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Home > Video > Brazil
Brazil

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Editorial Reviews: 
If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant.

The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. --Jim Emerson

If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unraveling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labeled as a miscreant.

The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. --Jim Emerson



Custom Reviews: 
Take Acid before Watching this one...
5 out of 5 stars.
This was a very interesting film. I could see how someone could be confused when watching this movie. You really have to watch it start to finish, or you could easily get lost. Although it truly is a beautiful movie. I have yet to be disappointed my Robert De Niro or Terry Gilliam. They have their own unequness that makes all of their movies superb.



Best Film of '85
5 out of 5 stars.
Brazil is a masterpiece of cinematic brilliance, and arguably Terry Gilliam's best film. I loved this movie when I first saw it in 1985 and still do today, having just purchased the newly released 3 disc HD Criterion edition. This is one of the best sci-fi's ever shot, reminiscent of 1984 but with a comedic slant. The visuals are fantastic and bizarre, thus the oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. Terry and company also won for best screenplay. This movie is one of a kind, though that can be said for most of Gilliam's work. The plot follows one Sam Lowry, a government employee, through his quest to find justice for a man wrongly accused of a crime due to a typographical error on a government form. Some of it won't make sense right away, but be patient. Whatever you do, do not rent or buy the abbreviated 94 minute version.
The full version clocks in at 142 minutes and is
thoroughly enjoyable. A true visionary made this film and it needs to be seen by any open-minded movie buff.

Terry Gilliam likes Fedrico Fellini. Pass it on.
3 out of 5 stars.
I love Terry Gilliam. I think he's the most visionary film maker out there today. The only problem with some of his films is his urge to mimic scenes from Fedrico Fellini's films. He seems to be one of those directors that are overly influenced by the great Italian director. Maybe not for others but for me it really takes away. I've seen all his movies and can't help but cringe when I see his little un-subtle scenes that are tributes to Fellini. The most rediculus one is in Fear and Loathing where he gives the name of a circus act "The Flying Fellini's." In Brazil it's the whole first person view of flying through clowds. That was so obviously lifted from Otto E Mezzo (8 1/2) and was really un-nessisary. We get the point Terry. You like Fedrico Fellini's films.

Besides the whole Fellini thing Brazil is a brilliant movie visually. The story could have used a bit more polish. I felt the same way about "Time Bandits" too. I also wouldn't go as far as to say it's his best eithor. I would give that praise to "Fear and Loating In Las Vegas."

Much loved, but I never got it ...
2 out of 5 stars.
This is a cult classic, but I find it over-rated. It delivers the zaniness, surreality and crazy camera work, but the film has no interest in its characters -- you'll feel nothing for them, and for me that leaves a big hole in the center of the movie.

For a movie with a similar feel but considerably more heart, try Barton Fink instead. Or even Amelie.

Boring
2 out of 5 stars.
This movie is really disappointing and boring.




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