The power of the douglas fir in filmmaking is immeasurable.

Place one in the back corner of a shot for a few passing seconds, plan for a December release, and suddenly your film reaches a new level of marketability. It’s a ploy major studios have been implementing for decades, and in most cases, is a glaringly obvious a cash-grab. Die Hard anyone?

That being said, it can be acceptable under circumstances. Take for instance Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, this week’s Friday Night Flick:

Brazil was famously subject to heavy-handed oversight by Universal Pictures executives, who even went as far as blocking the film’s original ending in the States following its release. With this in mind, we have a slight suspicion that Terry Gilliam probably didn’t originally have it written for his defining statement as a filmmaker - a satirical, Kafkaesque, dystopian thought-piece - to be a holiday film.

Brazil’s storyline centers on Sam Lowry, a low-ranking bureaucrat who, after years of monotony, has become disillusioned with his miserable, dead-end existence. Sam constantly escapes via his dreams to a surreal, Dali-like world, where his inner desire for a greater purpose in life manifests itself completely; here, Sam assumes the form of a noble, lionhearted, sword-yielding, samurai-slaying, damsel-rescuing warrior who has no time or need for the corporate humdrum that defines his waking life.

Taken at surface level, Brazil is a film about escapism, destiny, bureaucracy, and idealism, amongst other things. But on a deeper and more analytical level, the film is a visually decadent love letter to anti-authoritarianism (if Orwell’s 1984 had been adapted for the screen by Dr. Seuss, it might look and feel and lot like Brazil).

All that being said, it technically being a holiday film makes it the perfect candidate for this week’s Friday Night Flick. We offer it to you as an alternative to the umpteenth viewing of Elf that - admit it - you undoubtedly had in store for this weekend. Happy Holidays. —Jackson Todd.