Terry Gilliam's brilliant tour de force of our world run to it's logical absurdist end. The movie nakedly borrows plot, themes and tone from Orwell's 1984 in the same way that many a modern day filmaker visits upon the works of Sakespeare.
Gilliam has let our worst impulses of social indifference, beauracracy and the petty frustrations of living in a depersonalized modern world tell the story of one simple man, minding his own business who gets caught in a breakdown of the system and victimized by its cold, efficient brutality. As an added insult the victim is a long serving and active cog in the brutal system that fucks him up.
The simple message - THIS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. Or maybe its This WILL Happen to You.