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Summary: brazil
Review: great movie. i recomend it very highly. and if u liked this one, then get 12 monkeys also.
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Summary: Great box set... great movie... (but not for everyone...)
Review: First lets get the facts out of the way. The movie is flawed, the facing is off at points, and it's incoherent at times. But the Kafka vision the movie brings is a hard look at beurocricies, people beliefs and attachments to what they know and to what's safe. The movie has hidden messages in every scene, and a constant satire of society. The criterion collection is really amazing and stands amongst the ten best DVD Boxed sets out there. For anyone interested in cinema, and the process of filmmaking, this set is a powerful tool to get knee deep in the entire process. The first DVD includes the Directors ultimate cut in a new transfer with specific audio commentary by terry Gilliam. The second DVD includes many segments about the making of the film, and the long and hard battle the director fought with the studios over final cut on the film. It includes interviews, "making of" clips and comprehensive information of each and every segment of the movie. Plus a video edition of the book "Battle of Brazil". The last DVD includes the movie cut the studios wanted to release. That cut stands as a testimony to the immense power of editing (it's true what they say... it's all in the editing room...). The cut takes a dark, sad and sinister movie, and makes it a naive, sappy, love story. That cut rearranged the time line, takes out much footage, and adds in new footage, plus, they chose different takes for many of the scenes. Also on the disk is audio commentary that walks you thought the changes and their impact on the movie. To anyone that liked the movie, terry Gilliam or even interested in filmmaking, that movie is recommended.
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Summary: Welcome to the IRON CAGE
Review: ... Read some Max Weber to have a better understand of this movie
MY OPINION
5 stars for its message
2 stars for its setting and scenery
4 stars for everything else
5 stars for originality
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Summary: TIMELY
Review: In post 9/11 America and the "Patriot Act" the fantasy world of this film seems errie. I kept waiting for John Ashcroft to appear. Surely others must see the parallels with our current detentions, disappeared people and enemy non-combatants in our war against terror.
Anyway, I thought the merging of old and new technology (typewriters for computer key boards) in Rube Goldberg type systems was brilliantly done.
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Summary: Overrated
Review: This film is silly, and the plot is incoherent. Some people actually take this film seriously, but if anything it's a comedy. Unfortunately, it's not that funny.
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Summary: What a convoluted nightmare...
Review: After just seeing BRAZIL for the first time, I must say I will have to view it quite a few more times to get the full impact of the meanings behind the story. Terry Gilliam created a dark, morbid, paranoid convoluted nightmare that is also somewhat of a fantasy. A man falls victim to his own paranoia in a society of forms that must be filled out to take any form of action and have to be served in the right place with the right notaries upon it... The complexities of the story and atmosphere are mind-boggling and chaotic. I will refresh my review upon further analysis as this is an astounding film that, even though I don't yet "get it" I still rate at a good FOUR STARS... The enigma remains and I will return again...
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Summary: brazil 131 minute VHS version!
Review: Gilliam's Brazil was released in at least 4 different cuts.
In Australia the 142 minute directors version was released to the theatres, and that was the version with which I became familiar. This VHS version is the 131 minute Universal release, which I believe is also the American cinema release, and has about 11 minutes of material removed from the directors cut. It is hard to believe that a mere 11 minutes can change a movie so much, but this is a bastardised version of the picture. Not only has the content been altered, but the colour and soundtrack are not up to scratch on this video release. Do yourself a favour, view one of the 20th century's great pieces of cinema on the directors cut DVD. It will be worth the extra.
