Heavy 1984 and Brazil influences...

[rbf1138]

Anyone else notice how heavily HL2 seems to have been influenced by Orwell's 1984 and Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil ?


SPOILERS



From the propoganda, the screens with Dr. Breen, the resistance, the almost communist-like nature of the city, the look of the Combine soldiers...it's all very much like Orwell's dystopian novel. If you haven't read 1984 or seen Brazil, I highly recommend it.

 

[Jimlad]

Absolutely. Next question please!

 

[Lobster]

Ive seen brazil, its kinda deppresing but quite funny in places, I really like what they have done with HL2's setting ambience and story, cant wait to just play through the entire thing.

I wonder if robert deniro will repel in to fix the plumbing!

 

[jonnyapps]

i agree but i always thought Brazil had its origins in 1984 and as such wasn't in that way as original as orwell

 

[rbf1138]

...

Gilliam actually wanted to call Brazil 1984 1/2. Gilliam fully acknowledges that Brazil is a takeoff of 1984.

 

[wayne white]

the movie brasil IS 1984.

 

[trantjd]

Hmmm, I'm seeing a lot more 1984 in the HL2 stuff so far than Brazil. Other than thematically, I see very little connection with Brazil. And Brazil's theme can be traced back to 1984 anyways...

Either way, go rent Brazil...it's a great movie! Hmmmm, a Brazil mod made with Source...how about that?

 

[Flyingdebris]

what happens in brazil, never saw it

 

[Immortal]

All the propaganda, the combine kicking the doors down and all the depressed people reminded me of German ocupied cities in WW2.

 

[thomashiles]

In 35mb video, the Combine in the apartment block reminds me of Minority Report...

 

[Gossoon]

Brazil will make you quit your job and start a revolution. It's a great, great film. But don't watch it if you're depressed and/or suicidal.

 

[Spectracide]

Brazil was a great movie, so I got no problem if Half-Life 2 is influenced by it

 

[CptStern]

dont forget shades of Brave New World by aldous huxley...also Farenheit 451 and pretty much any movie/book/comic about a dystopia

actually it resembles the Charlton Heston movies The Omega Man and Soylent Green

 

[Mountain Man]

what happens in brazil, never saw it

It's almost impossible to describe in any way that'll make sense. You just have to see it for yourself.

 

[ferd]

lol @ the minority report and WW2 guy

you should read 1984, it owns

 

[Orange]

Brazil isn't LOL hilarious, its more biting and subdued humor i think.

Huxley's "Brave New World" was written before 1984 by over a decade, and has much more science-fiction aspects than 1984, which seems more realistic.

1984 also focusses on society ruined by hate, whereas Brave New World focuses more on society being ruined by technology, and overdosing of senses. i think anyway : /

But all 3 deal with conformity imposed by a state.

If you liked the idea's in office space, brazil should be for you. But! Brazil isn't as comedic.

EDIT: Also, Brazil was great i thought, but i've read many viewer reviews saying that it was too slow. It does geta little slow. I liked it but I don't want people getting disappointed by a great movie cause they went in expecting the wrong thing.

I think that hl2 does seem most like 1984, but there are still heavy influences

 

[Mr.Magnetichead]

I had exactlly the same thoughts.

Alo undertones of a Twelve Monkeys Esque society.

 

[trantjd]

I had exactlly the same thoughts.

Alo undertones of a Twelve Monkeys Esque society.

I'm still not sure about the Half-life world being very related to Brazil or 12 Monkeys, but this has definitely gotten me drooling...Wouldn't it be amazing if some game company were to bring Terry Gilliam onboard with the development of a game. His movies and themes would lend themselves so amazingly to running around and exploring! The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (sp?) even would be a lot of fun to play through...provided the art in the game was sufficiently bizarre!

 

[wayne white]

i dont know if somebody has named this one:farenheit 451.

 

[Jimlad]

...what parallels are you drawing with Brave New World, exactly? I can't think of anything obviously similar, at least, not to lead me to believe it's inspired by much else besides 1984.

 

[snark^]

[Scene: large disused funnel now used as a torture chamber. In the middle of the huge empty space is a dentists chair: one figure sits upon it, two stand either side of him.]

Sitting figure, aka Tortured Gamer: [humming]La da dah da da da do dahhhhh...

