Brazil

Rating:
Summary: Singleplusungood
Review: My name is alcarillo and I am a co-dependent movie watcher.

I saw this in the theater and professed to like it because so many cineastes said it was a landmark film.

I rented it several times thereafter because it had become a cult classic among cool undeground movie-types.

I got the DVD because well, I had to have the special edition with all the cool features, and even though I never really liked this film I had to fork over 50 bucks anyway.

OK, this isn't a terribly bad movie, just over-earnest and very clumsy, nothing more. And while the art direction has Gilliam's unmistakable -- and wonderful -- stamp, the execution of the story and the characters (no pun intended) is tiresome.

Yet, I'm supposed to believe that this film -- and the act of it being made -- is some sort of epic myth. That it's a p-ss take on the Great Ruthless Clueless Hollywood Machine; that it's an indictment of Thatcherism and Reaganism. No, it's just a confusing, unrestrained Gilliam mess. He handles "12 Monkeys" with much more restraint and balance, which makes it a far better (in fact the best) Gilliam film.

It has it's moments: Lowry's encounter with the fearful, but ultimately menacing ventilation repairmen is one of my favorites. So is the fight over the shared desk. But in the end (whichever end you choose: Gilliam's or Hollywood's), I felt cheated in a way. That I was to end up not caring about Jill or Lowry or anyone except -- oddly -- Jack, seemed like the bigger crime committed here (next to the price of this DVD).

So I had to let it go; admit once and for all that no, I don't like "Brazil" in any incarnation. I had to accept that I was indeed in denial, and once I did that I sold my DVD to a local video store -- at a great loss. At least I saved some considerable DVD shelf space.

Rating:
Summary: SHARP INTELLIGENT SATIRE WRAPPED IN A DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI FLICK
Review: This piquant, allegorical film is easily one of the best movies of all time, and ranks right up there with "A Clockwork Orange" or "Dr. Strangelove" as a laconic social satire.

The plot is a roller coaster of emotions, I really couldn't do it justice in description. It has to be "experienced." You'll be grinning ear to ear one minute, and be mad the next. Terry Gillam is in his genius best top form here, and his hilarious hang-ups had me feeling I was living inside a screwball comedian's head.

The controversial end is I guess open to interpretation, but it kept me awake for a while. Robert De Niro is nearly unrecognizable in his cameo (he was in about 3 scenes), Jonathan Pryce plays the Winston Smith of the story, the concept of the film being very, very close to that of "1984," but unlike Orwell's book, this has adorable doses of (very) black comedy, and some pretty bizarre twists.

Overall, this is a film that'll be remembered for many reasons, not the least of which is its convincing dystopian sci-fiction. Now that it is on a Criterion DVD, there's very little reason not to own it pronto.

Rating:
Summary: A satire without laughs
Review: This a copied review, slightly edited, but it so succinct that I could not have done a better job.

A viewer from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada posted March 2003

Brazil is ultimately a failure on all counts. The plot, such as it exists, centers on a mid-level worker eventually confronting a society crushed underneath a Byzantine system of rules, regulations and paperwork. The world depicted evokes images of such uniquely 20th century works as 1984 and THX-1138; the human soul repressed and minimalized by totalitarianism and the machine of the state. The particular target of this satire, however, is bureaucracy. Unfortunately, while some of the visual design and over the top imagery is intriguing, the movie brings very little new or insightful beyond the premise of bureaucracy runs amok. Indeed after the first few minutes, the message is clear: rules shouldn't obscure humanity. But rather than present any kind of plot to interest the viewer, we're treated to variations of this theme interspersed with sheer boredom. A love story is included as well, complete with dream sequences. These sequences, regrettably, are poorly handled. In a movie with such a surrealistic texture to it's visuals, one would hope for some depth to a dream sequence; messages and themes should be filled with depth and revealed in layers. Instead, here they unfold with all the subtlety of an adolescent dungeons and dragons fantasy. None of this is helped by the fact that the story follows the classic arc of character revelation and disillusionment in laborious starts and (mainly) stops - nothing interesting ever seems to happen. Finally, the movie just isn't funny. And a satire without laughs is one of the most painful of viewing experiences.

