Brazil

Rating:
Summary: More frightening with each viewing
Review: It's pretty impressive how much of this "fantasy" film has become 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. ... 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 emotionally 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.

Rating:
Summary: Ebert is a dope!
Review: First things first: This isn't a film for everybody, but just because you might not like it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. This is the sort of thing people raised on Spielberg and Lucas would be disappointed in because of the lack of a happy ending. For the rest of us, this is a brilliant film.

I'd seen the film on Bravo back in '97 and was blown away by it, I "got" it after about two or three viewings, and I can't help but laugh when I read Roger Ebert's take on the film. He's by far a great critic, but even he missed the boat on this one. The special effects don't "overwhelm" the action onscreen, they're meant by Gilliam to be another character entirely.

Other reviewers have gone to great lengths to describe the plot, so I won't waste time with that. The Criterion set is the way to see this film, though for the uninitiated a renting of the single disc version might be more prudent. The package is gorgeous, and the special features are actually special. A must-have for fans of the film. On watching the "Love Conquers All" version, I couldn't believe how badly edited that version was. The original 142-minute cut is the way to view it, and I don't find it boring at all.

There have been some reviewers who expressed dismay that this wasn't a "Monty Python" film, but they miss the point. Python was a group collective, Brazil is Gilliam on his own and, besides Michael Palin in possibly his best non-Python performence, has the spirit of Python but is its own entity. If you go into it expecting Python you'll be disappointed (as I was initially), but on repeat viewings it starts to hold its own.

In summary, the film is an Orwellian trip (though Gilliam admits to never having read 1984 when he began filming, on the commentary) through the daily boring life of a low-level beaurucrat who lives in a fantasy world in his dreams, and whose dreams are assaulted by the outside. He meets the girl of his dreams, but he can't save her from what the government plans to do with her. He ends up going mad, retreating to the realm of fantasy as an escape, while in the real world he is renedered a vegetable by the head torturer, his best friend. This is a powerful film, and in some ways a happy ending can be argued to have occured (the main character can now live with his love, albeit in a dream state). I can't see why anyone would find this hard to follow.

Rating:
Summary: Gilliam will take you there...
Review: There is little left to say about this flick that hasn't been said. Every time I watch it, I'm amazed, outraged and completely creeped out.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie Ever Made
Review: I rarely use the word MASTERPIECE. I've seen few films that deserve that title. Of course there are great films out there. I love FARGO and I love 12 Monkeys for example. But no film I've ever seen deserves as much high praise as TERRY GILLIAM'S (12 Monkeys) BRAZIL. A film about the postmodern age created for the postmodern age.

It's amazing how one word can change meaning of any statement. In BRAZIL, there is a stone with the statement, `THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE' scrawled on it. In the world of BRAZIL there is no truth. Only Fear. The world is run by one large corporation, Central Services, and like all mammoth corporations, nothing goes right, but in the stockholders meeting everything's A-okay. Funny how propaganda works, don't you think?

As the film opens we meet Sam Lowery (Johnathan Pryce, EVITA) a young man with idealistic dreams, and very low expectations out of his life. He just wants to spend his day working at his job, and his nights dreaming. His overbearing mother (Katharine Helmond, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) mother wants him to climb the corporate ladder. Poor Sam, he just wants to be left alone.

When a computer error executes the wrong man. Sam is given the task to issue the man's wife a refund. For in this world you pay for your execution and imprisonment. This sets off a course of events that brings Sam closer to his dreams, closer to finding love, and closer to finding the fulfillment in life he desperately desires. What is the cost of that fulfillment? Especially in the nightmare world central services has created? That's up to you to decide.

BRAZIL is a gripping story. With so many ideas crammed into every frame. It's the kind of movie that you can watch many times, cause each moment there is a nugget of truth, an idea, or some really inventive plot twist you didn't see before. It's also full of laughs. But since the humor is dark it may take a couple of viewings for you to notice them. But by the end of this film you want to watch it again.

This is also a great character movie. Pryce is delightful as Sam Lowery. He's the perfect person to play the guy who tows the company line and yet wants to soar free as a bird. There is this vulnerability about him; you really want to root for him. But you can see he's about to snap at any moment.

The most Brilliant performance is that of Michael Palin (Monty Python's Meaning of Life) as Jack Lint. A nice guy, with a horrible job, he has to torture everyone who is arrested and you watch as this job gives him security and a family, but it begins to take its toll. Gilliam gives him this great moment where he's just killed a man, and there in the next room is his daughter playing with toys. You can see him try to drown out the voices of the hundreds he's killed. But it's beginning to unravel. It's a brilliant sequence.

Robert Deniro (Analyze That) also stars as Harry Tuttle, a renegade heating repairman. It's a really funny cameo. There is a sequence that is both disgusting and hilariously funny, and it's Deniro's smirk that makes that sequence priceless. `Hey We're All In It Together,' he quips.

Director Gilliam and Cinematographer Roger Pratt (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), create a world that is stunningly beautiful when it needs to be. Dull and immense when it has to be. Cold and claustrophobic when the characters call for it and Dark and scary when it has to be. There is a melding of what I can only explain as THE WIZARD OF OZ meets film Noir. It's a signature look that is unlike any other film I've ever seen.

What Gillian does with models could never be faithfully reproduced with computers. Sam's fight with the giant samurai is breathtaking. His flight as Icarus is probably one of the greatest pictures ever filmed, and the final shot is both comic and disturbing all at the same time. This movie looks so good.

The screenplay is also great. With writing credits by Tom Stoppard (Enigma), Charles McKeown (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), and Gilliam himself. It has a great balance between comedy and drama. This is necessary for it's satire to work. We laugh, we cry, and we love these characters. Even if we hate them.

