Brazil

Rating:
Summary: Great Packaging for an Overlooked Film
Review: Terry Gilliam's Brazil is a complete mess, very much like Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now - both films are very frantic, all over the place, with stunning visuals and characters who seem to act under fate's influence than their own free wills, all the way to their doom. Both movies are also undeniably great works of cinema by extremely talented professionals. Gilliam seems to want to make a grand statement - but what is it? (It's definitely not "LOVE CONQUERS ALL!") We find ourselves in the presence of Orwell's Big Brother at the Ministry of Information - but I doubt Gilliam was just aiming for a retread of 1984. The theme seems to be a pining for a more rural, simpler existence, but that's a hell of a flimsy thread to hang all this weight on! The plot leaves a lot of questions unanswered - in particular, Robert De Niro's Tuttle is very enigmatic with no solid connections to anything else in the movie, although Mr. and Mrs. Buttle would surely disagree. The big romance could use some work, too. Acknowledging these flaws, though, this still remains a landmark film - the camera pullback from the chair in the cooling tower burns into the memory forever, it seems, and the acting is pretty solid throughout, with Jonathan Price in particular standing out. The packaging, of course, is suberb - one of the best examples of bonus features on the market. Not for everyone, but then most great films aren't.

Rating:
Summary: Kafka meets Dali; a surreal vision of a dark future
Review: This film is a masterpiece, but it is so disturbing that it's difficult for many people to watch or understand. It's not the theme that's difficult. That's easy--the theme is bureauocracy as the devourer of men's souls. It's the style in which this film is made that drives critics up a wall.

The visuals are strong and biting; enemies of the State are apprehended in the most callous way, hooked up like sides of beef in a refrigerated paddy wagon on the way to lock-up (or the butcher shop?) The set is creatively ugly, with ubiquitous monitors in a utilitarian design that speaks of a society stripped of every single aspect of humanity. Against that background, the character played by Pryce attempts to retain his own humanity against horrible odds. His vision of an angel-like woman is akin to Goethe's "Ewigweiblichkeit" (eternal femininity) at the end of Faust.

No doubt 50 years from now, Brazil will be hailed as a monumental achievement of 20th century film. Right now, it's pretty much misunderstood.

Rating:
Summary: BRRRAAAAZZIIILLLL
Review: When I first saw Brazil i was left in confused awe. What had I just seen? Intrigued, i rented it again and watched carefully. I found the answer to my question. i had seen the single greatest film ever made.This is what movies should be like. Not only is everything in it perfect but every time you watch it you notice more and more things about the film and I've seen it about 20 times. Absolute film perfection. The music, the acting, THE VISUALS, everything is perfect. Gilliam is the greatest director ever. His mix of social commentary and humor are great and in his best film, Brazil, it all comes together. Watch it more than once, you just have to.

Rating:
Summary: Love Conquers All but the quality of the 3rd Disc
Review: I am only going to talk about this DVD set, not about the movie. The 3 disc set is only 2/3 good. The first disc, the Director's Cut, is great. It looks great, it sounds good, and is the version Terry Gilliam wanted to make. The second disc is full of the controversy surrounding this movie stemming from Universal's desire to chop up the movie to make it more appealing. Alot of other interesting stuff on this disc too, including chats with the composer, other production people, the trailer, and some other stuff.

The THIRD disc, however, is a shame. Clearly, the makers of this DVD set wanted to show the US "Love Conquers All" version in the worst possible way. The video quality is really terrible, it's dark, grainy, and dirty, obviously it hasn't been cleaned up at all like the pristine Director's Cut. Not only is the video quality terrible, but it's also shown in fullscreen, not 1.85:1 like the Director's Cut. Because of these problems, it's really hard to watch this version at all. It's too bad they couldn't at least give us a decent version of this US cut, like the one on the standard 1 disc DVD sold by Universal. That's the only way you'll be able to really compare them fairly. Of course, the director's cut is much better, an awesome movie that doesn't look dated even today, nearly 20 years after it's release!

