Day # 8 The View from Brazil

Tudo Bem!  No, I did not peruse the news of the day today.  Again, bully for me, as I like to think it shows that I possess at least a shred of stick-to-it-tive-ness.  So, the good news is no news and now on to other things.

I was challenged to write an entry on how similar the modern news media is to that depicted in Terry Gilliam's dark vision of the future in his movie "Brazil".  Alas, I cannot agree.  With rare exceptions, most of the modern American news media seems to be composed of talking heads vociferously defending one point of view or another while yelling at or shaming some other talking head whose opinion differs from theirs.  There are some examples of differing ideas being discussed and debated in a civil manner but they are few and far between.  By contrast, the newscast as portrayed on Terry Gilliam's tiny TV screens of the future is all well-modulated and polite with no yelling of any kind, hardly Fox News. Although it has been at least eight days since I have watched the news or the movie "Brazil", based on my memory of both I have to conclude that the there is almost no similarity between news in the movie and news as it is rendered today.

However, setting the news comparison aside, there are some almost frighteningly prophetic images from the movie "Brazil" when viewed in the present time.  The movie was made in 1985 and paints a picture of a dark world of bureaucracy, societal control and technology run amok where information retrieval is the name of the game and ducts are very important.  There are shadowy groups who periodically set off bombs in public places and the government is powerless to stop them.  On the tiny TV screen of the future, which Gilliam intentionally got wrong, the newscaster asks a government official, Mr. Helpmann, about the terrorists and why they are staging a bombing campaign.   (thanks and credit to Internet Movie Database for the quotes)

Mr. Helpmann: Bad sportsmanship. A ruthless minority of people seem to have forgotten good old-fashioned virtues. They just can't stand seeing the other fellow win. If these people would just play the game....


The newscaster then ask Mr. Helpmann (love the names) if the government is making any progress and he replies:

Mr. Helpmann: We're fielding all their strokes, running a lot of them out, and pretty consistently knocking them for six. I'd say they're nearly out of the game.

Persisting, though in quiet Brit speak, the interviewer asks how the bombing campaign could still be going on after more than ten years:

T.V. Interviewer: How do you account for the fact that the bombing campaign has been going on for thirteen years?

Mr. Helpmann: Beginners' luck. 

While re-watching this a few weeks ago, The Kid, the TBG and I were struck by the almost mirror image of the fictional setting of "Brazil" and some aspects of modern reality.  The festive holiday music of a posh restaurant is blown all to hell by a sudden bombing.  The shattered diners right the tables and chairs and resume their meal while the battered band members pick up instruments and the music continues.  Is this a dark, futuristic vision or is it CBS Evening News?  From my point of view, it is not that the portrayal of the news in "Brazil" is the same as modern newscasts, but that the portrayal of everyday life is so similar.  

There is more than just bombings which make the comparisons seem accurate.  As the holidays draw near, a little girl gets her turn to speak with Santa.

Santa Claus: What would you like for Christmas? 

Little girl on his lap: My own credit card. 

Sort of speaks to some of the strongly prevalent views of what the holidays are all about.

Throughout the movie there is a clunky and intrusive modern "technology" which is supposed to make life better and simpler, but inevitably accomplishes the opposite.  In 1985 technology was already changing so quickly people were having difficulty keeping up with it.  Today that change has become exponential and will continue to be, or so it seems.  While our cars and televisions are cooler and sleeker than those in the movies and our duct work is not quite so obtrusive, the question of whether any of our real technology makes our lives better has been and will be debated by people a lot smarter than I am.  So I will leave them to it.  I would only add that anyone who has waited on or dealt with the Cable Guys or the Phone Guys has had a nice glimpse of Central Services, whether or not they have ever seen the movie.

Perhaps the most pervasive and prescient aspect of society portrayed in the film is the all-encompassing bureaucracy everyone is subjected to.  Today we have a most formidable bureaucracy of our ownthat we have allowed and actually helped build.  Most formidable indeed, at not very different from the one Sam Lowry grapples with.  In the film, the most important government agency is Information Retrieval.  Not very nice folks.  As Michael Palin's character Jack Lint so cheerfully and creepily states when asked for some information:

Jack Lint: This is information retrieval not information dispersal.

Tuttle becomes Buttle as key strokes go wrong in tiny offices and peoples lives are forever ruined or ended not to mention all the severe damage to floors and ceilings.   And when our hero Sam tries to enlist the help of a superior bureaucrat he is met with the cyclical labyrinth of the organization:

Sam Lowry: Excuse me, Dawson, can you put me through to Mr. Helpmann's office? 
Dawson: I'm afraid I can't sir. You have to go through the proper channels. 
Sam Lowry: And you can't tell me what the proper channels are, because that's classified information? 
Dawson: I'm glad to see the Ministry's continuing its tradition of recruiting the brightest and best, sir. 
Sam Lowry: Thank you, Dawson. 

Yes, thank you Dawson and thanks to Terry Gilliam for sticking to his guns and keeping the full print of the movie alive instead of the sappy "Love Conquers All" version the the studios came up with after hacking forty minutes of the film away to contrive a happy ending.  Give me what I perceive as the dark and real over the saccharine any day.  Maybe that's why I'm a news-junkie:  I am always suspicious of a happy ending.