This film also features a great score by Michael Kamen (X-Men), a mix between classical and modern styles, helps to create a picture's that are so beautiful.

BRAZIL is my number 1 favorite film. I could probably go on for pages about each sequence. I highly recommend this film to anyone who loves the language of film, for it is a perfect example of how to do everything right.

I will warn you. There are at least 3 versions of this film. Never under any circumstances watch the television edit of this film. It is a bastardization of the film and it renders much of what makes this film great. Also, try to stay away from the recent Universal Home video and DVD of the film its also missing many sequences from the film especially its end. I highly recommend the Criterion Collection version of this Masterpiece, which includes the entire Director's cut of the film-Passafist

Rating:
Summary: As relevant to the 21st century as to the 20th
Review: The opening frames of Brazil contain the provocative words, "Somewhere in the 20th Century." It's a reference to how the setting and costumes combine futuristic and retro imagery, and also to the 20th Century ideology of increasing bureaucratization, impersonalization, and paranoia. But as a wise person once said, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you, which is the situation of Sam Lowry, Brazil's likable but doomed hero. In a winning performance--he's in just about every scene, a physically and emotionally demanding role--Jonathan Pryce embodies director Terry Gilliam's everyman worldview. Sam is determined to pursue the woman of his dreams even if it interferes with the brutal efficiency that prevails in this dystopian society. It's a movie of many moods, and they shift abruptly. One minute you're disturbed, the next you're laughing, sometimes it's disorienting, but Gilliam, who also co-wrote the brilliant script, pulls it off. Brazil put him on the map as a great director and he probably won't top it. But he didn't do it alone. As said before, Pryce is wonderful, as is Robert DeNiro in a sly, strange cameo role, Ian Holm as Sam's sniveling, manipulative, but somehow sympathetic boss, Katherine Helmond as Sam's vain mother (interesting Oedipal stuff going on), Jim Broadbent as Dr. Jaffe the plastic surgeon who caters to the vanity of Sam's mom, Bob Hoskins as a pigheaded vengeful repairman who gets drowned in a rather interesting way, and a host of lesser known actors in juicy character roles, a real gallery of grotesques. But it's Michael Palin, Gilliam's old Monty Python partner, who likely makes the major impression--a truly chilling villain, family man who loves his work as a state torturer, and casually discusses his techniques while playing with his toddler daughter (whose name he can't remember). I can't describe how visually stunning Brazil is, you have to see for yourself. But don't forget that the script is as impressive as the images, and you might need to see/hear the film more than once to digest the whole feast. Repeated viewings are rewarded, especially in these days of the war on terrorism. Parts of the movie may remind you of the government's "rescue" of Elian Gonzalez; others will make you think you're watching a public service announcement for the Office of Homeland Security. No matter how you slice it, this is a tour de force for all involved, and as DeNiro says, "We're all in it together!"

Rating:
Summary: genius at play
Review: This is possibly the most wildly creative film ever done with the technical and financial backing (although Terry Gilliam had a hellish time getting the timid, unimaginative hacks at the studio to release it once they saw the finished product) of a major studio. Imagine George Orwell and Salvadore Dali trying -- and succeeding -- at being funny and making a movie together. A really wicked satire to boot!

Rating:
Summary: Save your money buy the single
Review: Great movie but the cost of the extras was not worth it. I only watch the original version and the other DVDs rest in their cases collecting dust. The movie rocks.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films ever.
Review: Brazil is Terry Gilliam's greatest achievement. In many ways it is like Orwell's 1984 and Kafka's The Trial. It is a cynical and dystopic view at a possible future. A future that is bleak and oppressive, except in Sam Lowry's dreams. In his dreams he is a silver-winged hero. He swoops in from the clouds and rescues his damsel in distress, Jill. But the real world won't let him escape to his blissful fantasy. The two worlds conflict with each other until they finally collide head on.

Brazil is the ultimate tale of man versus the state. It is loaded with hilarious satire. But it also contains very deep and important messages about society. If you want an unconventional and very creative tale of a man's struggle to be free, then Brazil is for you.

Rating:
Summary: so much promise...
Review: After watching the first 45 minutes of this movie I thought I was in for a truly wonderful treat, after all, I had heard all the hype so I figured I'd probably love it. But unfortunately, this movie totally falls apart. It becomes very boring and drags on for hours. I know Brazil fans out there will disregard my statements but really, this film could have accomplished more with at least 30 minutes less movie. There are both standout performances and standout scenes, but by the end of the movie I had lost all emotional connection with the characters and the story. Honestly this movie just turned into a big mess. You want an amazing story in the spirit of 1984, read "Darkness at Noon." What a disapointment. De Nero was great though...

Rating:
Summary: The State out of control
Review: On the mark depiction of what has helped to destroy every society in history that has ever been destroyed--bureaucracy
run amuck. Contrary to one reviewer who believes this movie is
about hypercapitalism, it is nothing of the sort. This movie is
about the State gone crazy, and the main reason it goes crazy--the red tape and paperwork of bureaucracy that reduces people to
insignificant cogs, and destroys their minds and spirits. Sam Lowey is a perfect example; he's trapped in a dsytopia so horrible he escapes to his dreams, where he flies, defeats monsters, and rescues a maiden in distress. He may be a slave
in his real life, but he remains a free man in his mind. At seventeen years old as I write this, it still holds up wonderfully well--a darkly satirical, 1984-ish nightmare with
fantastic sets and a catchy title tune that's hard to forget. See it--you won't be disappointed, I promise.