Brazil Literary Elements

Brazil Literary Elements

Director

Terry Gilliam

Leading Actors/Actresses

Jonathan Pryce, Katherine Helmund, Kim Greist

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Robert De Niro, Peter Vaughan, Michael Palin, Ian Holm

Genre

Drama Sci-Fi

Language

English

Awards

Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Date of Release

1985

Producer

Arnon Milchan

Setting and Context

An alternate consumer-driven dystopian world

Narrator and Point of View

Sam Lowry

Tone and Mood

Satirical, Dramatic

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonists are Sam and Jill. Antagonist is the Ministry and everyone working for it.

Major Conflict

The Ministry has mistakenly killed a man named Buttle instead of correctly capturing Tuttle and Sam finds out.

Climax

Sam helps Jill to escape persecution of the Ministry and they make love, but are captured. Jill is killed and Sam loses his mind during torture.

Foreshadowing

Tuttle's name being changed to Buttle in the opening foreshadows that there will be trouble ahead.

Understatement

Sam's father and his role in the ministry are understated.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

Gilliam used 9.8 mm lens to film parts of the movie. It was a major innovation as it was one of the first lenses of it's kind to shoot that wide without distorting the image to a fisheye.

Allusions

The little girl sitting on Santa's lap asks for a credit card for Christmas. It's an allusion to a society where debt is what gives you buying power.

Paradox

Lowry gets a promotion but paradoxically does not want it.

Parallelism

The scene where the Ministry busts through the ceiling over Sam and Jill in bed parallels the seen of them busting in to take Buttle captive.

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