Episode #4: Brazil

In episode #4 we discuss the comedic dystopia "Brazil" from director Terry Gilliam. Sam Lowry, an average employee at the Ministry of Information, gets caught up in a quest to solve a bureaucratic mistake while simultaneously searching for the literal woman of his dreams. Starring Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro and Kim Greist.

SHOWNOTES

Brazil - Criterion Collection

Terry Gilliam directed Brazil (as well as Twelve Monkeys starring Bruce Willis)

Back to The Future Part I (directed by Robert Zemeckis) did not show a dystopian future

Back to The Future Part II did show a dystopian future

The Ministry of Information in Brazil should not be confused with the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter

Monty Python - Dead Parrot sketch

Gilliam has referred to Brazil, Time Bandits, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as his Imagination Trilogy

Blade Runner (starring Harrison Ford) was based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Hudsucker Proxy - starring Paul Newman, Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh

Sucker Punch - starring Emily Browning also featured a battle with a giant samurai

Clue starring Tim Curry (which was also released in 1985) featured a young Jane Wiedlin as a singing telegram girl

Chris Tucker’s character (Ruby Rhod) in The Fifth Element (which also starred Iam Holm and Bruce Willis and was directed by Luc Besson) had a similar outfit as Katherine Helmond (Mrs. Ida Lowry) in Brazil.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote Cat’s Cradle, another ironic look at a dystopian future

George