Brazil

Film Analysis

Terry Gilliam's film //Brazil//, was released in 1985 and the plot centers around Sam Lowey, an unimpressive, working-class protagonist. He endeavors on his journey to find his dream girl, Jill, who he finally encounters during his visit to the Buttle's. This very satirical, yet semi-horrific film clearly conveys the ironic tone and presents the bureaucrate-mocking theme through different filming techniques: halloween lighting, framing and intercutting.

Halloween lighting is often used in the film to light up government officials, for example Sam's boss Mr. Kurtzman, to illustrate the dark sides of them. Near the beginning of the film, all the employees were equally lit, and the entire working area was lit with soft filled light – except Mr. Kurtzman who is highlighted with underlighting. This singles him out, besides the fact that he was stationed on top of a flight of stairs, and conveys an indirect message of a government official to the audiences. Mr. Kurtzman's power is shown through this underlighting and it also hints the audiences with a bit of evilness. Also, cold colored lighting is often used to lit the the more rundown parts of the city, as opposed to the "higher class" part of the city which is lit by warm colors.

The bureaucrats, Mrs. Lowey and her friends for example, is often framed in the foreground. Every time Mrs. Lowey and her group of "friends" appear on the screen, their characters' take up most space of the frames and is most often put in the foreground. This composition indicates superiority, suggests the idea that they often "overshadow" or block everything when they appear. In the ironic scene of the terrorist bombing at a high class restaurant, each shot is framed so that the Mrs. Lowey and her friends are in the foreground, when they order food, and even when the bombing started. Ironically, Mrs. Lowey and her friends are more "important" than the terrorist bombing, they continued to have their lunch as if nothing were happening, even if other people were dying in the background. The waiter simply put a fence up in between.

Through intercutting between Sam's dream and reality, the audiences get a sense of Sam's stress level through the contrast. The intercutting juxtaposes monsters with his actual job, and the dream girl with Jill: thus the bureaucrats are mocked (when they are being compared as monsters) and the metaphor is extended. The intercutting creates a dramatic and somewhat comical effect. The mood of the movie is balanced by the cheesiness of his dream and the "tragicness" of his actual life. Besides the three main techniques, Brazil also uses familiar image to connect Sam's dream girl with Jill. Towards the end of the movie, Jill wore a wig, which made her look more similar with the girl in Sam's dream. Other then intercutting, the use of familiar image here creates a strong link between his dream and reality.

Though Terry Gilliam's film Brazil conveys a serious message, it uses comical and dramatic filming techniques to deliver the underlying theme, and successfully mocks the bureaucrats though underlighting, framing and intercutting.