Taking this together with its lack of insight and slow narrative, Brazil is a remarkably bland experience. Seldom have I watched a bad movie so bereft of any redemptive factors. By the final few minutes one is left not caring at all how the movie ends; just hoping that it will and as soon as possible.

Rating:
Summary: Brazil... Incomparable.
Review: An intelligent movie that follows its own set of rules, if it has any. This is not your average cup of Hollywood 'entertainment', but prepare to be dragged into the world of Brazil nonetheless.

Supposedly a twisted 1984 (Gilliam's 1984), Brazil is a somewhat longish experience, which is good because I wished it would never end. Very roughly, it depicts people living under a government obsessed with paperwork (easily burned or manipulated, so then are humans themselves/humans become printed sheets). Also large corporations such as Central Services and Ministry of Information (retrieval), are not making things easy. This looks like 2003 to me.

It's not something straightforward, but more of an experience. There is the constant black/bleak humor, which throws you on the edge of laughing/shuddering.

Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, and Kim Greist form a refreshing and excellent cast. Be sure to grab the Criterion collection, too, if you want the Uncut version and lots and lots of Useful additions.

5 thumbs up. 1+1=5.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie.
Review: Since most of the reviewers before me have done a great job in describing it, I'll limit myself to say that it truly is a great film. I never get tired of watching it. Each time I do, I get new things out of it that I had missed before. I highly recomend it for anyone who enjoys Terry Gilliam films, or for anybody who might have gotten tired of watching the same ($#*@%!) comming out of Hollywood's A$$ year in and year out, and is now finally willing to watch something entirely different.

Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorite Films
Review: This is one of my favorite films of all time, and every time I watch it I'm reminded of why. Each time I watch it, I see some thing new, or there is some sort of symbolism or hidden irony that i didn't notice before.

There is so much to enjoy and laugh at in this film, the caricature characters, the hidden visual jokes (look at all the propoganda signs in the background) and the simple humor found through out.

Terry Gilliam clearly hates bureaucracy (see "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" if you don't believe me) but he has taken his satire of it and made it into a witty version of the oppressive government scenario. I believe I am correct when I call this a bit of a mix between "Dr. Strangelove" and "1984."

Rating:
Summary: Terry GilliamÂ's Masterpiece
Review: For those who cannot buy the Criterion Edition this one is perfect, with the theatrical trailer, production notes and
the widescreen version of the film as special features, itÂ's amazing.

Just the emotion of watching Brazil again and again and again and again, the experience of watching it on dvd is pretty good.

This one is Terry GilliamÂ's Masterpiece.
For fans I strongly reccomend the Criterion edition.
With the " Love Conquers All Version", The Battle of Brazil and WhatÂ's Brazil? doccumentaries, Terry GilliamÂ's stroyboards and much, much more.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: Every major movie should get this kind of in-depth treatment. Covering three discs, the original movie has been restored (the rubber room scene from the British release is here), Gilliam comments throughout on a separate audio track, the documentary covers the controversy behind the release, and (on the third disc) you get the neutered version the studio wanted. (The third disc is perfect for skeet-shooting.)

Fortunately for Terry Gilliam, this movie has become his masterwork...and one of the great films of the 1980s. His other movies have flaws here and there, but Brazil doesn't. It's just as good today as it was back then --- maybe even better.

Rating:
Summary: Creative Adaptation of Orwell's "1984"
Review: The movie is Monty Python star Terry Gilliam's finest work. An adaptation of Orwell's classic political satire "1984" starring Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro.

The movie follows the same dominant theme and plot structure of 1984 but adds a little more light humor to the story. Just as in "1984", society is controlled by a totalitarian state and all modes of subversion are suppressed. The movie is perhaps less focused on the communist overtones in Orwell's novel and shows more of a fascistic state. The images are surreal and follow the main character's desire to escape and/or revolt against social conformity and bureaucratic convention.

