Brazil is a film based on the story of 1984. There is a vast difference in the separate monetary classes. In the story we have a character Sam who’s mother tries to get him into the upper class with her. He doesnt want this help as he is content with where he is. He dreams of a woman and when sees her in real life he then wants to take up the offer his mother had put in place for him to move up in his company so he can find her.
In this book we see a society ran by a hierarchy. The people are not allowed to think for themselves or they are thrown in jail. This is a sort of totalitarian society where the people are all under a higher government in which no one really knows who “big brother” really is. People are divided into two serparate categories of classes, the higher class and the low class. The government system ensures that there is no middle class because with a middle class there is always rebellion because they try to even themselves with the higher class.
The Set Up
“The Set Up” is a film noir dedicated to showing the life of a boxer at the end of his career. A man who has always been “one fight away from making it big”, a losing streak that had been affecting his personal life as well as his professional life. As the movie goes on you are shown a plethora of characters whom are at different stages of their careers. The young boxer who was able to punch his opponent out in two rounds, the old man that gets beaten senselessly and has to go to the hospital, and others whom are in between. This makes the protagonist; Stoker evaluate his career; has it been long enough? Is it time to give up the gloves and leave the ring forever? Or can I win, can I continue and become champion? Stokers girlfriend has had it with his career. She wants him to stop. It hurts her to see him beaten night after night and she wants to settle down. She had been given a ticket to go to the fight, but she chooses not to. There was a significant scene where there is no sound, and the camera is looking up at her as she emotionally rips the tickets up and lets the pieces flow in the wind. So in this movie a bookie expected him to lose a fight, like he had lost every other one. Stoker wants to win, since it was unknown to him he decided to fight his heart out and miraculously won. The bookie was angry and to teach Stoker a lesson they destroyed his hand and his ability to box. Although painful this was the best thing that could have happened to everyone. With Stoker out of boxing it allows him to be attentive to his woman. She in turn is also happy because although violent, her dream came true.
It’s a sort of evolution of the character. A man unable to come to terms with his end had it forced upon him. Now the only thing left is to see what happens after the hand is healed. To figure out what path is next.
Out of the past
Out of the Past is a movie that I think exemplifies the film noir genre. It’s a story of a man who had made the mistake of falling in love with a wrong woman. A clients wife, and running away with her. They lived a happy life for a brief period of time until she murdered someone that was after them, which caused them to separate indefinitely. Years later after the protagonist had made a life for himself he is approached by an enforcer of his previous client. They had found him by chance, a stroke of luck on their part. As it turns out the femme fatale post murder had returned to her husband. He is given a job to do that unfortunately leads to his demise. The relationships he had formed in his new life were destroyed, and he left behind a protégé without any guidance. This movie can be considered the best warning out there against femme fatales. How they can lead to your eventual death if you do not tread properly, it also shows you how devious and conniving that they can be. It also teaches a very important lesson. Your past will always come to haunt you, no matter how long it takes.
Asphalt Jungle
The movie Asphalt Jungle decided to take a different approach to the film noir genre. As opposed to the other film noirs that we have seen, there were multiple protagonists throughout the movie. The movie concentrated on a single event; a heist. The object of desire within this movie was a stash of diamonds. The protagonists were able to lift the diamonds without any issues until it was time to enact the escape. During the escape one of their crew had been shot which starts the beginning of all their troubles. Shortly after the heist, they were double crossed by the fence and they get the police on their tail. They want to know who is in charge, and where one of the protagonists is. In the end, all of the protagonists had a negative outcome. Between facing life in jail, or dying right before making their dream come true. I enjoyed this movie because of the ending, not because it was dark but because you would have never expected the outcome considering how well the beginning went. I think the most significant scene for me was in the end, where the main protagonist was running to the farm. A dream almost realized, almost completed only to be stopped by a bullet in his abdomen.
Murder my sweet
Murder My Sweet is a Noir film which concentrated a lot on the evolution of the protagonist: Philip Marlowe. He starts off with a simple body guard job which evolves into a case of the missing jade necklace, similar to the story of the Maltese falcon. Both the significance of the items, (the Maltese falcon VS the jade necklace) and the characters attitudes had many similarities. They both had a charm to them that allowed them to gain access and information that was beneficial to their ultimate mission. Like Spade, Marlow had a particularly difficult femme fatale. A killer and a liar, that took him into the darkest parts of his mind. When exploring his inner dark thoughts he kept making a reference to a “black pool” which was a state of mind of him being knocked out, or drugged up that allowed him to reflect and think. In a film where the protagonist had been knocked out, drugged up, and immobilized for a period of time, the end result was positive. He for a lack of a better term “got the girl” there was a positive outcome in this film noir as compared to the other films which we have seen. Sure, the protagonist may have been temporarily blinded in the end, but it made the ending that much sweeter. A blind man surprised by the woman he loved, and thought he had lost made up for the terrible experience he had gone through.
