Brazil

Brazil “Brazil” by Terry Gilliam is a 1985 film about a man named Sam Lowry who daydreams about flying away from the dictatorial society he currently dwells in. The film is the story of a seemingly futuristic, government controlled civilization in which technology and extreme efficiency has overwhelmed the world. Unlike the film Gattaca where it is blatantly obvious that it is set in the future, Brazil’s timeline remains ambiguous throughout the entire film. The film’s main concern is regarding how technology is corrupt and how a government becomes an omniscient presence in response to widespread terrorism appears to be too farsighted from a modern perspective. In blurring the timeline by saying “somewhere in the 20th century” it suggests that cases of totalitarian societies recurred in past and will continue to do so in the future. The film aims to demonstrate to the public just how flawed a “perfect” society can be. The film’s events are set into motion by a bug being squished and falling into the machine introducing a typographical error on a government form intended for the apprehension of a terrorist by the name of Archibald Tuttle, which after the stain became Archibald Buttle. This shows how one insignificant bug which is representative of a human can greatly impact on a large and “perfect” system. This situation could have easily been reversed with a little thorough investigation, however when a government’s motto is “We don’t make mistakes” it’s difficult to notify the media of an error. Humans have taken excessive efforts developing technology and inventing machines that will make our lives more pleasant and enjoyable. This can be seen in the film “Brazil” a perfect society with rooms filled with inventions and machines that make life easier. Yet, the machine that’s supposed to cook the protagonist’s toast to perfection proved to be faulty and on the contrary provides him with a burnt breakfast. The machines in this film also dehumanize workers, as they are depicted as mindless operators of fallible machinery. This idea leads to issues regarding morality, which can be seen from the williningness of the governmental workers to never question the morality or the meaning of their job. This can be seen when one of the governmental workers told his partner that he killed the wrong man, he responds by saying "The wrong man was delivered to me as the right man. I accepted him on good faith as the right man. Was I wrong'" However People place trust in leaders, as they manage and operate the society to improve the general welfare of the community as a whole. However this film provides a situation where humans give the government total control and they themselves just become cogs in a machine. The government in Brazil appears to be a mysterious organization with an unknown founder and leader. In fact the only leader we are introduced to is the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information, a spokesman for the government who extensively uses euphemisms to deceive or conceal a particular issue. For example instead of declaring someone dead, he calls them “complete” or “dormant”. This is reflective of the text’s contextual society where during America’s war on terror the government announced they were using “enhanced interrogation techniques” as opposed to torture.