Standard Screen; Bio/Filmographies; Soundtrack English; Soundtrack French; Behind The Scenes
In this darkly comic view of the coming future, bureaucratic cog Sam Lowry dreams of escaping the totalitarian machine that society has become. He fantasizes about joining a beautiful woman flying through the clouds, far away from this world. One day he glimpses a female truck driver who resembles his fantasy and he attempts to win her love--but he ends up being dragged into the underworld of antigovernment terrorists and radicals. Terry Gilliam's vision, both expensive and expansive, resulted in a battle with studio executives over the lack of commercial potential of the darkly humorous, but often grim, material that was reedited for theatrical release without the director's approval.
BRAZIL is Terry Gilliam's masterpiece. Cowritten by Gilliam, playwright Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown, the cult-favorite film is set in a futuristic society laden with red tape and bureaucracy. When a bug (literally) gets in the system, an innocent man is killed, leading mild-mannered Sam Lowry (an excellent Jonathan Pryce) to reexamine what he wants out of life. He decides to fight the totalitarian system in his search for freedom--and the woman he loves. The terrific, offbeat cast features Robert De Niro as a renegade heating engineer; Katherine Helmond as Sam's ever-younger mother; Michael Palin as a government-sanctioned torturer with a distaste for upsetting the status quo; Bob Hoskins as a vengeful Central Services employee; Jim Broadbent as a wacko plastic surgeon; the wonderful Ian Holm as Sam's nerve-ridden, pitiful boss, afraid of his own signature; and Kim Greist as the rebel Sam falls for.
The look of BRAZIL is relentless, overwhelming, and outrageously spectacular. Giant monoliths rise from the street; government offices are a network of computers, pneumatic tubes, and narrow hallways built with Nazi-like precision; and apartment complexes are a maze of washed-out grays and numbers, all frighteningly uniform. The terrorist explosions actually bring color into this dull, monochramatic world. BRAZIL is a nightmare vision of the future, yet also hysterically funny and incisive, one of the most inventive, influential, and important films of the 1980s.
Released for one week in New York City and Los Angeles on December 18, 1985, to qualify for Academy Award nominations. Received a general release on February 14, 1986.
Filmed at Lee International Studios in Wembley, London's Dockland, a south London power station, a Kent oil refinery, and the Palais d'Abraxis apartment complex in Marne-La-Valee in Paris.
After the production could no longer afford to shoot in Lee International Studios, they filmed the fantasy sequences right behind the studio--ironically, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, a place, according to Gilliam, "where all the paperwork in Britain was stored."
Estimated budget: $15 million. Universal Pictures supplied $9 million of that budget but nearly shelved the project because of president Sidney Sheinberg's feeling that the film was too long and too depressing. When BRAZIL won the Los Angeles Critics Best Film Award anyway, Universal was forced to release it to the public.
The film's original running time of 142 minutes was cut to 131 minutes for its American release.
The title was taken from the 1930's Xavier Cugat hit "Aquarela do Brasil," written by Ary Barroso, which appears frequently in the film. Variety reported that director Terry Gilliam wanted to call the film 1984 1/2 instead of BRAZIL.
Named Best Film of 1985 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
According to the opening scene, the film begins at 8:49 a.m., "somewhere in the 20th century."
Among the Ministry of Information's sayings are Information: the key to prosperity; The truth shall make you free; Suspicion breeds confidence; Happiness: We're all in it together; Trust in haste--regret in leisure; Don't suspect a friend...report him; and Who can you trust?
Terry Gilliam worked for a man named Harvey Kurtzman when he was employed at a magazine in New York; Sam Lowry's boss in BRAZIL is named Kurtzmann.
Charles McKeown cowrote the script and appears in the film as Lime, which is quite possibly a reference to the character of Harry Lime in THE THIRD MAN .
Terry Gilliam's wife, Maggie Weston, is credited with hair and makeup design.
Holly Gilliam, one of their two daughters, plays Holly.
Percussionist Ray Cooper, who is credited as music co-ordinator, appears in the film as a technician.
Terry Gilliam regular Julian Doyle is credited as the second unit director and with model & effects photography.
Don't miss Katherine Helmond's riotously disturbing facelift scene--every time she is on camera she looks much younger.
Gilliam considered BRAZIL to be a cross between Walter Mitty and Franz Kafka.
"I've always had a great distaste for authority and bureaucracy and all the additives that they breed," Gilliam has said.
The film had a number of endings that Gilliam fought over with Universal, who wanted a happy ending to bring in more of an audience.
Gilliam said of the film, "Port Talbot is a steel town, where everything is covered with a grey iron ore dust. Even the beach is completely littered with dust, it's just black. The sun was setting, and it was really quite beautiful. The contrast was extraordinary. I had this image of a guy sitting there on this dingy beach with a portable radio, tuning in these strange Latin escapist songs like 'Brazil.' The music transported him somehow and made his world less grey."
