Recommend: Brazil

Director: Terry Gilliam
Year: 1985
Notable Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist

Reminiscent of George Orwell’s  totalitarian government of 1984, Brazil depicts a future set in a dystopian world where there is an over-reliance on machines. The movie does a proper job of satirizing the bureaucratic, industrialized world many other films have attempted to portray. I’d say the film is one of the only (from what I have seen) that is truly successful at taking a darkly-humored look at consumerism as a totalitarian society’s prescribed lulling distraction from its inherent inhumanity.

Gilliam’s other two films are also recommended (Time Bandits, Munchausen), as they also depict the craziness of our awkwardly ordered society, and the desire to escape them by any means possible.

Perhaps I admire Brazil so much for Gilliam’s choice in music. Ary Barroso’s Aquarela do Brasil (Watercolor of Brazil) becomes the leitmotif throughout the movie. And what a beautiful song it is. Please listen.

And then there is also that minor underlying Oedipus Complex theme. Watch for it.