Brazil (1985) directed by Terry Gilliam is a film that brings together some of the problems of the century and presents it in the plot of the movie. It has all things that is Gilliam is known for in his other films. The film portrays ideas and themes of industrialization, terrorism, government control and bureaucracy, technology gone wrong and taking control, plastic surgery, communism, dehumanization, going against the system and love.

Terry Gilliam is an American Director born in 1940 who is known for “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975), “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” (1969 – 1974), Jabberwocky (1977), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). In his films he has been known to have remarkable visual elements in his films. His trademarks in his films are the male protagonists in his films often dream about a woman whom he has not met yet but whom they meet throughout the course of the film. Gilliam often have people and/or animals charging through the walls and ceilings. He also uses a lot of wide angels in his films and a heavy use of television monitors. All these trademarks are evident in the film ‘Brazil’. Gilliam’s use of the characters charging through walls and ceilings is evident in the beginning of the film when the Ministry of Information arrests Mr. Buttle instead of Mr. Tuttle due to a mistake in the paper work. His trademark of a male hero dreaming of a female who they have not met is also evident in the beginning of the film just before he is introduced as he is portrayed as a figure using mechanical wings flying around the skies and then he is confronted by a female who he falls in love with but who he doesn’t not know and then throughout the film he progresses to meet her then fall in love with her.

The representation of the theme song ‘Brazil’ where the film gets its title from has no relation to the actual film. The song which is played throughout the film for example like how Sam Lowry hums the theme song through out the film to me is meant to lighten up the mood or somehow make the world less darker.

The themes that are presented in ‘Brazil’ are: industrialization, terrorism, government control and bureaucracy, technology gone wrong and taking control, plastic surgery, dehumanization, going against the system and love. Around the time when this film was being made there was many events happening in the 80’s such as: Iran invades Iraq and war breaks out over oil rights, the first ever liposuction, IBM mass producing PC computers, Tiananmen Square protests in China, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Most of these themes can all tie in together with the themes presented in the film in my opinion IBM mass-producing PC’s ties in with technology going wrong because there could a chance that all these PC’s that are being produced could all take over at one point. This also shows that humans are becoming more reliable on technology and as we become more reliant on technology the technology gets more complicated. In relation to the film characters like Mr. Kurtzmann relies on Sam Lowry (protagonist) to assist him work the computer in his office. This is also evident with Harvey Lime who states that his computer is broken when in fact it is actually turned off as pointed out by Sam. The repetition of the air ducts throughout the film symbolises the theme of ‘technology gone wrong’. The ducts are present in every scene of the movie except when Sam Lowry is in the containment room. Since all the duct are present in each room on the film it suggests that everything is connected. The ducts are even present in Mrs. Lowry’s luxurious apartment and the fancy French restaurant where Sam Lowry had lunch with Mrs. Lowry and her friends. Since the ducts connect each scene of the film back to the Ministry of Information (government) means that everyone is connected to the information network.

The terrorist attacks are another common theme that occur throughout the film and are all bombings at main public locations. This theme also relates to the dehumanization theme of the film thus during the lunch scene at the French restaurant where the bomb went off everyone who was not affected by the bomb continued to do what they were doing prior to the bomb and acted like the bomb never went off in the first place. Similarly whenever a gun is pointed at a character it is pushed aside almost as if the gun was fake giving the idea that the guns were perceived as fake to the character who the gun was aimed at. Both these ideas convey the idea of dehumanization as shown by the lack of emotional responses. This idea of dehumanization is also present in the way a human is reduced to a simple object/dataset. This is evident in the way the Ministry of Information identifies its workers by their corresponding code. Similarly the way Mr. Kurtzmann processes Mr. Buttles records and describes him as ‘deleted’, ‘inoperative’, ‘excised’, and ‘completed’ instead of ‘dead’ helps portray this idea of dehumanization. Also criminals are also billed for the process of arrest, imprisonment and torture that they undergo and at the same time society keep running its normal routines. The film suggests that the government within the film give more rights to the wealthy and less rights to the lower class citizens. These suggest that lower class citizens are more likely to be dehumanized.

In conclusion Gilliams film with the use of his outstanding visuals and the way he portrays the themes has made viewers aware of his idea of the world if the world was run by a controlling government which gives its lower class citizens less rights than the richer more wealthier citizens.