The Gap between Appearance and Reality Anonymous 12th Grade

Terry Gilliam’s 1985, Brazil, a bizarre, dystopian film demonstrates that the gap between an individual’s reality and their subconsciously desired world causes the psyche disillusionment and torture. The protagonist, Sam Lowry , is stuck in a mundane life imposed on him by his apathetic and repressive government, urging his subconscious to plague his psyche with escapist dreams. Lourey’s inability to reconcile how things are and how he wants things to be, is utterly destructive to his sanity. Gilliam’s Brazil draws many links to Orwell’s 1984, both demonstrating that bureaucratic and totalitarian systems as an absurd present danger in the immediate context

The film promotes that the bridging of the gap between desired world and reality is unrealistic in a suppressive society, leading to disillusionment. Gilliam presents a constant juxtaposition of Lourey’s dreamscape and his life, the title of the film ‘Brazil’ and it’s theme song both paradoxically connote an exotic carefree escape but instead the audience is surprisingly met with the reality of a callous and dysfunctional industrial world. This notion is re affirmed as sam lives a split human experience between his surrealist dreams and monotonous reality, much like Winstons...