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Analysis Of Terry Gilliam 's ' The Season Of This Dystopia, Controlled By Pitiless Bureaucrats And Synergetic Police '

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Tis the season in this dystopia, controlled by pitiless bureaucrats and synergetic police. Terry Gilliam’s Brazil depicts a retro-futuristic setting dominated by a relentless totalitarian system. The setting of Brazil takes place during Christmas in an urban region that is never characterized by name but by its contents. The civilization presented in the film is distasteful, naive, lifeless, and overseen. Uninspiring infrastructure, apathetic socializations, and lack of sanctuaries illustrates this society and it seems to be an intended tactic by its government. Bulky grey ducts surround the environment, which could be a representation of inadequate innovation of technology and culture or are a reminding factor that the micromanaging …show more content…

Observation can be made on a macro and micro scale, as behavior of a large group can affect the behavior of individuals (Merton, 1938). In Brazil, society is regulated and positioned a certain way that satisfies its government. Reaching a desirable achieved status seems hard to accomplish and only possible if conformed to the Ministry’s regime. Sam, however, was offered a promotion by the master status himself, Mr. Helpmann. Seemingly, Sam’s promotion offer was possible because of his ascribed status being the son of Mr. Helpmann’s former co-worker and his power-hungry mother’s connection with the Ministry. The social institution in the world of Brazil is centralized to abide the Ministry, who targets society to be uniformed and consumers. Considering the “Consumers for Christ” signs and the girls who wishes to Santa for her own “credit card”, there is an encompassing feeling of consumerism that citizens believe as holy. Displays of Tönnies’ Gesellschaft are frequent, as social control must rest on more formal techniques, such as laws and legally defined punishments (Schaefer, 2013). Behaviors of the people are carried with the subconscious awareness of the Ministry, hence the lack of individualism and expectation of carrying out usual social roles and norms. Any employee of the Ministry of Information is ironically given a badge, similar to law enforcement which speaks to the amount of

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