Saturday, May 22, 2004
Brazil
When Terry Gilliam made Brazil (1985), it was a cautionary satire based on Britain's terrorist troubles with the IRA. Nearly twenty years later, it's become a documentary.
Watch the opening of the film again, and you'll realize that Mr. Helpmann's speech berating the terrorists is just a much better worded version of W's banality. (Helpmann attributes the terrorism to "bad sportsmanship," and says the terrorists do it because they can't stand to "see us win." Hm. Y'mean, they hate freedom?)
If you watch the film closely, though, it becomes obvious that there are no real terrorists. If anything, the few explosions that occur during the film (I believe it's only two) are more likely caused by governmental incompetence and rotting infrastructure.
After all, in Gilliam's world, the Ministry of Information (think Department of Homeland you-know-what) spends 7% of the GNP on its budget -- and makes it up by billing their, um... detainees (which they call invited guests) for their interrogations.
Anyway -- Gilliam is a brilliant filmmaker, and what was once a darkly funny reductio ad absurdum of one country's reaction to fear has become a road map of another's.
Check it out and watch it now, preferably with friends, then discuss among yourselves.
Watch the opening of the film again, and you'll realize that Mr. Helpmann's speech berating the terrorists is just a much better worded version of W's banality. (Helpmann attributes the terrorism to "bad sportsmanship," and says the terrorists do it because they can't stand to "see us win." Hm. Y'mean, they hate freedom?)
If you watch the film closely, though, it becomes obvious that there are no real terrorists. If anything, the few explosions that occur during the film (I believe it's only two) are more likely caused by governmental incompetence and rotting infrastructure.
After all, in Gilliam's world, the Ministry of Information (think Department of Homeland you-know-what) spends 7% of the GNP on its budget -- and makes it up by billing their, um... detainees (which they call invited guests) for their interrogations.
Anyway -- Gilliam is a brilliant filmmaker, and what was once a darkly funny reductio ad absurdum of one country's reaction to fear has become a road map of another's.
Check it out and watch it now, preferably with friends, then discuss among yourselves.
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