STANLEY KUBRICK      [WIP] updated 04.03.13
There are more and more movies coming out, like Tree of Life and Melancholia, with trailers that seem to involve a bit of what 2001: A Space Odyssey was about -- a planetary alignment, or cosmological shift, in conjunction with a human consciousness shift or advancement of some sort in mankind. I’ll know more when those new movies come out, but meantime, I was inspired to revisit Kubrick’s movies. Many have seen a Kubrick movie and go WTF? Or they just love Kubrick movies because they are interesting and intriguing, have great cinematography or memorable imagery? I don't know. I love all that, too, but for those who have ears to hear, and eyes (wide open) to see, his movies reveal more and more on each viewing, and most importantly, more and more when one does research.

Now, there is a pseudo-documentary, a critical theory of sorts, called Room 237, and it's primarily about The Shining. I think the people interviewed on it have the most ridiculous interpretations - seeing Kubrick's face in the clouds, finding significance with numbers, interpreting dissolves, interpreting possible continuity errors, seeing a minotaur in a skiing poster, saying Kubrick had a hand in filming a fake moon landing from analyzing front-projection artifacts, etc. I just wanted to make clear I'm distancing myself from people like that.

On the other hand, Stanley Kubrick's Boxes was an excellent documentary. Check it out.

I have this huge Napoleon book, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. This cancelled project might now be a Spielberg project.

LACMA has the Kubrick exhibit. I went twice already. I need to go again to take more pics.

Continuing: Among his unfinished projects, Kubrick wanted to make a film based on the 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum, which was about (though I haven't read it yet) secret societies, conspiracy theories, the occult, Knight's Templar, and many other esoteric topics. (1, 2) And it was also about "belief" in those things. Did Kubrick believe in such things or not? I think it's obvious he was very interested at least (most evident in Eyes Wide Shut, which I'll talk about later). I believe the most educated people certainly know about these things because they are studious, with an open mind and love to research obsessively. IMO, the most successful and revered movies are almost always about these secret societies, occult and esoterica, as discussed on this blog.

BARRY LYNDON
A lowly guy getting in with the elitists, like the current modern elitist "1%ers." What are the 1%ers?
The movie explains what the rich do with their wealth. They spend it on themselves, lavish luxuries, parties, bribes and influencing things to keep things in their favor, for their own circle. Unfortunately, the faker Redmond Barry spent his way into debt, trying to keep up with appearances.

Today, same thing - this isn't new, the wealth disparity. It's not an anomaly, it's on purpose.[1,2,3,4]


A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
What does the title mean? One explanation is that "a clockwork orange" describes something as having the appearance of something organic while artificial mechanisms or mechanical laws have been put on it, just like as in the film, with the prison putting the Ludovico brainwashing technique on the main character Alex. My interpretation of the film is much like Natural Born Killers -- less to do with the main characters and more of a comment on the society and government and it’s handling and controlling what to do with people. In NBK, if you look past the main characters and take the movie as a whole, the movie is really about media and society's hype of bloodlust. A Clockwork was about how to govern man, how to control in this dystopian world. And it’s also about how to exploit such programs for their own PR benefit. A newspaper at the end reads, “Our Political Staff says the Government is suffering acute embarrassment, since these charges of inhuman experiments are bound to call into question the whole policy of law and order which it has made a plank in its election programme.”

Let’s get the illuminati/freemason references out of the way, because most people probably don‘t care (although they mean a great deal to masons). The posters contain the all-seeing eye and pyramid symbols. Mascara on one eye. The droogs also have eyeballs attached to their clothes. Phallic symbols are everywhere, from their jockstraps to the sculptures. Beethoven was rumored to be high ranking mason.

Government mind control experiments of the Nazis and Russians coalesce into US CIA programs like MKULTRA (Clinton apologizes for it), involving drugs, trauma, reflexes (nausea), behavioral, Pavlovian-type conditioning. Very Manchurian Candidate. A patient is conditioned to have a reflexive physical reaction, like getting sick, when presented with a stimulus or a trigger code word.

DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
I think the Dr. Strangelove character, obviously a Nazi (with his spastic salutes), is based on the fact that many Nazis were harbored by the US government after WW2 (Project Paperclip1, 2, 3) and assimilated into many departments of the government; from developing NASA (Wernher von Braun) to CIA’s human experimentation, and a host of other things.