Brazil Quotes/Excerpts:
"Have a nice day. This has not been a recording."--Central Services phone operator to Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce)
"You can't make a move without a form."--Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro) to Sam
Brazil Reviews:
"...It's a knockout..."
-- Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times
"...It's rich in irony, steeped in surrealism and touched with genius....Easily one of the greatest movies of the '80s..."
-- Dan Jolin, Total Film
"...Hugely inventive..."
-- Geoffrey Macnab, Sight and Sound
"Gilliam's belief in the evil of banality is on full display here, made all the more dazzling by Norman Garwood and Maggie Gray's Oscar-nominated art direction." -- Grade: B+-- Keith Staskiewicz, Entertainment Weekly
"...Gilliam creates this dehumanizing universe with demented wit, sane anger and the most eye-popping visuals since METROPOLIS..."
-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...Landmark retro-future tragicomedy..." -- Rating: A+
-- Chris Willman, Entertainment Weekly
"...BRAZIL, a jaunty, wittily observed vision of an extremely bleak future, is a superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones....Ambitious visual style..."
-- Janet Maslin, New York Times
Brazil - Totally Brazilliant! The first disc of this 3-DVD essentially contains Terry Gilliam's masterpiece as he intended - and fought for. There is only one change to the main film, where the opening sequence has been changed from a plain black screen to flying through the clouds with the recurring Brazil theme playing softly in the background. Terry also provides commentary on an audio channel.
The second contains many extras on how the special effects were achieved, and a documentary on the tussle between the director and the studio that wanted to make the film more 'accessible'. It becomes apparent through these stories that the film unintentionally becomes an allegory for the struggle of it's own making. Very bizarre.
The third disc contains the studio's 'accessible' version with its 'love conquers all' happy ending. So badly edited that it makes very little sense at times, it leaves out several key story points from the original. Despite this version being so bad, it is a wonderful inclusion in that it illustrates the power of editing on the feel of a film, and also demonstrates how a director can potentially lose control of a project due to a studio's concern with money.
I wonder how many other films come out that are radically different to their director's original intent?
If you don't live on a steady diet of the Hollywood factory happy ending films, then you'll enjoy this excellent movie - visually spectacular and very surreal.
Excellent special features. Submitted by a reviewer (Melbourne, Australia) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 1 of 1 found this helpful.
All that was expected! 'Brazil' is sad and melancholy and hopeless. It was made to convey our utter misfortune at the hands of bureaucrats. They may be very nice people, however they are horribly misguided and misinformed and in the end they destroy themselves as well as us.
This is not a movie for the suicidal. Submitted by op_tomlinson (North Bend Or) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
bullseye! right on target, with accuracy and precision Submitted by ddecaro (Manahawkin, NJ, USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Bizarre, but kinda cool From the start, this movie is bizarre - and while I wasn't too keen on the way the scenes changed from reality to fantasy and back again, sometimes blurring the two to a very confusing view, I'm sure the film would probably make a little more sense in a second viewing.
The concept (a satirical outlook on how the world could be) was good, I especially liked the kind of "Big Brother Gone Mad" style government, and the entrance near the beginning was simply incredible, and the ending was also impressive.
It's definately worth watching if you get the chance :) Submitted by a reviewer (Staffordshire/Warwickshire, UK) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
One of Gilliam's best Those that are fans of the "Monty Python" efforts will notice some familiar approaches here. While this film is not hard core comedy it still has a Gilliam sense of sarcasm. This dark view of the future deserves attention. Submitted by Perry (Ohio) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo This review is for a different format.
3-Disc Set Region 1 Keep Case Collectors Edition Letterbox - 1.85 Disc 1: Single Side - Single Layer Widescreen - 1.85 Audio: Dolby Surround - English Additional Release Material: Audio Commentary: Terry Gilliam - Director Disc 2: Single Side - Single Layer Widescreen - 1.85 Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 - English Additional Release Material: Behind the Scenes Documentary: "The Battle of BRAZIL: A Video History" Featurette: "What is BRAZIL?" Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer Interviews:
1. Tom Stoppard - Screenwriter, Charles McKeown - Screenwriter 2. Norman Garwood - Production Designer 3. James Acheson - Costume Designer 4. Michael Kamen - Composer Text/Photo Galleries: Stills/Photos: Publicity and Production Stills Galleries: Storyboards Disc 3: BRAZIL - Love Conquers All Version Single Side - Single Layer Widescreen - 1.85 Audio: Dolby Surround - English Additional Release Material: Audio Commentary: David Morgan - Journalist
Brazil - Totally Brazilliant!
All that was expected!
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