Comparison Gilliam's Brazil and. Radford's 1984 adaptation While researching a book about the making of and feud over the American release of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, author Jack Mathews read virtually every review of the film printed in the United States and found that very few failed to referring to the film as "futuristic" or "Orwellian". “The comparisons are understandable, if inaccurate,” says Mathews, “There is no futuristic element to Brazil. The story is Orwellian in the sense that it is set in a totalitarian state where individuality is stifled by forced conformity. But where George Orwell... imagined a future governed by fascism and technology, Gilliam satirized the bureaucratic and largely dysfunctional industrial world that had driven him mad all his life" (Mathews). Terry Gilliam's Brazil, made in 1985, at first glance, seems very similar to Michael Radford's film version of George Orwell's 1984, made in 1984, in setting and story. However, upon closer examination of the two films, one notices differences in style and tone that distance them from each other. 1984 is dark and dark from start to finish while Brazil, while still dark, has a much lighter atmosphere. The love stories presented in both films are unmistakably similar and make the plots seem closer to each other, but this is the only strong bond that unites them, as the differences in tone distance the films from each other on the other. Because of its dark humor, Brazil is a satire of the very society in which the story is set, while 1984, while also a satire, is devoid of any humor and is more of a horror story of a society that could wait for the 'humanity. opening scene, Terry Gilliam's Brazil appears to be quite jovial. A shot in which the camera hovers in the sky, weaving in and out of clouds, kicks off the film as the song "Brazil," for which the film is named, fills the soundtrack. Titles begin to appear above the ascending frame. The titles read “Somewhere in the 20th Century,” informing the audience of the time period, but also confusing them. The world in which the film's main character lives is a grim, dystopian, retro-futuristic metropolis, far from anything seen in this century. In this world no one is protected by the government; individuals are executed due to administrative errors. Compensation for these wrongful deaths is a simple reimbursement check.