paperwork and the multi-layered infinity buriocracy. Just like the protagonist we live in a paper and taxes hell.
I just watched this a few nights ago for the first time thanks to you Georgie. That ending. One of the best I've seen.
One of my all time favourites from when I was a kid, along with Metropolis.
Beelzibubbles add a movie called After Hours to that mix.... 👍
Time for a dystopian binge, then.
Been waiting a while for this one, George. Brazil is one of my very favourite films.
bravo my guy I loved your take on it
The ridiculously excessive and obstructive ducting in the rooms is a clever metaphor for overzealous bureaucracy and unreasonable regulations.
One thing Brazil gets right that 1984 didn't even consider is rampant bureaucratic incompetence.
Talk about qualifying your remarks, Outstanding articulation.
Brazil is one of my favourite Gilliam movies.
I'd say that modern society is more like Huxley's "Brave New World".
Take a look at Gilliam's latest movie, The Zero Theorem, it's like an "updated", Brazil like dystopian satire.
Gilliam ALWAYS took huge risks. Genius level risks. Often, sadly, it didn't quite work.
Brazil however is, in my opinion, his crowning achievement.
I'm brazilian and Brazil it's one of my favorite movies 🙂
Your channel is exceptional.
This is an absolutely amazing film. One scene that truly sticks out is the one where they are at a restaurant and a bomb goes off but people are just sitting there like nothing's happened. I feel like this is happening a lot now where people are being desensitised by the terrorist attacks because of how many of them we get.
Is the lava lamp sick? What did you do to it?
Just watched Brazil , agree with your observations George.
I find myself saying "In a beautiful variety of pastel shades!" entirely too often.
My favorite Brazil character is Henry Tuttle, the rogue HVAC repairman played by Robert De Nero. His character is SUCH a breath of fresh air amidst all of the oppression and bureaucracy. He's the embodiment of the thrill you get when you do construction on my own home without a permit. Of selling something to your friend without paying tax on it. Or purchasing weed in a legal U.S. state even though it's federally illegal. Tuttle represents the expediency of getting one over on our mundane oppressors.
One of my absolute favourite movies. I wonder if a film like this would attract as much attention nowadays. I suspect not :-/
It might, actually. There is a lot in our 2010s attitudes which seems closer to the new-Right 80s than the socially liberal 90s-2000s. (At least in England.) Unfortunately the film itself is just so overlooked compared to Gilliam's other works.
Watch out, Georg, you don't want them finding out you're missing a 46D-L or at least an official Lighting Adjustment & Modification Permit with your new Lava Lamp just sitting out in the open like that.
"Endless paperwork is the tyrant"
Welcome to real-life 2018 Brazil
The idea that it's a comedy is beyond me. This was the most disturbing movie I saw a teenager. Horror to the nth degree. And it's even more disturbing now because we have moved closer to this as reality. The fact that there are some jokes and humor only serve to make it more horrifying.
Love Brazil, a flawed masterpiece that certainly could have been trimmed by at least 15-20 minutes. I’d also strongly recommend everyone see the “The Love Conquers All” Hollywood cut, a lesson in the stupidity of Hollywood and how not to make a movie.
And remember, we’re all in it together!
Love this! Been watching for a long time, but this essay was spot! Im sharing it. Im homeless and your vids keep me going some days. Anyway thanks
I like this video a lot just cause of that subtle joke at 4:39 I appreciate the understanding of it thanks for making it
Great video, I think we are there now
Last time I was arrested and put in country, I did have to pay for my arrest. It's called a booking fee
This movie has been burned in my mind since my teen years growing up in Washington, DC. Many years have passed with relief that it could never happen.
Um, at 56 and retired in coastal North Carolina, US ...it's coming
Possibly my favorite movie. Certainly top 5 and surely the most cerebral and satirical.
problem with Brazil..shit title...an SEO nightmare when you type Brazil into a search engine
I'm sure Terry Gilliam considered the SEO implications of the film's title very seriously when he came up with it in the mid-1980s.
@@pauljohnson7548 He is right though the title might have hampered it somewhat... I was a sci-fi fan (still am) in the mid-late 90's as I was growing up and I missed seeing this film because I thought the title was about the country Brazil, and pictured tropical beaches, football, you know something like the film Rio and Rio 2. But the alternative titles Gilliam came up with weren't too good anyway... I have tried to come up with a better title to the film myself and failed. The title should be ironic, invoking a paradise where none exists - this is the concept of the film's current title which would have worked had the country not been more widely known than the song.
This is legit my favorite film and I don't even have to finish the video to know how quality it is
BRAZIL is the greatest movie ever made.when I’m in turmoil I watch it and it helps a lot.I want the tune playing at my funeral.beautiful movie.Terrie Gilliam is A GENIUS.!.!.!.!
The film depicts oppression, and apart from being callous, the oppressors are also incompetent. Gilliam plays with a similar concept in "12 Monkeys", and I love it
Was way ahead of its time ~
One of my favoraite film despite the fact the end messed me up so bad I don't think I ever want to watch it again
Brazil is one of my all time favorite movies and t makes me really happy you’re covering it
*You have to pay for your own arrest*
So it's an Anarcho-capitalist meme?
