Brazil

Or Terry Gilliam's Brazil, to be exact. Yeah, it's a film by that most imaginative of the (Monty) Pythons, the one who came up with those funny doodled cartoons, and had (has?) an obsession with large feet squashing stuff.
There're no cartoons here, although there are numerous moments of similarly dark humour.

The future world Brazil is set in is about as dystopian as they come. Almost every aspect of life is ruled over by a humungous system of beauracracy, but there's at least one group of rather successful terrorists determined to fight back. At the time the film is set, these guys have been setting off bombs for more than 10 years, although the minister being interviewed on TV just replies that this means the government is closer than ever to stopping them for good(!), shortly before a shop explodes - yet more handiwork of the terrorists.

The story itself follows one of the beauracrats, Sam Lowry, himself a bit of a daydreamer (but nevertheless good at his job) as he gets dragged into a series of events mostly beyond his control. What starts out as a job to correct a simple administrative error (in itself an ironic consequence of one worker's carelessness whilst trying to swat a fly) soon becomes a chase as Sam tries to catch up with a mysterious, good-looking woman he first spotted whilst at work. In an unrelated series of events, he gets to meet up with an underground repair man, something of a legend in this world full of steam pipes, where you usually have to wait weeks for an offically-sanctioned repair man.

Ably played by Robert De Niro (before he was reduced to advertising credit cards), Archibald "Harry" Tuttle arrives to fix Sam's pipes after he makes a desparate call for a repairman, only to be told there won't be one available for weeks. They need fixing so badly because this dystopian future is also somewhat "steampunk" in that almost all the features of a flat rely on steam, somehow or other. At this point, if you've been paying attention to the film, you'll notice another of the great ironies in the story, but I won't spoil it here; suffice to say, it'll likely have you laughing out loud.

While this is going on, Sam gets it into his head that the woman is involved with the terrorists, and decides he'd like to join the cause. He also has to deal with his interfering mother, who keeps trying to get him to hook up with the rather plain-looking, and almost-never-speaking, daughter of a good friend of hers, who he really doesn't like. A good laugh comes from the moment we finally hear her speak properly.

Article Author: Jon Downs

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