The future no matter how evolutionary or how many new technologies
are introduced retains some sense of the past, (as an example I realized only a
few days ago that “Car” is short for “Carriage”), especially when attempting to
communicated with audiences from a screen.
Having elements that are recognizable, not only make the material
presented easier to understand but easier to perceive as probable and easier to
criticize, because remains of the past or present are found.
Brazil’s wonderful dark humor, which arguably is one of Britain’s
greatest exports, serves to ridicule things such as perception of beauty
(plastic surgery), over-industrialization of food (what are we really eating? At
the restaurant), and of course the freedom of citizens (the bureau in a very “big
Brother” persona) along many others. Things such as the over-indulgence of
paper work, the liberty of the government in “protecting” its citizens, and the
importance of stature can already be perceived in our time, which makes Gilliam’s
ironic views that much more comprehensible.
When contemplating The Matrix to Brazil, The Matrix does have a
much more serious approach, and at the same time because it includes so many
objects and technologies that are unrecognizable it makes it harder to approach
or to find it believable. One of the reasons why I found Brazil to be
incredible interesting was because I didn’t find it that difficult to believe/imagine,
a world over ruled by an organization controlling its citizens to the letter,
cluttered in paper work and bureaucracy? It’s already happening.
ON that note I do
wish to comment on the ending of the film. While we as the audience see it as a
very negative ending concluding with our dear protagonist lost in a delusion,
someone pointed out to me that at the very end, hasn’t he “won”? Even if its
insanity that has liberated him, he is free; he no longer belongs to the system
even if only in his own mind.
(P.S. I think
this is ONLY film I have enjoyed so far, Blade Runner will be the end of me…)
Well, you can thank Blade Runner for Brazil's "noir" look. It came 3 years before.
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you find Blade Runner to be "difficult to imagine"? Seems closer to where we're headed than Brazil's retro-future. Climate change, urban decay, cheap labor, lower classes...look around you!