Gabe: [leans in] He's got away from us Doug.

Doug: [joining Gabe in Gamers field of view] I'm afraid you're right, Mr. Newell. He's gone.

Tortured Gamer: [humming along with a full orchestra, and we hear ...]

"Brazil, where hearts were entertained in June,
We stood beneath an amber moon,
And softly murmured 'Some day soon'
We kissed and clung together,
Then, tomorrow was another day.
The morning found me miles away,
With still a million things to say,
Now, when twilight beams the sky above,
Recalling thrills of our love,
There's one thing I'm certain of,
Return, I will,
To old Brazil."​

 

[Asus]

It would be interesting to see a mod for HL2 that mixed in elements of The Specialist to get something similar to Equilibrium (movie). hehe

 

[Space Cowboy]

All the propaganda, the combine kicking the doors down and all the depressed people reminded me of German ocupied cities in WW2.

Yeah, the knocking on the door sound really made the Combine look more like Gestapo officers. Also it isn't so much a knock on the door, but rather a deafening bang.

 

[oopsmaster]

Hahaha! This thread is funny. Brazil was a bit much for me to handle when I first saw it as a youngster. Too abstract and confusing, and I thought it was visually interesting but I just didn't get it.

I agree that Brazil isn't a LOL funny movie either. It's been classified as a "satire" movie before and I think that seems to fit. It has a lot of similarities to Orwell's 1984, but 1984 was a much much darker and disturbing story.

what happens in brazil, never saw it

Mega-bureaucracy, "have"s and "have-not"s, totalitarianism, guy helping crippled guy going to the can, rebellion, ultra-ultra-makeovers, and evil plumbers getting blown up with feces by Robert DeNiro.... who then gets consumed by swirling masses of newspaper and disintegrated. If you do drugs, now is the time to use them! :E

Soylent Green was a bit crazy ("SOYLENT IS PEEEEEEOPLE!!!" LOL, using garbage trucks as crowd control, and DS9's Benjamin Sisko's father was in it) but I thought the Omega Man was kinda neat (free cars, automatic weapons, get to shoot religious fanatic lepers... ).

Back on topic though, the more I think about it, the less I see any direct influence from 1984 or Brazil, other than some of the motifs and general "feel" of some things. HL2 just seems (to me) to have the feel of a city both under occupation and under siege. Post-apocalyptic themes are everywhere too, such as the dry seabed (especially with that submarine skeleton) and all the abandoned and ruined areas. I'm not sure that their inspirations came from any one source in particular... JMHO.

 

[thomashiles]

lol @ the minority report and WW2 guy

you should read 1984, it owns

What makes you think we haven't?
Why do you find the comparision with minority report funny? Because you choose to reference a more serious influence?

 

[digsy]

I thought it was quite funny when the guy in the E3 video says:

"Oh was it you knocking, I didn't even think we had a door"

Hehe, little things like that in games is what makes them worth playing, actually feels like a real world.

 

[staddydaddy]

Yeah I totally agree with what #1 is talking about. Though I love f451 and Brave new world, I dont think they have any influence on hl2 (if you know of a specific instances, please show me). There's a really good movie of 1984 that sticks to the book pretty well, you should try and rent it. The whole Dr. Breen speech reminded me alot of communism and stuff like that. The line "It's safer here" was like whoah black curtain. Also the whole Combine wall made me think of the iron curtain.

 

[Baal]

It would be interesting to see a mod for HL2 that mixed in elements of The Specialist to get something similar to Equilibrium (movie). hehe

City 17 reminded me so much of Equilibrium!

The guy talking on the screens and stuff.....it was so cool.

I think I might pick up 1984 and read it sometime. Sounds like a good book.

Is it a movie too?

 

[Xaxor]

Yes, _1984_ is a movie. But it was a book first. And if you're interested in the USSR and Bolshevik Revolution, read _Animal Farm_ also by George Orwell.
_Farenheit 451_ also had a movie version, but the story as a whole is about the dangers of censorship, though it does have it's similarities to _1984_. _Brave New World_ has a seen a movie version or two as well, though as with any movie adaptation, you're better off reading the book first.