Other than making fun of the ineptitude of people running government, I think the film makes fun of, yet also informs the audience, of how cozy the US is with supposed enemies (I.e. commies, Nazis, even relevant today is Al CIA-da). You can just call them on the phone, like old pals! Is it making fun of people who believe in “kooky conspiracy theories” that the US is cozy with supposed enemies? How can it be when those things are factually supported? (1, 2, 3) Is it making fun of how ridiculous the US looks being cozy with its supposed enemies? I think yes -- that’s the expressed throughout the whole movie. It’s titled Dr. Strangelove after all, a character that doesn’t come in till late in the movie. His involuntary Hitler salutes show either his past or who he currently really serves. Or it represents the Nazi infiltration in US government. All of the above. Stop worrying about this political war farce joke. Love war. Get over it. The military industial complex is a part of life. Deal. The only people that would understand this sarcastic and quite sad humor is the audience that is educated in these topics. I certainly didn't understand it's humor when I saw this when I was a kid, but after years of researching history and government now I do.

IMDB says it was “originally conceived as a tense thriller about the possibility of accidental nuclear war. Stanley Kubrick was working on the script when he realized that many scenes he had written were actually quite funny.” And I can easily imagine that the movie wouldn’t play as well a serious thriller. I’m sure there were plenty of nuclear threat ‘50’s connotations where those type of movies took itself seriously. The other elements in this film, like the US relationships with it’s enemies, the fluoridated water (1, 2, 3, 4), the Nazi’s working for the US government, the myriad of underground bases -- these topics would probably have not been taken seriously by the masses if it's new to them. If played seriously, it might not be taken seriously. If played entertainingly, at the very least the info will have gotten out. In fact, “In one version of the script, aliens from outer space observed all of the action.” Satire or exaggeration is probably the best way to show it, to be palatable for most new audiences back then, and perhaps even now, as Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are working on a movie in a satire form as well about the controlling globalists.

IMDB: “The German word “Gemeinschaft” means ‘A spontaneously arising organic social relationship characterized by strong reciprocal bonds of sentiment and kinship within a common tradition.’ In this context the discussion of the post-apocalypse society living in mine shafts at the end of the film presents an interesting double-entendre. Dr. Strangelove’s remarks about the participants in the new society spontaneously accepting new social norms and having ‘bold curiosity for the adventure ahead’ is especially germane. Also, General Turgidson’s admonition to 'not allow a mine shaft gap' at the end is a particularly vivid pun.” This might refer to the many underground bases built to continue government. Stories abound about the Denver International Airport and its multi-levels of underground facilities (1,2,).

IMDB: “The character of General Buck Turgidson was patterned after Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Curtis LeMay, who was renowned for his extreme anti-Communist views and who once stated that he would not be afraid to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union if he was elected president. Similarly, Brigadier General Jack Ripper was patterned after Gen. Thomas S. Power, LeMay’s protégé and successor as Commander in Chief of Strategic Air Command. When briefed on a RAND proposal to limit US nuclear strikes on Soviet cities at the beginning of a war, Power responded, 'Restraint! Why are you so concerned with saving lives! The whole idea is to kill the bastards!…At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!'” I think this humor (because it’s probably true that we have sociopaths in government and military) is more aimed at them, a criticism of them, than for us to find it lol funny that we are watching them be monsters.

IMDB: “Shortly after the release of the movie, Stanley Kubrick met with Arthur C. Clarke to talk about making the ‘proverbial good science-fiction movie.’ During a discussion of ideas (that eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey,” the two men saw what they at first thought was a satellite moving in a polar orbit, but it abruptly changed direction. When Clarke suggesting calling in a UFO report, Kubrick said, ‘After Dr. Strangelove, the Air Force doesn’t want to hear from me.’”

2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY
In the beginning was nothing. The film starts off with 3 mins. of a black screen with weird noises. For matter to happen, you need anti-matter. A black hole gives rise to a big bang. There is a planetary alignment. We know the earth is definitely affected by the pull of the moon or when the sun flares up. The planets pull and affect life on earth, and the ancients had systems to track these cycles. Ancient religions speak of yugas, cycles of time of planetary alignments when humans go through up and down cycles over and over for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe millions. Who knows if it was 2001, or will be 2012, but in my opinion, things have already started to change, as in an increase in global awareness for starters.