Its quite clear to see that the film Brazil was based off 1984. Although in my opinion 1984 had more of a story line to it then Brazil. If both works you see a totalitarian government who is watching over its city and punishing people who do not follow their rules. In 1984 we have Winston who works for the ministry of records changing documents to suite the needs of the Government and in Brazil we have Sam Lowry who also works at a department of documents.
Both main characters are meant to start off boring and have a boring life until they meet a catalyst for example in 1984 Winston meets Julia and in Brazil Sam meets Jill and Mr Tuttle. After meeting these people the main character begins to change and want to do more then just records but want to go against this “perfect” society.
While calling 1984 Noir may be debatable, it’s obvious that the novel highly influenced the 1985 film, Brazil. In fact, it was almost named 1984 and a 1/2, according to Terry Gilliam. Set in ‘somewhere in the 20th century’ Brazil follows the life of Sam Lowry. While 1984 is set in a dystopian future, Brazil is technically set in the present. Aspects of 1984 can be found throughout the movie. An example are the screens found in almost every room. In 1984, the public is always under the watchful eye of telescreens. In Brazil, the public is always staring at one screen or another. In addition, the controlling power in Brazil is the ministry of information. This is similar to ministries found in 1984: The Ministry of Truth , The Ministry of Peace , The  Ministry of Love, and The Ministry of Plenty. Another example of the similarities between the two works is the separation of classes. In 1984, Winston Smith has hope in the proles, which are a step below his class. In Brazil, Sam Lowry leaves the automated, glistening portion of his city to give a check to the impoverished Mrs. Buttle. Mrs. Buttle’s portion of the similar doesn’t look too far from modern day, reinforcing the belief that ‘Brazil’ could happen anytime soon.
The movie Brazil was a film inspired by George Orwell’s 1984. Its a film full of tall bland buildings where everything is controlled by the “Ministry of Information”. This ministry is obsessed with possessing information about everyone. Its a very difficult to grasp the concept of this film as it appears as weird scenes, odd technology, and piles of paper work. The main character in this film is Sam Lowry who is a man who works in Records, the lowest department in the ministry. He seems content with his job throughout the film and doesn’t seem to have any drive in improving his carer. He also disgregards the ways of his glamorous, over the top, wealthy, self consumed mother. Sam often escapes into his dreams where he is an angel or some type of super hero flying through the clouds and battling monsters to save a caged damsel in distress. Three events occur throughout this movie that disturb Sam’s lifestyle, 1)Seeing the woman of his dreams multiple times and chasing after her, 2) Returning a refund check to a Mr. Buttle who was wrongly captured by the ministry after a typo, and 3) the heating system in his home shuts down. The inconvenience of these three events cause Sam to be promoted to Information Retrieval, where he ultimately abuses his position to find the woman of his dreams and keep her safe.
1984 is a book written by George Orwell centered around a totalitarian government, which is a government were the state holds power over everything and everyone. Every minute of their time, who they associate with, how they spend their alone time, even what they’re aloud to say . The government in this book even tries to control what people say and what they believe. This book takes place in London, it is depressing place where there is never enough food to eat, not enough clothes or shoes to go around, the London in this book is very run down. Except for these huge building that tower over the city. Bombs frequently explode in the streets and blow people to bits.
The worst part is that the government is always watching what people are doing, there are posters of big brother that say, “Big Brother is watching you” and there is microphones and cameras literally everywhere so the government can watch you, even in your home through your tv screen and you’re not allowed to turn your tv off, ever. There is many things you cannot do in this society, and if you do them the police can throw you into forced labor camps, no close friends. no love, no dating, and no sexual relations with anyone. You’re expected to save all your energy for, “The Party” which is the government.
The main character of 1984, is Winston Smith. He is a middle aged man who works for the government who lives a sad depressing life. He has no friends or anyone. In the beginning of the book he starts writing a diary, even though owning a diary is illegal and he could be killed for having one if you’re caught. But his diary is his form of escape. In his diary he imagines a different life. Only two people matter to Winston, and he doesn’t even know them. One of them is Julia, Julia is a attractive female who works in the same building as him. Winston hates her because she’s pretty and he cant have her, but is also paranoid because he thinks she is the type to turn him into the thought police. The other person that matters to him is a man named Obrien, Obrien is in a higher position than Winston but Winston believes he is intelligent and thinks he would make a good friend. He thinks obrien would understand how he feels about life.
Conflicts in the book begin when Julia slips Winston a note that says, “I love you.” Â the conflict is that Winston is very excited and obviously interested in Julia but it is difficult for them to even say two words to each other with cameras every where. They manage to get into the country and start a passionate love affair where they both get to express their love but its extremely dangerous because they can both be killed, or sent to labor camps if they were caught.
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