Brazil
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DVD details
Actor: Jonathan Pryce, Katherine HelmondBrand: Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-03-31
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Brazil
DVD Review: It is thoughtcrime to link "Brazil" to "1984"
Summary: 2 Stars
Some things just propel individuals to set up rival camps. Wars, elections, abortion rights, and the cork versus screw-top wine bottle debate all result in humans absolutely convinced that their side is right and the other side is populated primarily by idiots. The culture-wars spill over onto silver-screens as well, it seems, judging by the polarization of opinions regarding Terry Gilliam's ("The Adventures of Baron Munchausen") futuristic "Brazil." One opinion is that the movie is Gilliam's magnum opus, an achievement of such subtle and sublime genius that mere mortals can scarcely comprehend the tracings of meaning cascading from the screen into our tiny brains. Another side proposes that the film is art tripe at its worst--a collective scream of multiple pseudo-intellectualizations gathered together underneath a veneer of unfunny comedic attempts and laughably infantile forays into modern political satire. Few seem to inhabit the levels of the moderate judgment spectra.
"Brazil" occurs in the future--well, a future in which the worst the 1970's had to offer persists ad infinatum anyway. The film opens as a bored bureaucrat attempts to destroy an intruder which is interfering with his important job of supervising myriad automatic data-collection/dispersion devices. The intruder, a fly, is killed and drops into one of the printing machines, resulting in a missive being sent out containing a collect-and-interrogate-and/or-kill order for one Mr. Buttle, instead of the real target, a Mr. Tuttle (Robert De Niro, "Goodfellas"). Governmental cronies, after realizing their unfortunate error, attempt amends by issuing a check to Mrs. Buttle as compensation.
His story occurring in parallel to that above, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce, "Tomorrow Never Dies") is an everyman stuck in the gears of a society which fails to entice him. He is blessed with an upwardly-mobile mother who has contacts seemingly everywhere in government; however, this forces his progression in a society with which he has lost faith. He is also cursed by that which is most dangerous to an ordinary worker-cog: passion. Vivid dreams plague him as he sleeps--in his sleep, he manifests as an avenging angel, complete with armor, wings, and sword. He chases a beautiful maiden who is just out of reach while he simultaneously battles dream-enemies who seem a bit familiar. These two forces have begun to rend his soul apart, and result in a fateful decision--he volunteers to deliver Mrs. Buttle's compensation check in person. Reality and fantasy begin to mix freely in Lowry's mind after he witnesses the despondency of Buttle's widow, and he then embarks on a mad quest for freedom. Unfortunately, the audience's perception of his fate becomes more clear with every second Lowry continues his geas.
There are many ideas explored in this film; sadly, too few of them are sufficient enough, relevant enough, or original enough to warrant mentioning as novel. Bureaucratic inefficiency via multitudes of paperwork designed to increase efficiency is ironic, but not necessarily funny, and is definitely not amusing when shown in "Brazil." The internal struggle between what one wants and what one is told they should want, eventually resulting in insanity, is dreary but not really new or even interesting. The idea of government-condoned terrorism in order to foster an iron-gloved regime with the glowing seal-of-approval from the "safe" populace is something millennia old.
Forget the lack of new ideas--few enough successful movies have anything new to offer, anyway. "Brazil" lacks many more things, however. The jokes are simply unfunny and repetitive. The satire is equivalent to musings I overheard while drinking coffee with friends as we "studied" at the local Denny's twenty-odd years ago. The love fantasy which propels Lowry into doom's embrace is simply unbelievable and totally without chemistry. The film is also overlong and deadly boring in many places. There are many great actors billed here--Palin, De Niro, Hoskins, Holm--but they are either miscast, acting below ability, or receiving too little screen time.
*possible spoilers below*
Nevertheless, there are bits of brilliance here and there. I loved the concept of Tuttle being a terrorist simply because he wishes to work without having the bother of filling out monstrous piles of documentation. The sadistic government handyman Spoor (Hoskins) and his multiple attempts to introduce misery into already-miserable Lowry's life provoked many a chuckle. Michael Palin ("A Fish Called Wanda") as Jack Lint, Lowry's torturer friend, was a joy to watch throughout. Especially amusing, in the vein of dark comedy, is when he exchanges his bloody medical garb for a clean change, all with his young daughter in attendance. Finally, only two words are required for the last positive component: Ian Holm.
*end possible spoilers*
In summary, this film instituted its original ideas poorly, and displayed its poor ideas as original. Combined with a dearth of true entertainment value, an aimless plotline, a large helping of boredom, and only a sprinkling of really enjoyable ideas, "Brazil" really never had a chance. It probably does not deserve its cult-classic status, mores the pity. It is ironic that the repeated portrayal of irony itself was not sufficient to save this film. This film is recommended only to die-hard Gilliams fans, and even then with several words of caution.
Description of Brazil
The nightmarish futuristic satire brazil effectively blurs all lines between illusion and reality. Jonathan pryce plays a government statistician who chooses to blind himself to the decaying world around him. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/09/2007 Starring: Jonathan Pryce Katherine Helmond Run time: 131 minutes Rating: R Director: Terry GilliamIf 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. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. Although the DVD (at a fraction of the price) doesn't include that set's many extras, it's still a bargain. --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. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. --Jim Emerson
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