Dawn of Man. “Dawn of a new day” is a phrase that researcher Jordan Maxwell talks in depth about. Another one to follow is Bill Cooper, as he analyzes this film. Is the film really a science-fiction? Or is the film a blatant reveal of the hidden secret Masonic/illuminati beliefs of the true origins of man, as many enlightened people who are in the know think? Were Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke high ranking masons? Some figures keep their affiliation secret, because duh, it's a secret society. But their works, output, and actions betray them. This secret society, and it's spin-offs, hold the knowledge of ancient civilizations, mystery schools, and mystery religions, and when watching this film, it's basically like taking a class in a mystery school. Well, there seems to be an increasingly rising idea of an ancient alien intervention in the evolution of man’s intelligence, as seen in the History Channels’ Ancient Alien series. Kubrick said, “2001 would give a little insight into my metaphysical interests…I’d be very surprised if the universe wasn’t full of an intelligence of an order that to us would seem God-like.” (1)

There is another planetary alignment. A black monolith appears to them - an alien intervention or assistance takes place. Perhaps the hundreds of megaliths or stonehenges around the world were given to ancient man in the same manner. They all seem to track planetary alignments with amazing accuracy. The sound of bees is heard. Bees and the beehive are a masonic symbol of “industry, labor, wisdom,…a miracle in natural engineering.” It symbolizes society -- the first society has started. One of the man-apes gets the idea for a tool/weapon, gaining intelligence. Perhaps this is the First Man, Bill Cooper suggests. The bone is a tool when they kill a pig, but later a weapon when used to kill out of spite. Early man, those “man-apes” as I call them, seem to start off vegetarian. Some say the human physiology seems more herbivore than carnivore, with the way our teeth are and that we don‘t have claws. When the man-apes eat the pig meat, they’re more aggressive. Some say it’s the proteins or endorphins released in the meat when the animal is killed that cause aggressive behavior when eating said meat.

There’s a war over the local water hole. Even today, water is the biggest most important asset. It’s not oil or gold -- it’s water. The bone is now a weapon. This is the first murder, the loss of innocence (a similar theme in Full Metal Jacket). It’s a murder when you kill out of spite, hate, greed, envy, selfishness. They don’t need to eat the other man-apes, like the pig. They just want them dead, as seen by the whole gang going along with it, the mob mentality. Humans will riot and be violent when desperate.

The bone is thrown up in the air, evolving into, cut to the future, a spaceship -- specifically I read somewhere the first spaceship we see is a nuclear weapon. One of the scripts I’ve read called for several nuclear megaton bombs orbiting earth; Russian, French, German, Chinese, and US. In the second shot of it, notice the nuclear weapon spacecraft has German flag and a cross that looks like the Nazi iron cross. Perhaps this alludes to Nazi Wernher von Braun who started up NASA. The words Nazi and NASA seem way too similar; it‘s almost obvious. The US harbored and employed Nazis, as part of Project Paperclip. Also, the discovery of the monolith on the moon later, involves lots of secrecy, PR media control, in the meeting room scene. Lots of black op, secret space program talk here.

Other people have analyzed the significance of the HAL story part, and I don't have much to add. Maybe we have to deal with the responsibility of creating life, albeit artificial life; and be willing to sacrifice our babies so to speak (killing HAL). Or is it like George Lucas when Obi-Wan wants us to let go of the artificialness of technology and trust ourselves, our own organic "computers" in our skulls. Another point is that after one of astronauts gets cut off by HAL, Dave's selfless act of chasing him down and trying to save his body is probably a major factor in the eyes of the "powers that be" who may be watching. What do we do with our lives to give it meaning, to fulfill our reason for existing? Doing good, an amazing good? It sums up most all religions. How do we ascend, transcend? Create such positive vibrations that we become light-beings -- I'm getting ahead of myself.

Like another dot the Pacman eats, another monolith from the unseen aliens gives us the clue that we're on the right path.

We all can guess that the psychedelic sequence Dave travels through is a wormhole, another dimension. Dave is deposited in a 18th century gilded room that Clarke describes as an alien construct from Dave‘s or humanity’s memories. It doesn’t make sense to be Dave’s memories, as he’s not a 18th century French fop. Kubrick seems to love this period (tri-cornered hats in the Ludovico films in Clockwork, the costumes in Eyes Wide Shut’s Rainbow Fashions and Venetian masks, Barry Lyndon, the unmade Napoleon project, etc.). Is it just his aesthetic tastes? Or is there something of significance about this period? The period of the Age of Enlightenment, where occultism inspires science advancements, where the Bavarian Illuminati is born, Napoleon…Indeed, there is something about this period.