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Summary: For lovers of whimsical and extravagant dream films
Review: The title of the review makes this film seem like paradise, but as soon as watch it you will find that it's not. It's basically a darkly humorous and daydream filled movie about government becoming too controlling by using fear and paperwork (lots of paperwork). It is inspired by '1984', but it doesn't plagiarize because there are significant differences between the two and the most important one being that 'Brazil' isn't humorless like '1984.' Although the director is American he used to be in a Brittish comedy group called Monty Python, you may have heard of them. I say this because the film has very Brittish feel to it because many of the actors are Brittish (Michael Palin was even in Monty Python). The production design also has the outlandish feeling of animation because the director mostly did the humorous animation bits for the movies and series for Monty Python. This shows up in many models that were built for this movie. Most people can't get past this, but if that weren't enough the screenplay was co-written by Tom Stoppard who loves to do dialogue that includes language jokes that I think many Americans won't find funny. Add to that the fact that it's 2 hours and 22 mins long. Most won't be able to make it past all of that. A friend of mine said that the film bored him even though he thought it was visually brilliant. In my opinion the film needs that amount of time in order introduce you not only to this wacky and dangerous world, but to the dreamworld of the main character and how they become increasingly difficult to differentiate. Despite all of these 'setbacks' it isn't a smart film and it doesn't take multiple viewings to understand the film, people just enjoy it and were willing to go through the 'setbacks' that other people can't get past. I personally don't even find it difficult to watch at all and enjoy revisiting the world that 'Brazil' offers, or least the one that Sam, the main character dreams up.
Also, I must note that the DVD features have just as many 'setbacks' as the film because they are very comprehensive. There are the usual things such as the trailer and the promo documentary, but there are other longer features as well. A long documentary about the trouble the director had with getting Universal to distribute his film is included as well as long text explanations of the development for the script. Storyboards and many others are more than most can take, but if you're a student of film and find this one fascinating, then this is the best place to look.
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Summary: Very interesting.
Review: Who else could have crafted this film this well other than Terry Gilliam? No one. This movie is in a class of its own, it might be an odd movie the first time around, but after a few viewings, it's more normal than most other films. Very well directed by gilliam, I personally think it's his best. With this you not only get a good flick that might make you scratch your head a few times, but you also get an interesting mix of actors in here as well including Jonathan Pryce(Tomorrow Never Dies), a small role from Robert DeNiro, Jim Broadbent(Moulin Rouge), and Bob Hoskins. If you liked this film then see some other Terry Gilliam movies such as: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 12 Monkeys & Fear and loathing in Las Vegas.
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Summary: Yet another 5-star review...
Review: You're not smarter than everyone else for liking, or like me-loving, this movie. I admit that no one I have lent my copy to has yet liked this movie, and that's too bad (but thay are no less intelligent because of it). Years and years ago when I worked at one of those BIG video stores (which I will not name here), I used to try to talk people into taking back the movie they had selected in favor of Brazil. If they seemed reluctant then I would simply ruin the ending of the movie in their hand, and then assure them I was saving them time and money. The job was really boring, so I had to keep myself entertained. No one ever complained though... That aside, the movie is really stunning. It's the theatrical equivalent of a Dali painting, at least in theme. Terry Gilliam has done some impressive things in film, but this movie, at least to me-and some others- is a masterpiece. With out a doubt it is bizarre, and the fantasy world of Sam Lowry is only slightly less bizarre than the reality this movie asserts. Its first rate satire, as only the British can supply it, with a love story that doesn't need to be believable for this movie to work. There's so much social commentary, that for it's time was ahead of it's time: a child asking Santa for a credit card for Christmas, Sam's mother and mothers friend trying to one-up each other in plastic surgery. Outrageous. Why can't Hollywood make movies like this? Fight Club was a good effort, but it tried too hard to be cool, and somehow tainted the over all quality of that film (which is not the point here). The Robert DeNiro cameo was so unexpected that it felt like a cavalry charge, and it worked so well because that's what his character represented. The movie meanders on from one daydream to another, one bit of faux-reality to another, until it becomes difficult to tell one from the other. Its bleak landscapes are quite intentional, and serve well to crush the viewer with the monstrosity of modern living. Quality of life becomes a real question as the movie takes you through its paces, and caters to ones deepest anxieties about life in the near-future. But to say this movie is depressing does it little justice. At times it can be uplifting. It's just not Hollywood fluff spoon fed to you, which is ironic being that the consumer is the hand that feeds them. A mutually parasitic relationship perhaps? Who can say... I could still watch this movie many times over, and really regret not to have been able to see it in the theatre, where movies get their best treatment anyways. Still I try to get others to enjoy this movie as much as I do, but it seems destined to be a cult classic, which to me has so many negative connotations. So buyer/renter beware. But I really don't think this movie should be a source of elitism, which also has its own negative connotations. I myself am an idiot, and still I love this flick, so maybe there is hope for the world yet!
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