This seems the right moment to take a fresh look at Brazil, one of the greatest dystopian science fiction visions of our era – and also one of the most libertarian.
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the film is one of the most widely seen and arguably among the most enduring works of the avowed libertarian Tom Stoppard, the internationally acclaimed Czech-British playwright and screenwriter who died recently at 88.
Released in 1985, the film was directed by Terry Gilliam and co-written by Gilliam, Stoppard and Charles McKeown.
Perhaps Stoppard’s best-known screenplay was for Shakespeare in Love, which won seven 1998 Oscars, including for best picture and best screenplay. Among Stoppard’s other screenplays: Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989, uncredited), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Enigma (2001) and Anna Karenina (2012) – and of course, Brazil.
A CULT FAVORITE OR EMERGING CLASSIC?
Although it initially developed something of a reputation as a cult film, Brazil has grown in stature over the decades and deserves wider recognition as a truly imaginative and insightful masterpiece.
A re-evaluation of the classic movie has already begun to gather steam, with the British Film Institute voting it the 54th greatest British film of all time in 1999. More recently, Time Out magazine ranked it the 24th best British film ever in a 2017 poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics.
A DARK TRAGICOMEDY OF BUREAUCRACY AND TYRANNY
Starring Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin and Kim Griest, Brazil offers a dark satire on dysfunctional, incompetent and often mindlessly cruel bureaucracy.
Yet, ultimately, the film achieves poignant resonance as a sobering Kafkaesque tragicomedy about the horrors of statism, government surveillance and technocracy.
Pryce plays Sam Lowry, a low-ranking bureaucrat and dreamer who becomes a fantastical hero when he inadvertently gets caught up in the grinding wheels of the dictatorship and its bureaucracy.
Although the absurdist film incorporates ample humor, Brazil depicts an alternative-reality present or future in which State torture has been normalized, including of innocent folk who’ve been misidentified by clerks.
To add insult to very real injury, people found guilty of crimes are held liable for the costs of their interrogation by torture.
IS BRAZIL GILLIAM’S MASTERPIECE?
Brazil’s brilliantly imaginative vision of a retro-futuristic bureaucracy has made it one of the most influential sf films of the 1980s – up there with Blade Runner, The Terminator, Aliens, The Thing, E.T. and Back to the Future.
Brazil increasingly is celebrated as Gilliam’s masterpiece, with high marks for its retro-futurist vision.
That’s saying a lot, given that the American-British filmmaker, comedian, college animator and actor first gained international renown as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe and has directed some of the most distinctive and memorable films of the past generation.
Gilliam got off to an impressive start collaborating with the troupe on such hilarious Python hits as Monty Python and the Holy Grail (which he co-directed and which later inspired the Broadway musical Spamalot), Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Among his 13 feature films are Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King and 12 Monkeys, the latter one of the best and most haunting time travel dramas.
GILLIAM’S TRILOGY OF IMAGINATION
According to the encyclopedia, Gilliam views Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as his “Trilogy of Imagination” about “the ages of man.”
All written by Gilliam, the three films explore the “craziness of our awkwardly ordered society and the desire to escape it through whatever means possible.”
All three films focus on the struggle to escape through imagination, with Time Bandits seen through the eyes of a child, Brazil through the eyes of a man in his thirties, and Munchausen through the eyes of an elderly man.
Exploring the relationship of Brazil to other dystopias, science fiction writer Paul McAuley has written a book that makes the case for the continuing relevance of its “satire on the unchecked power of the state.”
If that doesn’t sound like a work deserving of Prometheus Award recognition, then I don’t know what does.
WHY BRAZIL SHOULD BE NOMINATED NEXT YEAR
Currently, Libertarian Futurist Society members are busy reading the five recently announced finalists for the 2026 Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
This year’s five finalists – first published between 1932 and 2003 – are novels by James Blish (The Star Dwellers), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), C.S. Lewis (That Hideous Strength), Adam Roberts (Salt) and Charles Stross (Singularity Sky).
Once the 2026 winner is chosen by LFS members by our annual July 4 voting deadline, we will begin looking more closely at possibilities for the next cycle of the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
Brazil seems to me to be an excellent and timely candidate to consider.
If it does end up being nominating, the film would be a highly appropriate way of not only recognizing Gilliam but also also Stoppard, one of the greatest and most libertarian playwrights and screenwriters of our era.
* See the recent Prometheus Blog post and obit paying tribute to Stoppard, widely recognized as one of the greatest playwrights of the past half century but who deserves to be better known as a libertarian.
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
- Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
