Python (Monty) goes to Oceania

 

"Brazil" is a cult film from 1985 directed by Terry Gilliam, featuring fellow Monty Python comedian Michael Palin. The film is obviously inspired by George Orwell´s novel "1984" and by the motion picture "Blade Runner". It could almost be considered a "comedy" version of these dystopian classics. 

Orwell´s dystopia was an attack on both the Soviet Union and the British Empire (although the latter point is often missed). In the same way, "Brazil" depicts an authoritarian society that combines bizarre consumerist capitalism with an equally absurd bureaucracy. The atmosphere is frequently surrealistic. Even the repressive apparatus has surreal traits, and actually charges its victims for torturing them (payment in installments is available). Palin is convincing as Jack Lint, nice family father and Nazi torturer wrapped into one. 

The main character, Sam Lowry, is the Winston Smith of the story, a conscientious petty apparatchik who falls madly in love with Jill, a woman who is a terrorist suspect, with terrible consequences for both himself and others. (Mysterious terrorist bombings are a recurring part of the plot.) In a final twist, the "Blade Runner"-like escape of Sam and his girlfriend to a rural paradise is revealed to be a dream caused by Sam´s insanity when faced with torture. It seems there is no other liberation from Monty Python´s version of Oceania! 

I admit that the anti-modernist message of "Brazil" didn´t exactly move me, but the film is nevertheless worth watching if you can stomach something as weird as a fun time dystopia...