Overview
Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.
"...there must have been some mistake.
"A mistake?" What are you! That's right!
If you briefly describe what Terry Gilliam's Brazil is like, then the opening scenes of the film immediately come to mind. The TV disappearing in a flash of explosions. A clerk hysterically hunting for a fly, instead of working. A disorderly and devastating storming of the apartment, as if from that meme gif about the FBI open up. It's like a bright and noisy carnival parade that suddenly appeared on a quiet one-story street. He stuns and draws you into his action, without even thinking about your peace of mind and comfort. And as soon as you get used to the pace of it, you start to notice small and very disturbing details. The actors smile with all their might, and their eyes are full of pain. The walking men's feet are covered in blood, and someone is furiously pushing them from behind. It's a wonderful celebration of violence against the individual, that's how you can characterize the world that Terry Gilliam paints in his Brazil. Funny and chaotic at first glance and terrifying in detail. It's a hypertrophied, self-parodying 1984 by George Orwell, it's About the brave new world of Aldous Huxley with his skin off, it's Franz Kafka's Castle in the form of a jaundiced caricature. The satire is so absurd and explicit and therefore so realistic.
Of course, the film has aged mercilessly in 40 years and some moments will not be able to surprise the sophisticated viewer, but the paradox is that this only enhances immersion and adds faith to the story. I do not know how to put it more precisely, but the film is old and young at the same time. It's an amazing feeling!
But now about something else. I don't want to repeat myself, I think many people over the years have already managed to figure out how much Terry criticized and ridiculed here, but I'm not sure I've heard the following. Sam Lauri is no less to blame for the horrors happening on the screen. He was just as blindly doing his job, not caring about others, and even when something clicked in his head, he began to bring only more harm to everyone. If this is not a satire on a typical government official who cares only about his own well-being and scolds everyone around him, then I do not know what it is. Sam is disgusting as a character, but you can't help but empathize with him.And Brazil is too real for all its exaggerated absurdity, and that's why it's so good. It's just a pity that to this day there are images and things in it that can easily be found literally around the corner.