Brazil

 Brazil: A film review

“Paperwork is the embalming fluid of bureaucracy, maintaining an appearance of life where none exists.” (2020) words by Pobert Metzer that truly encompass the bizarre and absurd film Brazil, by Terry Gilliam. In this film, we see a rather complacent man who desires to do the right thing in an amoral world, an underachieving bureaucrat named Sam Lowry, who enjoys spending his days pushing papers. He suddenly “wakes up” and joins the resistance. Along the way, Sam, the dreamer living in an oppressive world, a totalitarian society, discovers the truth and becomes a renegade alongside the AC repairman, Archibald (Harry) Tuttle. Sam and Harry are connected by a paperwork error that sparks Sam to join the resistance and break out of the monotony. The emotions were high and the stakes seemed higher. One wrong move and The Ministry of Truth, government, would drop down from the ceiling and steal you away to be tortured and killed, as we learned in the first scene and again in the last. 

The issue throughout the film was the government's blatant inefficiency and harshness and instead of doing something about the various issues, they covered them up. Fixing things by adding venting tubes and attaching wires and blaming random explosions (one can only guess from what) on “terrorists” which didn’t seem to phase the guests at the lunch table when the explosion went off right behind them while they kept eating. This absurd film had many elements of dehumanization, from the society defined by the corporations, the bureaucratic insaneness of a hierarchical government, and the numb consumerism. It was absolutely satirical but it shed light on how these things impacted people which is similar to the real world. The people within this story either forcefully reinforced the absurd system or they became victims of it. In the end, Sam only escapes the system through madness. 

Reflection 

My reaction to the film Brazil was that it was uncomfortable to watch and bizarre. It made me think how this could happen to any government once it prohibits opposition and outlaws individualism then becomes a totalitarian society. Over time and by a series of events this could happen. Their numb acceptance to the government made me think people that gave up and followed the villains which made the mood of the film depressing. Along with the score and dark grey visual scenes and redundancies, Gilliams got his message across. In addition to the dark and gloomy scenes, the computer-generated imagery, CGI, actually distracted from the story. The most frustrating part of the film was the conclusion. It did not end with a solution to the problem or a well-deserved happy ending. It was simply a downward spiral escape into madness for Sam, the only place he could be the hero who gets the girl. 

What stood out to me the most about this film and became a key element in telling the story was the score. It was mostly dramatic background music set to tell you how you should feel at any given point of the film. The film was much more music than dialogue, where scenes were acted out instead of talked into action. We saw this in many scenes, but the ones that stood out were the dream sequences where Sam is chasing after Jill to save her. These scenes were odd and I didn’t see much of a connection to the rest of the film besides the fact that this is what he wishes he had versus the life Sam had to settle for reluctantly.

Analysis 

In this film we see the excess use of technology, “the deployment of technology results in paradoxes that simultaneously increase and reduce freedom.” (Austin & Callen, p. 1) which improves efficiency but also creates a world of laziness and reliance on technology. We see this theory throughout the film in the bureaucratic paper-pushing scenes and the inability to fix things without contacting the government which then sends someone to do the work resulting in another receipt; just more paperwork. The world within this film attempts to create a utopic vision and tragically fails. In our readings this week we learned that progress is the danger of modernism and we must analyze the implications of governance to understand the idea of utopia. In this film, we see heterotopia, which means a place of alternative ordering according to Austin and Callen, in the workplace of Sam where it was simply a rat-race. Throughout this film, we also saw key elements of technicism within the culture. The people thought they could solve all problems and control reality through the use of scientific-technological methods. They used technology as a means of achieving the perfect society, which was only perfect on the surface and where the government hid the issues, such as under panels and in air duct tubing that was draped everywhere. These people believed technology was the solution to all problems including socio-political and psychological ones. And they allowed the government to remove human deviations by killing them to solve small issues. When it came to innovation, it was limited. “Any discussion of innovative capabilities assumes a relationship between the amount of effort devoted to innovation and the resulting innovative outputs” (Metcalfe, p. 31) which in turn means this society did not value progress and did not put forth the effort to accomplish anything beyond what the government did for them. “In relation to technological change: it involves the interaction between internal and external sources of knowledge cumulative; and it supports localized and primarily incremental innovation” (Metcalfe, p. 32). We did not see the internal and external sources working together within this film and instead saw the closed manner in which innovation was restricted because the government's authority over technology controlled the system and all aspects of society. The Foucault theory examines this power dynamic within a society and in this case the bipower was too strong and the surveillance and monitoring became the stronghold over society dictating who lived and who died. 

In regards to creating utopianism, “the delays or failures in reaching those ends are the result of mistakes in implementation and not flaws in the underlying ideology” (Austin & Callen, p 22) which was clear in Sam's workplace where mistakes were punishable and no one questioned how the structure worked or corrected mistakes. This type of society is known as disciplinary which is also called a “society of control” according to Austin and Callen, which we see in the patterned and regulated ways of this film's societal structure. A consequence of this is that individuals become “dividuals, meaning identities that can be infinitely sliced into measurable and marketable bits” (Austin and Callen, p. 25) which plays a huge role in how the government keeps pressure on its people. What should happen within this messy bureaucratic world is to “move away from that discourse, (meaning the forced authority where they live by collecting receipts) and instead explore how lived conditions in developed societies have changed in profound but little examined ways” (Austin & Callen, p 23) which would create a more stable and harmonious environment where the people could be individuals who did not rely on the government and technology for survival.

The main issue throughout the film was the government was lissez-faire but with all the control because instead of doing something about the various issues, they seemed to cover them up with extreme force and success. They do this by adding all these venting tubes and attaching wires to things for the appearance of something being fixed when in fact it is simply out of sight.  Another example is the random explosions and saying there are “acts of terrorism” however the explosions didn’t cause terror as society had grown to expect these interruptions and inconveniences. This film also had elements of dehumanization such as the corporate-style government and the bureaucratic lifestyle. The people within this story either became part of the system or they became victims of the villainous corporate bureaucracy. It shed light on how these things impacted people which is similar to the real world. How do we move forward in moral subjectification if the government is pushing down and using technology to control and scare the constituents? Although there was no “real world” within this film, there was a technological bureaucratic controlled government and a dream world in which Sam chose to live. But sadly in the end, we saw no change from the status quo or failures of the broken system. In the end, according to the film The system didn’t really win, the government just lost less. 

Retrieved from: https://www.suggestingmovie.com/movies/brazil-1985

Austin, E. K., & Callen, J. C. (2016). Deterritorializing Utopia: The possibility of techno-Utopias in societies of control. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 38(1), 19-36.

Metcalfe, J. S. (1995). Technology systems and technology policy in an evolutionary framework. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 19(1), 25–46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23599564 

20+ best positive quotes about bureaucracy and change. Greeting Ideas. (2020, June 30). https://greetingideas.com/best-positive-quotes-about-bureaucracy/