Brazil

Today was my last day of my Film Aesthetic course which I have greatly enjoyed. And we watched a movie called Brazil. When I heard the name I wasn't all that excited since I thought I would be watching something about a tropical country and maybe some sort of political strife, I couldn't have been more wrong. I'm warning you now, there are most likely spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you don't want to know to much about this film.

First off, I found out this film was made by Terry Gillian, one of the guys behind Monty Python. I have always loved Monty Python and any of the related British humour, such as the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The film is basically a science fiction humour story mixed with George Orwell's 1984, some Ayn Rand ideals, and a lot of bureaucracy. The film is a marvelous example of creating a fantasy world that I actually care about. I find I have difficulty caring about many fantasy worlds that are in movies and animations, but this film just kept dragging me in. Every time the main character would go to a new place I was more intrigued then ever by the setting.

Every room is designed with a purpose that is at first not obvious, but is ingenious once it is revealed in how it fits into the overall story and theme of the film.

What was even more intriguing was when I realized how connect Wall-E was to this film. Not only is a similar theme explored in the two movie, I could see that the people at Pixar were paying homage to the film Brazil in various ways. For instance the some of the music from Brazil is used in one of the Trailers from Wall-E. Another very interesting piece of replication was in Wall-E's home, a diffraction grating is used to magnify an iPod's screen for better viewing. This film was the origin of that usage of a diffraction grating and directly ties the two films together.

Just to clarify about what I said about the Ayn Rand relation. There is a character in the film who subverts the bureaucratic system to do the work that he loves to do. He is played by Robert DeNiro and is probably one of my favorite examples of a character who is well crafted to completely defy expectations and the cliché.

I guess the main point is, once again I have stumbled upon a film which I was perfectly prepared to watch. Everything about the film tied together in my mind to form a cohesive whole. I think this is a really important thing I want to strive towards with what I make in the future. I want to help people get to this point of having the prior knowledge to get to a higher level of understanding the things they experience.

I have a sense that video games might provide such a possibility as they can be individually suited to the player, and each player can be catered to their own needs.
I think there might be a place for the whole myers-briggs thing as that could help in guiding different types of people down the most helpful paths.

Alright, I don't know if I said anything cohesive, but at least I'm feel like I have things to post about again.

The my animation is done and I will be posting it soon.

Kyler