Analysis of Brazil, Directed by Terry Gilliam

1640 Words4 Pages

Analysis of Brazil, Directed by Terry Gilliam

As a child develops into an adult there are critical developmental steps that are necessary for a complete and successful transition. The physical transition is the most obvious change, but underneath the thick skin and amongst the complex systems, exists another layer of transitions. Ideas, rationales, ideologies and beliefs all dwell within this layer of each being. It could be said that a nation can also fit this transitional framework. A nation grows in both size (wealth, population, power), and in ideological maturity (emancipation of slaves, civil rights, women’s rights…etc). This constant evolution of ideas and size is the foundation of a successful government. Without change and growth, the system currently in effect will grow stagnant and inevitably harmful to the public. The United States encourages an “American Dream”. Deeply rooted within the capitalistic, republican values of the nation, the American Dream has been pursued by generations. The concept is simple: to attain one’s stake, your slice of the pie, all that is required is good old fashioned hard work. There is no room in the American Dream to question authority or pursue truth. Of course, one must not think of the activity that hums quietly in the background, that’s just government protecting you and your interests. Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam, is a film that brings into light often hidden aspects of the American Dream, exposing the bold contradictions that turn the greatest symbol of personal drive into a hauntingly apparent contradiction. The film succeeds in pulling the fallacies of establishment out of the murky soup of facades, and in conveying them using the perverse decomposition of the character ...

... middle of paper ...

...tem. These traits are typical of what has happened throughout history when normal people become subordinate to new and oppressive bureaucracies. It seems that all a treacherous government needs in order to normalize the most disgusting violations of basic human rights is a convincing façade of efficiency. It could be said that the American Dream plays that role in current American society, that it is purely a façade to blind our eyes to the larger system. If the system succeeds in preventing people from gaining awareness of the larger picture, and indeed further compartmentalizes every aspect of life, the line between just and false laws become blurred. Gilliam uses “Brazil” to bring these often overlooked problems with government to the forefront of his viewer’s mind, making apparent that no element of human life is safe from this type of unconscious degeneration.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Film Fernando Nation

    1266 Words  | 3 Pages

    By showing the historical struggle of Mexican immigrants to be equal members of American society, portraying the humble and unique characteristics of Fernando Valenzuela, and by emphasizing his incredible rise to fame, the film Fernando Nation introduces a new type of American dream. Fernando Valenzuela became the embodiment of the Mexican-American dream to many people. By understanding his story we can understand the hopes and dreams of many Mexican immigrants in America today.

    Read More

  • An Investigation into the Portrayal or Truth Within the Documentary Genre

    1888 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tompkins, C., 2009. The paradoxical effect of the documentary in Walter Salles’s “Central do Brasil”. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 33 no1 p9-27

    Read More

  • Differences In Slave Laws In Colonial Brazil And Colonial British North

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery as it existed in colonial Brazil contained interesting points of comparison and contrast with the slave system existing in British North America. The slaves in both areas had been left with very little opportunity in which he could develop as a person. The degree to which the individual rights of the slave were either protected or suppressed provides a clearer insight to the differences between North American and Brazilian slavery. The laws also differed greatly between the two areas and have been placed into three categories: term of servitude, police and disciplinary powers, and property and other civil rights.

    Read More

  • Income Inequality In Robert Putnam's Our Kids

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American Dream led millions of individuals to travel to America in hopes of achieving this enticing ideology. People across the world sought freedom, education, and wealth. Recent statistics show that a majority of people do not think the American Dream still holds truth, and an even larger majority believe one the most harmful issues is “not everyone is given an equal chance to succeed in life” (Jones, Cox, Navarro-Riverra, 2014). The attainability of the American Dream decreases as inequality, more specifically income inequality, increases. Democracy is arguably the best and worst form of government. The idea of having, freedom, human rights, a say in political decisions, and control of personal decisions creates a place where people

    Read More

  • Two Kinds by Amy Tan

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story, the mother’s belief in this sentiment gave her hope for her daughter to become a prodigy. Therefore, the weight of the dream is left on the first-generation. The belief of endless possibilities is set upon first-generation Americans and Americans alike. From the beginning of the story, the daughter states that “America was where all my mother’s hopes lay” (491). The mother has the be...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'In The Time Of The Butterflies' By Julia Alvarez

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.” In America, Americans are blessed to have the right to freedom. Unlike other unfortunate countries, their freedom is limited. In many Latin American countries, the government’s leader has all power of the Country. Citizens have no rights to freedom, they are trapped in a cruel country where innocent people are killed each day. Civilians fear to speak out to the regime of leader; However, there were a few courageous citizens enough to speak out against the government. For example, “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela and the historical fictionalized account, “In The Time Of The Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez reveal individual 's role in overcoming oppression.

