Brazil Why We Fear The 20Th Century Essays - English-language Films

Brazil: Why We Fear The 20Th Century In the early 1980's, a vision of dystopia was lying in the mind of Terry Gilliam. That vision was his future film Brazil to be written by Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown, and himself. The movie was filmed in Wembley, England by Lee International Film Studios. After being a remarkable success during its release in Europe in 1984, Brazil had much more difficulties with its release in the United States. Terry Gilliam had previously signed a contract with Universal Studios for an expected 132-minute movie. Brazil, as released in Europe was 142 minutes long. Universal Studios took this opportunity to edit the film as they chose to make it a more marketable film from their perspective. Unfortunately for Terry Gilliam, this meant that they would completely reconstruct the meaning of the movie. He quickly took to doing his own re-editing of the movie to fit it in the 132 minute prerequisite and turned it over in January of 1985. Once this was done, Universal Studios no longer had the right to change Gilliam's movie and instead insisted on not releasing it. Infuriated by his work being put on the shelf, Terry Gilliam took out a full-page advertisement in Variety magazine with the words: Dear Sid Sheinberg, when are going to release my film 'BRAZIL'? Terry Gilliam. Although this advertisement did not get his film released it did create quite a stir among the Los Angeles movie critics. In fact, they were so curious about the movie that the film was played privately in their homes and getting fantastic reviews. The movie did so well, that it ended up winning Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Direction. With much reluctance and little advertising, Universal Studios to released the movie in December of 1985. (http:\\home.sol.no\~frittz) This final release is what still holds the fans of today. Every frame of the movie is speaking to its audience about the issues surrounding the twentieth century and particularly the late seventies and early eighties. It can speak so well of the entire century because the setting itself is unclear about when the events of the film are occurring. In the opening sequence to the movie, 8:49 pm (pause) somewhere in the 20th century, appears across the screen. The people are dressed in 1930's fashions using technologies, some of which are beyond the scope of today, others of which are not dateable. They are perhaps visions of the 80's as a future from an earlier time in the century. This use of technology is just one of the issues being addressed in the movie. There is an abundance of appliances, gadgets and devices that are created with the idea that they are meant to make the world easier, simpler and more fun to live in. But the majority of these devices fail to serve their purpose making things more cluttered and cumbersome. This includes elevators that don't work, automated coffee machines that pour the coffee in the incorrect place, alarm clocks that get 'stuck', miniature sized computers with magnifying glasses for viewing, and most importantly to the main character, Sam Lowry, heating ducts that don't work. Apartments in the world of Brazil are equipped with centralized climate control ducts in the walls. The walls themselves are made out of panels to access all the tubing going through the walls in all directions. To the misfortune of Sam Lowry, his heating ducts go incredibly array. When he calls to have them fixed by the proper authorities, he is disappointed to find service unavailable and then later, inefficient. Following misfortunes due to this breakdown lead to Sam Lowry's eventual demise. Brazil depicts how technology is not always a positive thing. Even products and systems that are designed specifically for our benefit can become more tedious than useful. Technology is not equivalent to progress, though much of the twentieth century has set that example. Industrialization as a whole is swerving from its initial goals of accommodating the growing population to becoming something that is no longer within human control. And without human control, technology loses its functionality. Among one of the largest growing technologies during the 1980s was the internet. The movie Brazil is fascinating in its way of presenting so many different issues with one