Rating:
Summary: GILLIAM IS GOD
Review: THIS IS THE GREATEST MOTION PICTUER OF ALL TIME AND THE FACT THAT SIXTEEN YEARS LATER THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO STILL HAVEN'T SEEN IT PUZZLES ME. TO BE HONEST I ONLY SAW IT TWO YEARS,BUT WHEN I FIRST SAW THE MASTERPIECE THAT IS BRAZIL, IT HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON ME, AND I HAVE BEEN A HUGE TERRY GILLIAM FAN EVER SINCE AND CANT WAIT FOR HIS NEXT FILM. IT IS TRUE THAT IT IS A BIT HARD TO FOLLOW AND TAKES REPEATED VIEWINGS TO FULLLY UNDERSTAND, BUT IT'S SO ENERGETIC AND GORGEOUSS TO LOOK AT WITH FANTASTIC DIRECION FROM GILLIAM,AN OSCAR WORTHY PERFORMANCE BY JONATHAN PRYCE AND HAS THE BEST FILM SCORE EVER BY MICHAEL KAMEN, SO YOU PROBABLEY WONT CARE, I KNOW I DIDN'T. THE ACADAMY AWARDS MUST BE ARANGED BY SHEEP IF THEY CAN IGNORE THIS MASTERPIECE BUT GIVE HUGELY OVER RATEED CROWD PLEASEING FARE LIKE GLADIATOR AND GROUCHING TIGER,HIDDEN DRAGON TOP BILLING

BUT HEY DONT FORGET TERRY

WE'ER ALL IN IT TOGETHER

Rating:
Summary: this film rocked
Review: What a film,the incredible story,acting,filming,directing and so on,it was just mind blowing, as you can tell I love Terry gilliam's films although not yet a gilliam feak I'm gitting their, but back to Brazil, it is strage and wonderful movie that was so intreging that the last half hour of the movie I was amazed at how I couldn't tell if he was dreaming or not.And the last seen I'm not going to give it away but I well say that it is an exordinary moment!just a great film!

Rating:
Summary: Worth every extra penny for DVD collection
Review: This film, if you enjoyed it on VHS and have seen it in re-release in the theatres a year or two ago, then this DVD is for you. There are THREE complete versions of the film.

Then there is the documentary about the troubles Gilliam had in getting his finished product to the screen.

Behind the scenes things like the script in revisions also make this a must have for the collector.

If you have never seen the movie before then rent it first. But if you understand it or don't like I still don't after seeing it quite a few times, then buy this version and at least understand the tribulations of Gilliam in making this masterpiece of film.

Rating:
Summary: A SHORT REVIEW
Review: 1) Buy only the Criterion Collection version. 2) Put on your thinking caps. 3) Enjoy the bizarre special effects. 4) Open your mind to philisophical themes. 5) Enjoy great performances. 6) Get off computer andbuy/watch this now. 7) AWESOME ENDING!!!!!! (MAKES YOU GO HMMMM....)

Rating:
Summary: Brazil
Review: I have heard and read many good reviews of this movie, so when I sat down to finally watch it I expected a true masterpiece. The bigging of the movie truly grabed my attention, with its great theme and brilliant visuals. The movie remains good for another half hour with its funny look on a demented society, although the movie is far from a comedy. The next 1.5 hours are pretty much a let down. The political satires virtualy stop the the movies plot becomes so unclear that it becomes almost umbearable to watch. The only exeption to this would be the last 3 minutes of the movie which are masterfuly filmed, and is definatly worth watching. I consider myself a fan of off-beat movies that are very though-provoking, but Brazil fell below my expectations and made virtually no impact on me. there are a few parts of the movie worth watch but it doesnt make up for the other 75% that suck. In conclusion i find the movie overlong and at times unintentionaly silly.

Rating:
Summary: Existential Blues, Greys, and Sort of Dark Browns
Review: You know, it's strange sometimes what can stick in your memory where movies are concerned. For instance, whenever someone mentions Terry Gilliam's Brazil, the first thing that leaps to my mind is not the amazing story, the fantastic art direction, the great acting, or Gilliam's impeccable direction -- no, it's that damned theme song, every time! Of course, then I think about the rest of it, and I'm all right again...but I just know I'll never escape that song for as long as I live. Anyway, on to more germane blathering:

Ex-Python animator Gilliam has done several great films (Time Bandits, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas), but Brazil remains his greatest work, an existential masterpiece that gets better every time you watch it. The look of the film was heavily influenced by German Expressionist classics such as Metropolis and (to a lesser degree) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; the story is equal parts Orwell's 1984, Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, and Chaplin's Modern Times -- all tales of monolithic beauracracies/technocracies which either devour or threaten to devour the story's protagonists. (And, in a frightening case of life imitating art, Brazil itself was nearly never released by commerce-driven, blockbuster-minded, feel-good-hungry Universal Studios. Apparently this was because a personal artistic vision, and an allegorical statement about a cold corporate world devouring the individual spirit, just wouldn't play in Peoria. Gilliam actually had to go behind Universal's back to prove them wrong, and eventually had to take them to court to prevent them recutting Brazil with a different ending! And they said it could never happen here...)