No its present day california. (Where people are fined the cost of prosecuting them) (look it up)
America where you can’t pay $200? You going to jail
It's not just those arrested forced to pay exorbitant fines, but prison inmates are billed for their very expensive "accommodations". Since we're talking about the poorest citizens who earn almost nothing for prison work, it's a guaranty they won't be able to survive when released. Of course their credit ratings are ruined, and they risk possible imprisonment for not paying. www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34705968
No, it's British Limousine Socialism gone horribly awry.
Gilliam himself stated, he wanted to call it "1984½" !
...
Brazil came specifically from the time, from the approaching of 1984. It was looming. In fact, the original title of Brazil was 1984 ½. Fellini was one of my great gods and it was 1984, so let’s put them together. Unfortunately, that bastard Michael Radford did a version of 1984 and he called it 1984, so I was blown
I love how Mr. Helpmann talks entirely in sports metaphors.
In the US at least, you actually do pay for your own arrest at a rate set by the arresting police department. It can easily be several hundred dollars.
I think the film is more relevant now than ever with the threat of fines or imprisonment for having the wrong type of boiler.
Good grief... we'll soon need a licence to change a light bulb.
We're all in this together!
Honestly probably more a documentary kind of like the movie THEY, both films still ahead of their time.
I think he won at the end he did it by taking an inner emigration they said it he slipped there grasp and in a twisted way, he is crazy and happy that music at the end confirms it for me. I'm from an ex-communist country and inner emigration was a very important concept in the 80's
My theory:
If Orwell wrote 1984, this movie's "secret title" could be *1968.*
The world in Brazil is _the world that winds up as the 1984 world_ - a transition world.
Also the title may reference the movie "The Boys From Brazil", which is a nutty movie too.
Great work on this video man, this was right on.
This seems less like a prequel to 1984 than it is a sequel.
In 1984, the government is at it's height. Everyone is hopelessly oppressed. The government has total control and support, to the point where it can make people forget things they just spent years supporting. Some conditions are declining, but it's a controlled decline intended to further oppress people. The government knows everything (or at least is good enough at surveillance to make everyone think they know everything). No one even thinks about rebellion.
In Brazil, the government is slipping. The decline is no longer just destroying the will of the people, it's also destroying infrastructure. The constant changing of facts and massive bureaucracy is leading to a LOT of actual mistakes: Mistakes that are causing some to doubt the system. It's a failing society holding itself together with red tape.
I am from Brazil and really looks like my country speacially of the early 2000s but it’s very base on the 60s ditactorship
Brazil and demolition man are the best sifi dystopian movies.
I love Gilliam (Time Bandits was my 1st cinema experience) Sci-Fi, dystopian films, satire and the visual flair of Brazil, but this film never sat right with me when I saw it and I've struggled to watch it again. It makes me feel uncomfortable and now of watched this video, I think I finally understand why. Great film, but a tough watch.
Brazil is by far one of my favorite movies of all time.
Another lovely video. AND i LOVE THE NEW LAMP EFFECT!
Georg - I would love to hear your insight on these subjects.
1 - Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet/1999/UFO - Gerry Anderson legacy
You never seem to mention TV subjects - so this might be off your usual area, but I would be interested.
2 - The Matrix
This is one film I remember by reaction during the end titles, being left breathless and technically very impressed.
The sequels pail in comparison, but your comments on the idea of a 'simulation existence' would be appreciated.
3 - The War movie genre post WWII to the 1970's where contemporary 'hot' conflicts like Vietnam became more of a focus.
4 - Similarly, Cold War movies such as the Harry Palmer trilogy, Dr.Strangelove, The Third Man, even From Russia with Love.
I remember watching Brazil after Doug Walker recommended it heavily. I dreaded that my work will look similar to their paper riddled world. It's not as bad, but is certainly so close it makes me wanna lose my mind.
Georg, I'm not seeing enough of you and your lava lamp. I demand more of your particular brand of cynical dry wit and incisive criticism. More reviews damn it! ☺
Oh how things look even more relatable 3 years later.....
My number one film of all time.
that lava lamp ain't right
Нет Нетович
CGI
I remember seeing this as a young on the G4 before i had more of an appreciation for this sort of thing and yknow i didn't "get it" but it fit in with my edgy-avant-garde-art thing i had going on a bit back then. Nowadays I feel like I get where it would hit home for portraying the sorta things it does right, along with generally being just a unique experience. But y'know it's like Blade Runner where the story may not hold up to extensive scrutiny, but its really pretty and full of these moments where all the stars are aligned and it's just a goddamn painting come to life.
But yeah shit's a bit on the long side.
Thank you Georg for this excellent (if all too brief) analysis of my favourite film. Bravo!
Great vid. Wish it was longer.
Best Xmas move ever!!!...
OMG, I forgot this channels name, and couldn't find it again. No search term I used lead me here. But today UA-cam recommended me one of your clips.
Great video... Again.
This channel is a gem and you are the channel.