Another monolith -- another advancement in human consciousness. Dave becomes a star baby, starchild, or pure energy? What does the ending mean? Kubrick and Clarke have preferred not to explain it, but from their POV, there is indeed meaning and purpose to everything put up there. People need to find their own meaning of life in their own way. The secret societies and mystery schools, from ancient Egyptians to Skull and Bones, would have the initiate left in a room to ponder various symbols and objects to come up with the meaning of it all, what it means for themselves. For me, the things I ponder to find meaning in the end of this film are subjects like apotheosis, what Jesus, Krishna, and Buddha accomplished, become one with one consciousness, etc.

EYES WIDE SHUT
Why does the media push the gossip, like Tom and Nicole’s real marriage during filming and separation after? The real question should be about the friggin secret sex orgy! It was a goddamn ritualistic secret society sex magik orgy! Who are those people?! - that's what I want to know. This is probably Kubrick’s most blatant masonic/illuminati symbol filled film; it's in plain sight, but most people’s eyes are wide shut. He mysteriously died 4 days after showing his cut to WB studio execs. Authors Jay Weidner and Kent Bentkowski believe Kubrick was knocked off for revealing too many of secret societies secrets (just like some say mason Mozart mysteriously died after his masonic The Magic Flute), but whatever. Bentkowski points out Kubrick died 666 days before 2001:A Space Odyssey would take place. The cause of death was heart attack, but family and friends said he was fine in the days before it happened. News reports, like the Guardian, said the family wouldn't release the details of his death. Interesting. I’m open to the possibility he was knocked off, and it makes sense, but the truth is we might never know.

I agree with some interpretations of the film by Weidner and Bentkowski, and some things might be too reaching, and some things I would have to research more to have an opinion. But definitely very interesting stuff. In Rainbow Fashions, why does the counter change positions from the night to day scenes? Why does Domino have a stuffed tiger on her bed that looks exactly like the type in the toy store at the end? Domino's room had African decor, but does that relate to her being HIV positive? Is there a guy at Ziegler's party that looks exactly like the Naval officer in Alice's dreams? Separately, was Kubrick tied with the Aldobrandini family, which has close ties to the Vatican? Did Kubrick attend the Aldobrandini orgies, giving him the idea for the movie? I don't know.

The movie is about being sucked into the secret society world of the rich and powerful elites through temptation (guy tries to take Kidman upstairs, girls try to take Cruise upstairs). The movers and shakers of the world are already a part of the hidden secret society ("If I told you their names..I'm not gonna tell you their names, but if I did, I don't think you'd sleep so well.") Sydney Pollack’s character, the 2 models and the Sandor Szavost character were all probably at the orgy (notice their strange sobering-up expressions when they fail getting Cruise. These bitches are up to something, c'mon). The explanation Sydney Pollack’s character gives at the end about the death threats just being showy and theatrical may or may not be true. What matters more: which story you buy, or the fact that now you've seen things, you're tainted, your eyes have seen, and now you're hooked? It may be just an orgy amongst the rich elite. Or it could be what many describe as what secret society sex magic rituals are like. Listen to sex slave survivors of MKULTRA and Project Monarch like Cathy O’Brien and Susan Ford (Brice Taylor). Kubrick also seems to want to say something about pedophilia; from Leelee Sobieski’s character to his earlier film Lolita. His buddy Arthur C. Clarke was rumored to like the young boys. What is it with the rich/elites and pedophilia? (the white house 1,2, Vatican 1,2,3,4, politicians 1, 2) The only explanation I’ve heard that makes sense involves luciferian ritual (1,2,3, 4). Doesn't really matter what your personal religious beliefs, it is your government and religious leaders that believe it and that should be called out and questioned. Subversive organizer Saul Alinsky, who admires lucifer (1) is an influence on Obama and Hilary Clinton, organizers of war crimes.

