Brazil (1985)

Brazil (1985), directed by Terry Gilliam.

I saw this in the theater and a few times on home video thereafter, but my memory was unreliable. I recalled the Orwellian plot and oppressive tone, but had forgotten Gilliam's characteristic razzle-dazzle, the light and color and flood of absurd bits of humor and visual jokes, usually with a dark point, as when all the hatted men sit in the railcar while a one-legged woman is forced to stand.

It is a dark, bitter satire on dehumanizing modernity set in an alternative post-WW2 Britain (judging by the clothes and ugly utilitarian appliances). Where efficiency, automation and bureaucracy work they are brutalizing, but mostly they just don't work.

Unusually, we get to see behind the masks of the faceless men and the stormtroopers to discover... they are just ordinary folks, pleasant or malicious as may be.

But there's more: one of the dreadful realizations of maturity is that yes, you really can get used to almost anything. Think about that. Stuff you swore you would never tolerate when young and passionate you find yourself accepting and not even questioning when you are older.

Gilliam's genius is showing how it works: the cozy little comforts people stock their cubicles with, the fantasy worlds of old movies and advertisements, the secret belief that "I'm not one of them, a cog, I'm an individual and a free spirit!"

Our hero dreams of heroically rescuing his dream girl. He's had it and tries to break out, but as a free spirit he's a disaster, leaving ruin in his path. We hear gunfire after they put the bag over his head and I fear that was the end for Jill.

If you haven't seen it and are wondering if this is a comedy: yes, and scary and depressing as hell.

Assorted thoughts:

• The first time I saw it I completely missed the actual cause of the screwup that sets the plot going, where the man smashes the fly that falls into the teletype, causing "Buttle" and "Tuttle" to be confused.

• Tuttle's dreaded paperwork finally got him.

• I love the ascii art photos produced by the teletypes. I used to have a bunch of posters done with the overprinting technique to make faux-grayscale: Spock, man on the moon, etc.

• A few beautiful moments show people walking in the evening in the starkly utilitarian metropolis, elegant in it's own way.

• Gilliam doesn't have a lot of restraint and tends to lay it on thick, throwing in all his ideas at once.

• Q: If dehumanizing modernity is the problem, what's the solution? A: There isn't one. Q: What? A: Sorry, I didn't do it.

• You never see Brazil listed as a Christmas film, even though it is. Funny old world, innit?

Available on Blu-ray.