Gilliam's setting Brazil in a future-past kind of middle ground reminds me of the ending of The Great Gatsby which says "so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past". I feel that Gilliam was making a statement about how we can never escape our past just as Fitzgerald was. Gilliam's is less direct about making the point but I feel that Sam's madness stems from his attempt to escape his loyal worker background. By leaving his old workplace Sam gets caught up in his dream about Jill and keeps trying to push his past back and follow his dreams. Eventually Sam himself becomes an enemy of the state leading to his final delusional state somewhat like Gatsby's death.
As a note on The Matrix vs Brazil I feel that The Matrix is more directed at machines than Brazil as the latter pertains more to humans working like machines for a common "good" which is a flawless society. In The Matrix the futuristic technology surrounding the film makes me feel like it's more about humans being used by machines rather than humans turning into the machines themselves.
The film is more subtle than you make it out to be. Who in Brazil behaves like a machine?? Who works like a machine?
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