I would agree there’s a lot of symbols in the film. The masonic symbol of the rainbow (Rainbow Fashions, “want to go where the rainbow ends?”) comes from druidic magic; the rainbow is both in the physical and magical worlds, meaning transcendence and ascension. The daughter character Helena may or may not be named after theosophy founder Helena Blavatsky, a major influence in secret societies. Kidman’s character Alice could be like Alice looking through a looking glass, looking at a mirror in a few instances; favorite symbols in the Monarch program. The film meshes between dream and reality; she describes a dream having sex with several men and has the mask near her; so was she at the orgy? Was she a drugged up sex slave, not having a clear head? Here are some of the last lines in the movie:
“Maybe I think we should be grateful…that we’ve managed to survive through all of our adventures whether they were real or only a dream.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Am I sure? Only as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth.”
“And no dream is ever just a dream.”
“The important thing is we’re awake now. And hopefully for a long time to come.”
Once you’ve seen some things, been enlightened and illuminated, your eyes are wide open. Hopefully, you're awake now, and continue to seek truth throughout your life, and not go back to sleep and close your eyes to all this.

Other things...The Red Cloak character sits on a chair with the double-headed eagle, a symbol used in many places from the Byzantine Empire and Holy Roman Empire (two heads representing east and west with the crown meaning that they rule over all from east to west). It’s also used on the cover of Morals and Dogma, emblem of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the infamous sect that has the extra 33 degrees of super-secret knowledge). This chair represents who these people are at the orgy and where they come from, even though they hide behind masks. They are the movers and shakers of the world.

The password is Fidelio, Beethoven’ only opera, about a woman disguising herself to save her husband from death. Beethoven was rumored to be a freemason, and judging by his tombstone, I would say m'yeah I think so (obelisk, butterfly, ouroboros).

The masks were Venetian carnival masks made by Il Canovaccio. The Bauta are a type of masks used in the 18th century for anonymity in democratic secret ballot events regulated by the Venetian government. Kubrick sure loves the 18th century; an age of enlightenment, freemasonry, and illuminati.

Here's Kubrick's daughter talking about her father and the state of the world and the powers that be. (1) And this article backs up what she says Kubrick thought of the world, the US, and why he didn't want to live here.

NOT "NEW AGE" HERE

I just wanted to clarify that the research that I write about on this blog is not "New Age" or intended to be part of the so-called New Age Movement. This blog is just about research of history and topics that I feel are what these movies are about. Topics researched separately, topic by topic.

I'm listening to christian author Constance Cumbey talk about the New Age movement and seems to say that it's a pro-new world order and pro-antichrist movement. That's news to me. But I don't take her word for it -- I'm curious and want to research about it more to see if it's true (When I was kid, a fellow church member used to tell us to boycott Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ when it came out, and when I finally saw it later, I felt in my opinion it was one of the greatest movies of all time. So, I don't put much faith in people telling me not to see something, because that's not rational and now you got me curious). So, I read what Wikipedia had to say about New Age. It seems to be about anything and everything; from eastern religions, astronomy, quantum mechanics, Atlantis, etc. And a few New Age-types were extremists and added extra things, like Alice Bailey's Nazi talk, but don't all religions have their extremists? There are labels and catagories because people love labels and catagories, and now I admit I've just done gone used the label. So, my point being, I'm not talking New Age crap here. I'm talking topic by topic. From politics to history to basically anything that interests me.

THE DARK CRYSTAL and CONAN THE BARBARIAN

What makes a great fantasy movie? Why are some fantasy movies classics and stand the test of time while others bomb and are forgotten? I believe the best fantasy movies are the ones rooted in real history, real mystery religions, real symbols. The realness resonates within us. Two of the classics, IMO, are The Dark Crystal and Conan the Barbarian. I would have gotten into The Lord of the Rings, but that's way too much to handle.

Jim Henson, with his flowery shirts and psychedelic experimental films, had to most definitely have been a product of the '60's and the counterculture movement. I'm not sure of what his specific religious beliefs were, if he was into New Age whatever that means who knows. He did make various short films that expressed his counterculture-like interests, including Youth 68 and many psychedelic animations as seen in Sesame Street. For The Dark Crystal, working with Brian Froud, they researched ancient religions and world history and created this fantastic yet familiar world. And "familiar" is key. Other fantasy films probably haven't worked as well because they haven't based designs and story on the research of real human history, art, and folklore. This should be noted if you're a production designer or art director. See the pics for more info, and see The History Channel's Ancient Aliens series. And also, because the film really doesn't have much dialog (in fact it was originally meant to have a made-up language with subtitles), the images are that much more important in telling us what this world is about, and it's that much more immediate when the images are familiar.

