Brazil is about a future. A future which is full of shiny machines that don't work. Smart houses that don't get power. A bright future that can't reach the goals set for it. Food ordered by the number and lifts that get stuck. Numbers for names, shoe hats, cameras that look like eyeballs and volley ball games all mixed together. We don't even know where the story is really placed. While Tuttle was wanted it was Buttle who was arrested. The government isn't evil as much as it is just bureaucratic and paranoid. They want to do what is right, what is practical, to protect everybody but it seems to turn out all wrong and everybody ends up being hurt.
The totalitarian state in the film is under attack from both outside forces in the form of terrorism and from inside forcees in the form of its own incompetence and tons of red tape. Ugly, twisted, clean and bright all at the same time. I liked the nice computers and the offices that reminded me of MiniTruth from 1984. The movie was directed by Terry Gilliam and much of the feeling and landscape is based on the early the 20th Century's ideas of what the future was to look like, such as Fritz Lang's vision in Metropolis, mixed with the influences of witch trials, Victorian architecture, and IRA bombings.
The point of view is mostly from Sam, a geek, a nobody, a cog in the machine, who is just trying to survive. Jonathan Pryce's character goes from happy to unhappy, from unhappy to insane, from insane to happy. Starring along side Mr. Pryce is also Michael Palin and Robert De Niro. While made in 1985 it holds up pretty well. The commentary by Terry Gilliam is from 1996 and very detailed while also wonderful to listen to.