 

[Orange]

I guess Brave New World is not a direct influence on HL2.
But some of the ideas are similar.
-Technology (but in a VERY different context) could ruin us, if combine rumors about being cyborgs being true
-conformity that is imposed. Brave New World people are bred to be the same. In 1984 they are dominated into being the same. Half Life 2, the combine is cracking down on dissidents in the govt. , which would be trying to enforce conformity to an extent.
-Brave New World does not show much influence on HL2. however as one of the (correct me if I'm wrong) First Science Fiction dystopias, may have influenced the authors of 1984 and Farenheit 451.

A specific example of how Farenheit 451 has similarities to Half-life 2 would be the book burners, or the secret police in 1984, or any real oppressive govt.'s attempts to hunt down ideas or people who threaten the mindset of society.

I could see the combine wall being like an iron curtain, except that the iron curtain was a metaphorical tension between 2 superpowers, whereas in city-17, there is active fighting between multiple sides of the citadel blockades (in the strider video, we see Gordan fighting striders OUTside the limits of the expanding combine wall).

 

[ferd]

Tbh, "1984" owns, if the story of HL2 could even touch the one of "1984" im a happy man

 

[Humble_HeadCrab]

As far as I can tell, 1984 has many things in common with HL2's story. For instance, in the E3 movie, the combine soldiers knock on the doors of dirty badly maintained apartments, and arrest citizens, similar to the way the thought-police do it in 1984 (sry if I spoiled part of the book.) Another thing is that in the apartments there is always a T.V. with Mr. Breen spewing propaganda and figures, about life in City 17, almost exactly like the telescreens in 1984. Sorry if im just repeating what you guys have already said, but I just figured I might as well state the obvious.

 

[thedarkangel]

It would be great help to me understanding your posts if those that see communism in city-17 would explain their reasoning. To be honest, I think you're just comparing the brutality of the combine with propaganda you may of heard about the Cold War.

 

[thomashiles]

Warning, Complete Spoiler for 1984!!




Pfft...I don't think the story of 1984 is that good.. - Winston gets sick of his life under Big Brother, starts being disobediant, tries to join the underground, falls in love with Julia, starts seeing her in the prole house, they get caught by the thought police and get brainwashed, and that's it. I know I'm simplifying, but I don't think 1984's strengths are in its plot. Its more the atmosphere and ideas of the setting, and what it says about governments and society...

edit, oops good point SMT, sorry

 

[SMT]

Pfft...I don't think the story of 1984 is that good.. - Winston gets sick of his life under Big Brother, starts being disobediant, tries to join the underground, falls in love with Julia, starts seeing her in the prole house, they get caught by the thought police and get brainwashed, and that's it. I know I'm simplifying, but I don't think 1984's strengths are in its plot. Its more the atmosphere and ideas of the setting, and what it says about governments and society...

Oh, thanks for ruining the plot for me! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Kidding. Read it in high school. :stare:

 

[omni]

I would classify Brazil as a comedy before anything else. I laughed more in that movie than I felt sorry for any of the negatively effected people living under big brother. Brazil didn't emphasize big brother's oppressiveness more than what would happen if big brother was an 800 lbs doofus who always stepped on his own feet when he walked.

I mean the scene in the beehive like office where the protagonist shares a desk with another guy through the wall. I couldn't stop laughing!

I hope HL2 is NOT like Brazil. At least in execution. Maybe in root themes.

 

[Element Alpha]

1984 ...

Warning: Big Spoilers about the book all over this post

what I found great about that book were the little details. Of course the main storyline wasn't unexpected or anything. It's the little things: newspeak, remember that? simpifying the language until people are unable to think clearly and all that. Also, the constant shower of news, changing even the smallest facts, just to keep the people busy. I remember there was a war with another continent, they put it as if they had always been at war with them. Then suddenly there was peace, so the news said they had always been at peace with their good friends from that other continent. Also the same with the razorblades: suddenly the news anounces that razorblades haven't been available for weeks, while they were just available before. And the people seemed to really believe all of it, so you really feel the loneliness. Nothing is sure, everything is unstable, very weird.
Also, take notice that Orwell lived between 1903 and 1950, and he predicted a lot of things, in a way that really makes you uncomfortable.
Of course, the propaganda in HL2 looks orwellian by nature.
I expect the story to really spin around the different parties who try to befriend you. Notice in the E3 video Eli tells you to put on your labcoat and take off your HIV. He's trying to make you a definite member of the scientists. I'm curious about all that.