I think there seems to be a counterculture movement whenever there is a disillusionment with society, where the world is in chaos, and people seek answers "elsewhere," and this movement reappears throughout history. More or less around the Civil War, theosophy arose, and possibly inspired the Romantics, Pre-Raphaelites, gothic literature, Art Noveau, etc. These artforms referenced ancient civilizations and mystical occultism. Around WW1&2, arose Art Deco (lot of Mayan and Egyptian motifs), Nazi's occult usage, L. Frank Baum, JRR Tolkien, and Conan's author, Robert E. Howard. They all take from ancient esoteric history. Around the Vietnam War arose the so-called New Age (ancient and especially eastern mystical stuff) and I'm guessing George Lucas and Jim Henson might have been influenced by that. I don't care much for labels such as New Age and Theosophy, plus I haven't looked much into what those are defined as exactly, but I like to research and reference historical cultures and ancient ruins, and I find significance in those things. There seems to be more studies nowadays exposing this pre-history of man, like of Mesopotamia or before. A pagan world before the Judeo-Christian-Islam organized-religions-coopting-for-political-purposes mess. Ancient cultures around the world built henges of heavy stone and monuments to track astrological movements and planetary alignments. It would be foolish to call them primitive. Key figures to check out include Michael Cremo, David Hatcher Childress, and Graham Hancock. My point being, these movements towards rediscovering ancient history and knowledge, seems to be in response, a counterculture, to a disillusionment with western, mainstream, status quo thinking.

John Milius, director of Conan the Barbarian, is buddies with George Lucas I'm sure from the American Zoetrope days. I'm sure he's picked up that Joseph Campbell influence. Campbell had once stayed at Nicolas Roerich's Master building, which has a library of ancient texts, eastern religious books, etc. Mystic Roerich was a influential in getting the eye and pyramid on the back of the US one-dollar bill.

In the Conan the Barbarian dvd commentary track, Milius said he wanted the movie to feel very real, as if based on an ancient prehistory of man. Robert E. Howard created an age called the Hyborian Age, which was almost post-Lemurian, post-Atlantean. There's a scene where Conan gets his sword from a skeleton, a 8-feet tall ancient Atlantean ruler. Scholar's like Joseph P. Farrell talks about how the greeks, hopi, mayans, iroquois, aztecs, and the bible all talk about an ancient war with a giant elite race. The doc Mysterious Origins of Man narrated by Charlton Heston is also interesting.

TERRY GILLIAM

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS
Whoa! Terry Gilliam is so quirky and weird! Just a bunch of random imagery and wacky stuff! ...I'm being sarcastic... Terry Gilliam knows exactly what the f- he's doing.

Symbols and imagery, IMO, can be interpreted as many things to many people, but the true meaning is with the creator, the writer, the artist. That's the irony, the trick, the rub, the deception... or not. Whatever you want to call it. However you want to take it. Unless you find out about it, unless you're in on it, unless you are an "initiate," you, i guess, know only as much as you think you know. Symbols are more powerful than words. Words are too exact. Symbols are visual and universal, and therefore transcend languages. In any case, it's important to read up on what symbols mean and their many meanings.

Masonic symbols to learn about include: the all-seeing eye with rays, pyramid, jacob's ladder, checker board floor, hanged man, and two columns.

BRAZIL
I'm wondering if most people think Brazil is a comedy. To me, it's 1984-ish, oppressive, scary, exhausting, albeit outrageous at times. Here are excepts from Terry Gilliam's commentary track on the director's cut of Brazil:

“These troopers- some of this is influenced by a mixture of Star Wars, a lot of South American oppressive countries. Most of the detail that I got about the tortures and the arrests were a very common place in most other countries in the world. There was very little inventing. I kept telling people this film is a documentary- I’ve invented nothing. These are only things that I’ve observed.”

“The Truth Shall Make You Free. It the one thing in this world that doesn’t operate on, it’s truth. And yet they glorify it. Usually you spot how societies work by what they glorify -- it’s usually the thing they’re deficient in."