I liked this movie a lot more than the the movie "1984" starring Richard Burton. The theme here is a little more jovial and comical but still sends the same message as its gloomier counterpart.

Rating:
Summary: Frightens me more with each viewing
Review: It's pretty impressive how much of this "fantasy" film has become a reality. Let's start with the metal detector at the restaurant that smashes the wrapped Christmas present Ida Lowry is about to give to her son. Tried taking anything wrapped into an airport or public arena lately? Then there's Ida's obsession with looking younger and younger, until she looks younger than her son. Ask any Beverly Hills plastic surgeon how common this is today and he'll show you his new Aston Martin. Then there's the escalating cost of the war on terrorism, and how prisoners are being made to pay for their own interrogation. This is often how it works today. And the level of paranoia the government functions in would make even John Ashcroft feel uneasy. (Or would it?)

As with Network and Paddy Chayefsky, Gilliam was about fifteen years ahead of the curve when he wrote Brazil. In fact, the two of them make a good double-feature. This may be partially a comedy, but I don't laugh much when I watch it, and frankly have a hard time watching this film very often. It just hits too close to home, both in terms of our situation today and in how so few people seem to realize our situation today, because they're more worried about trite things, like "pooper scooper" laws. (In Brazil the solution is simpler: we just put tape over the mutt's butt.) A bomb goes off in a restaurant, and people go about their dinner while the management puts up a screen to hide the charred bodies. And New York reopened for business just a week after 9-11.

An important thing to realize about Brazil, a fact even a lot of the gushing critics seem to have missed, is that it is *not* set in the future. The title card at the film's beginning reads "Somewhere In The 20th Century," although if Gilliam made it today the card would surely read "Somewhere In The 21st Century." The idea is that this is an alternative way things could have turned out, hence the mixture of technologies and styles--the 1940s hats and the archaic computers with robot drones and compact tank vehicles. Gilliam is giving us a warning--this is not a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, nor is it the far future. He's saying it's easily possible for this to be today. How close we've come is left up to us to decide.

The titanic battles that Gilliam went through to get Brazil made his way are well-known, and if you don't know them they are chronicled on the second disc of this three-disc set from Criterion. The other discs contain Gilliam's "director's cut" and the infamous "Sid Sheinberg" or "Love Conquers All" edit. Some people may have seen the latter on TV. It's repulsive, but fascinating to show how a movie can be taken away from a director and refashioned into something barely recognizable. Editing is a powerful tool, and the way this film was changed by the powers at Universal is ironically in harmony with Gilliam's very theme of Big Brother putting a smiling face on even the most repugnant realities.

At the same time, I have problems with Gilliam's edit too. At 142 minutes, it's too long, too repetitive, too excessive. There are too many scenes of explosions and destruction, too many bits of Joanthan Pryce exploding in frustration over the bureaucratic world, maybe one too many dream sequences. We never really get a handle on why Pryce is at first so utterly repugnant to Jill Layton yet suddenly acceptable, as she comes looking for him, finding him in his apartment even though she's not been told where it is. (Or is this the beginnings of his delusion and fantasy, I wonder?) Frankly, I think I ultimately prefer the American theater edit of this film most (which clocks in at about 130 minutes). Several scenes near the end were cut in that version, for example, and the film moves better and faster without them. Not that I'm saying this version isn't worth watching, but Gilliam's vision has its flaws too. I think he was too close to the subject to give this film the best edit.

As usual Criterion gives us all the goodies: lots of interviews, commentaries, the theatrical trailer, script notes, yada yada. Despite being a flawed masterpiece, Brazil is a masterpiece, one of the most important films of the last 30 years, I think. Seeing it for the first time, on the big screen in 1985, I had some inkling of what those first audiences felt when watching Citizen Kane. How astonished they must have been. After that first viewing of Brazil, a friend down the aisle asked me what I thought. "I'll let you know when my knees stop shaking," I said, quite seriously. Years later, that's still the reaction I have to this film.