Tom Jolliffe on Terry Gilliam’s Brazil…
Over the next week I will be looking at a selection of prescient films (and TV) which represent a cutting depiction of not only our present, but our near future. To start the ball rolling here, I consider Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece, Brazil. A look into a bleak, totalitarian future, filled with bureaucracy. Then next week in part 2, a breakdown of the societal and technological changes predicted in modern Science fiction such as Ex Machina, Black Mirror and more.
The beauty of Science Fiction is that it has the ability to tell a story that relates to the current world, but which can be set in a future of limitless possibilities. Until you reach 2015 and realise self drying clothes, flying cars and hover boards aren’t yet available, there’s no one to tell you, you’re wrong. Writers have been doing it for years. H.G Wells was a fine proponent and George Orwell. As far as film goes, there have been a lot of iconic examples. 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner are probably the two most iconic in terms of visuals, whilst 1984 (the film version of Orwell’s classic novel, which inspired Brazil), Twelve Monkeys (another Gilliam classic) and Running Man offer telling insights from not only the period they were made but also the changes in society since (and a projection of our future). Whilst things may of course not be quite as dark as something like the bleak future of Twelve Monkeys, aspects of these films ring true. Blade Runner’s visually resplendent film has often provided the visual inspiration for countless films since, but that depiction of a world of architectural mish-mash and neons is reminiscent of many modern cities, particularly in Asia. Walking around Shanghai or Bangkok at night for example, is like being on the set of Blade Runner. Whilst (like most major cities) over population and a barrage of hustling bustling inhabitants, Blade Runner’s projection of the current Cityscape was tellingly accurate. In addition if you look at London as an example it perfectly encapsulates a diverse ethnic mix that Blade Runner’s view of a future L.A. (set two years from now) also predicted. The L.A depicted in Blade Runner is a mixture of ghettos with a wildly polarising rich/poor divide. Again, like most modern major cities in the developed world.
Which brings us to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Whilst many dark, dystopian films generally take a serious tone, no one ever expects a Gilliam film to be deathly serious. Brazil is no different. It’s got all the classic dystopian elements but it’s loaded with a mix of Pythonesque humour and cutting satire. Visually it’s magnificent. Gilliam’s visual feast is loaded with imaginative and eye-popping images. Gilliam also injects the film with perpetual energy. It doesn’t slow down for two hours and all anchored by the engaging central performance by Jonathan Pryce, whilst an eclectically mixed cast, including Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent (snip snip), Michael Palin and Katherine Helmond offer memorable support.
The world of Gilliam’s Brazil is fantastical. This is a cold, pipe laden, industrial and ugly world. Everything is designed for efficiency but thoroughly inefficient, from faltering automatic toasters, coffee machines, to menus in which the waiter cannot leave until the required number, responding to a meal, is uttered. Whilst visual aspects are imbued with typical Gilliam exaggeration, underneath the surface it sharply cuts to the core of where we are, and where we’re heading. Shot in the mid-80’s, written by Tom Stoppard and Gilliam (no stranger to the UK lay of the land) it was made slap bang in the middle of Thatcher’s Tory government. There’s no surprise that such succinct jibes at bureaucratic practice, class divides and vanity of the wealthy are rife within the film given the political and social landscape of the 80’s. Indeed the current conservative government is ripe for a Gilliam dissection.
So not only did Brazil offer a telling representation of the 80’s, it also predicts, pretty accurately, a future that we’re in the midst of now, and destined to continue on the course of. Lets talk about paperwork. In Brazil you can’t do anything without a 27B/6. Have you ever had to do anything that requires giving details to any kind of government or council authority? The sheer, mind numbing levels of largely pointless, finicky and unnecessarily complex paperwork we all have to endure is ridiculous. The tiniest clerical error can also cause disaster too.
Within the working classes we toil away, enjoying our little luxuries but ultimately grinding our existence away to live in a small hole, and fantasising about a better life. Sam Lowry (Pryce) does this, eventually descending into madness, unable to distinguish dreams from reality, but he’s reached the stage where the former is a more worthwhile existence.
One slightly disturbingly prescient part of Brazil is the depiction of the terrorist events which plague city life. We come into the story at the point where people have become so numb to it, that life carries on as normal. Even sat in a restaurant half blown to smithereens, the patrons on the unscathed side just carry on regardless, completely blanking the destruction, carnage and bloodshed on the other. In Brazil it’s partly based on Gilliam’s own experience living in London during the IRA attacks. It goes without saying that the terror attacks which have rocked the UK this year have been appalling and crushing, and the growing regularity pretty frightening. So how long before it becomes so routine we become cold to it. Did the most recent attack have the same punch in the gut as Westminster? Perhaps not. As we keep being told, “life carries on” etc. Thoroughly British. One viral video from the London Bridge attack showed one man calmly escaping from the attack, with a pint in hand and not a drip spilt. Labelled, whether you agree or not, some kind of hero, it is that thorough British, stiff upper lipped will to carry on regardless which will mean these groups will never win. Are we getting close to the stage of Brazil? For better or worse.
Systems portrayed in Brazil are bloated with middle men, woefully inefficient in their quest for efficiency. That in a nutshell is the way most of our large public services and privatised national services run. Money thrown down the drain on systems wretchedly designed to make life easier, but result only in doing the exact opposite. Meanwhile everyone gets locked into their task and cannot breakaway from that. No one can operate outside of their remit. Have you ever asked for anything in a shop, restaurant or wherever, particularly within a large chain/corporation, or public service, only to be told “I can’t do that, as I could lose my job”? Company procedure supersedes logic, common sense and often human decency. Much like the waiter in Brazil who can’t finish taking orders until you’ve uttered a number, as opposed to just naming the dish you want. You have to abide by the company as you the consumer are an afterthought.
Recently my wife came back from a holiday, returning alone with our baby. Babies are difficult to manage, especially when you’ve got luggage to contend with. Did anyone from Heathrow airport help? No. No offers. When she requested help she was told it’s not procedure and thus would threaten the job of anyone who might have helped (but then was told she could receive help…for a price!). Granted one of the many solo business travellers carrying nothing but a briefcase could have shown some common ruddy courtesy, but lets face it, human beings are essentially bastards out for numero uno. Modern procedural logic, health and safety nonsense gone mad. This is the world we exist in. The world Gilliam foresaw in Brazil. Which reminds me…I still need to write a letter of complaint to Heathrow. Simply reads: Sod off…insincerely, Thomas Jolliffe.
Gilliam’s insightful film projected a time when we’re merely cogs in a machine and our individuality is meaningless. Inspired by Orwell, laced with Python and imbued with whimsy, it’s a fun but searingly intelligent dissection of society then, which is prevalent now.
Next time: Ex Machina, Black Mirror and how technology may ruin us.
Tom Jolliffe
Originally published June 10, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
