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Brazil is clearly a satire, but upon first viewing it’s easy to wonder exactly what is being made fun of. It would be convenient to assume that Gilliam, a counterculture child of the '60s, is simply lashing out at authority and Big Government in general. And in a film where sanitation workers take to setting off bombs because the amount of paperwork keeps them from working, that’s a logical assumption. But the very best satire takes often aim at its own audience and as with all of Gilliam’s best work, there’s much more – and less going on here.

Without a doubt, Brazil appears to have an opinion on government and technology, and how over reliance on both might be detrimental to the human condition. Some might perceive a cultural imbalance in our society that makes our inherent sense of community subservient to our desire to make the simple things in life even simpler. Is Gilliam pointing an accusing finger at us, insinuating that when given the choice between justice and comfort, we’ll eagerly resort to apathy as a happy medium? Probably, but Brazil’s intricate plot, its cast of colorful characters and the surreal, Orwellian world they inhabit are merely backdrops for something much simpler.

Sam Lowry is a meek, ineffectual man who simply wants to be loved; to belong to someone. His mother is a vapid social climber, and his best friend Jack (Michael Palin) is a government informant - no manner of accolade or amount of achievement will ever replace the fact that Sam feels sad and alone. He jumps at the opportunity to become Jill’s savior because in this he believes he will finally find the companionship he craves. Sam blames the government for his discontent, and the viewer likely perceives society to be Brazil’s primary villain as well. But being more Walter Mitty than James Bond, poor Sam isn’t quite up to the task of taking on the Establishment.

Terry Gilliam has often been accused of trying to say too much at once with his films, and it isn’t unfair to claim that his storytelling style lacks precision. But it is also possible that his best films are even less "novels on screen" than they are "moving paintings," splashed with vibrant emotion, vivid impressionism and poignant yearning. To Gilliam, the important thing may not necessarily be what you feel when you view his work, but that you do feel something, and that you take it with you from the theater. And like many painters, his meaning may be more focused than we are led to believe but perhaps it is more important that we take his impressions and form our own opinions.

Fundamentally, Brazil is simply a story about a good man with an active imagination who lacks the ability to make his flights of fancy come true. Is Sam really being kept from fulfillment, or is he holding himself back? We all have wonderful things we’d like to do with our lives, or perhaps once wanted to. But when you spend more time dreaming than doing, once you wake up you may find that life has passed you by.

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