“…1984, the book, which I never read, but I think I share some sort of collective conscious understanding of what 1984 is about…George Gross’ paintings, Metropolis, Fritz Lang, totalitarian posters…and you mix all of that with America in the 40’s and Popular Mechanics, and the world of everything will be better in the future, technology will solve all our problems….then you have the reality of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, which we were living in at the time…”

Secretary
“…typing the transcript of a torture. She’s the sweetest person in the world and she’s like secretaries around the world, they just do what their bosses ask them to do and they don’t think about it. This is what secretaries do. This is why we hire them. And she’s the cheeriest, the sweetest, woman we could find, and yet doing this, with no sense of what it means, with no sense of the awfulness. And that’s one of things that amazes me about the human animal, how it can separate its mind from the reality and the awfulness and carry on… and they intrigue me… I’m sure those people exist all around the world in every secret service, organization. CIA have got those people, they’re out there, they do their job, they don’t think about it, they do the paperwork…I think everybody in this world is doing it. There‘s hardly anybody who has escaped that way of thinking.”

“Here’s a scene with Jack, the family man, the best friend, who happens to be this torturer, he’s like a butcher when we first see him. And we have pictures of his happy family, there’s his wife on the desk, and we hit all the closeups of them and it didn‘t work… we had to be more obvious, we had to have a little girl in the scene, not a picture, but let’s have a little girl playing, to show what a good family man, he’s a sweet man, he loves his children, he plays with them, delicate and caring. Here’s somebody who’s got his brain split down the middle, he can do one job, and then he could be the good family man, and still be a functioning human being. The objective attitude that jack shows is what I think America keeps doing more than anywhere. I mean, it’s the idea that you somehow overcome the failings of your humanness by becoming objective, and you stand above it, and then everything is treated equally, fairly, all of that, and this will make a better world. The fact is it makes a nightmare world. It’s like it gets rid of passion, it gets rid of all the things that we’re always told is primitive, base, that society should be ridding itself of. And it scares me, because people like Jack Lint succeed in that world and they don’t differentiate between delivering torture fairly and objectively and evenly or handing out presents. In the same form. It’s done the same way. And it’s like the blood has gone out of society. And that’s what’s chilling, that scares me more than anything. I can deal with someone who’s crazed, who hates me. I can’t deal with somebody who gives me a nice smile, a level tone in their voice and is objective.”

On the prisoner who is bagged and bumps into the wall with the pinball sound fx, “ I love that moment because people laugh, and then they don’t laugh. They’re caught. That’s what happens a lot on the film, where we set people up to laugh, and they start to laugh and they realize this isn’t funny, and there’s a gasp. And it’s part of the roller coaster ride that I really intended. We raise them heights of laughter and then say uh-uh, not funny, this is terrifying. And they plunge. And a lot of people resent that and that’s understandable.”

“ In my original ideas about the film, the ministry didn’t know whether there were terrorists out there or not because over the years they had so many counter agents and counter-counter agents out there and agent provocateurs who maybe set explosions to lure people in. The people lost track of whether there really were terrorists or not, but the important thing is the belief in terrorists had to be maintained to allow the ministry to continue to survive. Originally the film was called The Ministry. It was really about the survival of an organism like a great bureaucracy that will do anything to keep itself going. And sometimes in this world it seemed to be people were more willing to believe in the idea of terrorists than the inefficiency of the technological system, which is constantly blowing up and going wrong. And it’s how you choose to view the world, is what‘s it‘s about. And we do it everyday of our lives. We make assumptions that Sam is constantly is doing and is proved wrong.”

“I remember some years ago talking to George Lucas about evil and I was saying (Darth Vader) isn’t evil because he’s.. wears a black costume, he’s like the cowboy with the black hat. You see him coming a mile away. You know this is the bad guy. So that to me isn’t really worrisome ‘cause you can see it. What’s evil is Jack Lint, the person who’s the best friend, the nice guy, who does…what he does. And that’s evil. So, all along the line, we let the Darth Vader’s of this world be seen to be people in there with real problems, even silly problems.”

On the plastic-surgery obsessed mom‘s house: “The designs in mum’s flat, it’s all Egyptian. It’s all about eternal life. Mummification. Or Mommy-fication, I’m not sure. …The idea of the ducts in here in this old apartment that was once beautiful, but the ducts had invaded that just to provide whatever central services can provide. You spend all your money on the aesthetics of the place, but you destroy all to get the goodies the system provides. To me the important thing about the ducting was that people, no matter how much money and care the spend on decorating their world, they would happily destroy that for the benefits of this modern society. And it‘s a kind of brutalization of aesthetics that intrigues me.”