    Read More

  • Writing the Rules in the Film, Brazil

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Terry Gilliam’s dystopian film, Brazil (1985), lays out a visually stunning and ultimately sinister depiction of a future society hounded by an oppressive government’s desire for absolute control over the population. Of elementary focus in the film are the roles of technology and the subsequent dehumanization of the modern world and the myth of the “free man” under a totalitarian regime. Gilliam shows our current obsession with technology and information as an exasperating evolution of modernity that is, ultimately, leading us nowhere. Repeatedly, we see the shortcomings of a society that is overly reliant upon systematic response (as displayed by the constant demands for paperwork) and completely lacking in individualism and expression (as shown by the massive, colorless, unadorned structures that compose this future world.) While Gilliam’s film never really resolves any of these issues, his examination of them is thorough enough to merit further discussion.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Keeping The Dream Alive By John Meacham

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    The article Keeping The Dream Alive by John Meacham is addressed to people who feel the American dream has died. The author compares historical events and today’s issues to encourage the reader that a simple call to action can revive the dream. Towards the end of the passage he quotes John Adams’ proclamation, “’If the American dream is to come true and to abide with us… it will, at the bottom, depend on the people themselves.” Assuming the reader is waiting on the government to provide a solution, Meacham presents ideas that encourage the readers to make the change themselves. The arrangement of historical feats and beliefs persuade the readers that the future of the American dream is in their hands.

    Read More

  • My View on the American Dream

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    The creation of a government that is out of control, and thus out of touch robs every citizen, preventing fulfillment of the original American dream. (Thomas, 2011)

    Read More

  • The Movie Machuca Sparknotes

    3083 Words  | 7 Pages

    The passive young son of a well-to-do Chilean family enters his luxurious new home in a Santiago suburb. His opulently dressed mother greets him at the door, kisses him on the cheek and asks if he is happy in the family’s new home. The boy remains silent. This final scene of Chilean director Andrés Wood’s 2004 film Machuca appears to be one of gleaming optimism - of an educated, aristocratic family relishing the benefits of the first leg of Chile’s modern ‘economic miracle.’ However, the characteristically bright eyes of the cherub-faced boy, Gonzalo, are darkened by the gruesome events he had just witnessed in the midst of his nation’s 1973 military coup d’état. Present during a bloody military raid on one of the capital’s sprawling shantytowns, Gonzalo had just watched his indigent best friend, Machuca, being rounded up and sent to a military death camp (Machuca). His family’s newfound wealth was consequent of Chile’s successful and widely-praised neoliberal economic model, which was implemented by way of the brutal suppression of it challenger - the politically-powerful, socialist-aligned lower class. In his intimately told film, director Andrés Wood addresses a country that extols its prosperity while speaking in hushed tones of the atrocities committed against its proletariat. Wood demands that his audience look beyond the façade of Gonzalo’s lavish new home and recognize that his wealth - and indeed the nation’s wealth - was made possible only by bloodshed.

    Read More

  • Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,We, the people, must redeemThe land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.The mountains and the endless plain—All, all the stretch of these great green states—And make America again!” The free America is actually not free, the words on the constitution are just words. The dream has fade away. All these hard working people, all of their bloods and tears had really make the 1 percent of the American’s American dream came true. The reality is such a chaos for the narrator. he has suffered so much from this reality, so he now wants to share his idea to all the readers and try to wake them up, this is not the America that want, this is not the society they want. The American dream does not exist.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of City Of God

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    To watch City of God is to be forced to enter, from a safe distance, the ruthless and merciless hoods of Rio de Janeiro. The captivating and poignant film guides viewers through the realistic aspects of slum life experienced by young, underprivileged youth in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, some aspects that not even most middle class Brazilians get to see. In a city where police are fraudulent, opportunities are scarce and crime is widespread, many youths believe there is no alternative to gang activity. In City of God, director Fernando Meirelles puts to the forefront of Brazilian cinema the real issues that favelas in Brazil face like poverty, extreme violence and stereotypical gender roles in a male dominated society. City of God encapsulates the hope of Rio’s impoverished blacks for social and economic ascension.

    Read More

  • The Power Of Power In Terry Gilliam's Film, Brazil

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    A society run through the means of a dominant government is bound to have rebels. These rebels go to extreme measures in order to prove their self worth and individuality. In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948), the Party acts as a supreme power and portrays Winston Smith, the protagonist as a rebel. Terry Gilliam’s film, Brazil (1985), has a government that works behind the scenes, authenticating authority through various propaganda posters and technological techniques, all of which Sam Lowry rebels against. Examples of government rebels in the real world are quite evident; in New Mexico a resistance group arose in attempts to save their village from the hands of the government only to have the leader murdered. “Unsilenced” written

    Read More

  • The Reluctant Fundamentalist's American Dream

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...elieve it” (Carlin). The American dream is one thing George Carlin colorfully explains in his performance of Life Is Worth Losing. He explains how America and big businesses in America don’t care about the people. Changez resonates with this on his way to the airport, “America was engaged only in posturing ” (Hamid 167). Changez knows that the American dream had failed for him, despite all the work he put into it.

    Read More

  • Democracy in Latin America

    2755 Words  | 6 Pages

    Pinheiro P. S., 2002, The Paradox of Democracy in Brazil vol. III, issue 1, University of Sao Paulo

    Read More

More about Analysis of Brazil, Directed by Terry Gilliam

Open Document