The film centers around one Sam Lowry, a lowly clerk in the Ministry of Information Retrieval, who alternates his life of anonymous drudgery with flights of wild fantasy, where he is a warrior-angel with wings of metal, flying through clouds to kiss his goddess-like love. Jonathan Pryce, as Lowry, is a revelation; he brings the same quiet dignity to his everyman role that Jimmy Stewart brought to George Bailey -- and if you don't believe me, compare the two performances someday and see if I'm wrong. Anyway, Lowry is happy with his life -- he thinks -- and not only does he prefer his unremarkable existence, he actually goes out of his way to avoid the promotions arranged for him by his youth-obsessed mother (Katharine Helmond, in an absolutely delightful performance). Sam would be perfectly happy to continue on in this fashion the rest of his life, one feels --until one fateful day, when a bug quite literally gets into the computers, the letter B is substituted for the letter T, and the government's jackboots arrest an innocent man. This man's neighbor (played winningly by Kim Griest) then goes to report this false arrest -- and Sam Lowry discovers that she is, quite literally, the girl of his dreams. What follows is a comic tragedy of errors, as Sam tries to find out who she is, win her heart, and live out his dreams of a truly happy life.

It's not for the faint of heart, this movie. For while it's very funny, brilliantly-conceived satire, it's also incredibly dark. There is not a moment in this movie that does not have its own unsettling satirical twist -- such as a friend of Sam's mother, equally youth-obsessed, whose plastic surgeries keep going more and more disastrously wrong. Every successive scene she's in finds her wearing more and more bandages, and it produces the very definition of nervous laughter. Then there is the claustrophobic nature of every single mode of transport in the film -- it's Sam's mini-mini-mini-mini-car or the cagelike trains which take people back and forth through the city (both put me in mind of Sting's great line from the song "Synchronicity II": "Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes..."). But one of the best examples of this is the running gag/subplot about the electronics in Sam's apartment being on the fritz. The problem is fixed illegally by a mysterious stranger (whose identity, as well as that of the actor who plays him, is best left unrevealed to those who haven't seen the movie) -- but all this does is cause Sam trouble with the legitimate repairmen, who proceed to make Sam's life miserable. They rip the guts out of every piece of machinery in the place (and a lot of it does indeed look like guts), and leave Sam's life in complete chaos, reflecting the chaos currently overtaking the rest of Sam's life as well. These moments are where the movie really hits its stride; the apartment scene in particular achieves a series of symbolic images which not only reflect the beauracracy-gone-mad macrocosm of the rest of the movie, but also suggest Jonah trapped in the belly of the beast.

I could go on and on (in fact, I have been) -- one of the problems in reviewing a film like Brazil is that it is so very rich, it is almost impossible to describe that richness in the short space allotted here. I haven't even touched upon half of the great moments in this movie, such as the memorable and inventive dream sequences, which not only reflect but sometimes even poke fun at the main story. Then there is the department-store bombing, where the story itself is exploded and put back together, and the revelation of this moment is one of the best scenes in the movie. And what about Michael Palin, cast brilliantly against type as Jack, Sam's friend who works as an inquisition-style torturer? Jack is the Compleat Beauraucrat, both the heavy of the piece and the counterpoint to Sam Lowry's closet anti-establishment character. Jack is so dedicated to his job that the death of his subjects brings him neither pain nor joy -- it's simlpy a workaday fact. Jack is so much a part of this homogenous world that he gives everybody identical Christmas presents. He also has three identical daughters whose names he can't get straight, and who seem completely oblivious to what Daddy does for a living. Palin's performance here is funny and menacing all at once -- your first sight of him in his torturer's gear, complete with evil "baby-face" mask, practically hits you like a physical blow, and his matter-of-fact attitude will do much the same. Palin should have been nominated for an Oscar for this performance...and so should Gilliam himself have been similarly honored for his tremendous directing job. I mentioned the richness of this film; Gilliam is juggling a lot of symbols, storylines, themes, and characters around, and he doesn't drop a one. Then there is also Gilliam's brilliant eye for composition; every shot in Brazil is meaningful in one way or another, and contributes to the film as a whole. One shot in particular has always stayed with me: the matronly old woman walking her dog, and the shot of the dog walking away from the camera. We see that the dog's -- jeez, how can I say this politely? -- rear end has been taped over. It's almost a throwaway gag, but it is also symbolic of the tight-sphinctered world in which Sam Lowry exists. Like I said, Gilliam doesn't miss a trEND