Customer Reviews

Brazil (Criterion Collection) (Single Disc Edition)

5 star:		(216)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Brazil, despite the science fiction, social commentary and surrealism, is at it's core a film about a man who trapped by the mundanity of life, imagines himself in a more fantastic world.

Jonathan Pryce stars as a tiny unimportant member of a vast hyper-capitalistic society. Life is cold and dreary for everyone. All his spare time is spent dreaming of magical romantic worlds and the beautiful woman who lives there. One day, a simple beaucratic mistake causes a monumental disaster. Not that anyone cares... they just don't want to be blamed. Sent to solve the problem, or maybe to be a scapegoat, Pryce accidentally meets the literal woman of his dreams. As he pursues her, he brings suspicion on himself of being a terrorist (the scourge of the government), and his dreams begin to invade his waking thoughts.

A suprising list of talent lend themselves to the film and is written, minus Kafka and Orwell themes, by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam so expect some obvious humor and much biting satire throughout. Depressing and magical without losing it's hope, any person who can identify with the main character should find themselves entranced.

Despite being made in 1985 the special effects prove to be suprisingly effective (although easily noticed). I personally think this movie is the second best Science Fiction film, 2001 being first, and the best 1984 type movie ever made.

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.

Brazil is, arguably, Terry Gilliam's crowning achievement. Originally called 1984 1/2, this film was embroiled in an infamous battle to be distributed. The studio didn't like Gilliam's version and cut together one of their own. Gilliam went to the press and got the L.A. critics behind his movie and finally shamed the studio into releasing his version.

Criterion's 3-DVD set documents the struggle Gilliam went through to get his film shown. Disc One contains his cut of the film with an informative and entertaining commentary by the director. The second DVD contains the bulk of the extra material. Not only is Gilliam's struggle documented but also various aspects of the production are examined -- including the screenplay, costumes, art direction, etc. The final disc contains the studio's ....py cut with a film historian's audio commentary documenting why this version sucks.

Once again, Criterion comes through with an exhaustive look at an important film of modern cinema. Brazil is a brilliant satire of a dystopian society run amok by pointless bureaucracy. Anyone who has worked a souless job in an office will immediately empathise with the protagonist's plight. Like any great work of science fiction, Brazil offers more questions than answers -- not everything is wrapped up neatly, instead the viewer is left questioning certain aspects of our modern society. Great stuff.

I put one star on this review to GET THE ATTENTION of people like myself, who find most movies bad. I always look for the worst reviews. To me, though, Brazil is the best.

But, dammit, forget what I or anyone else says -- just like you have to forget idiotic rules about what the "stars" on a review mean -- and decide for yourself.

I saw 'Brazil' first in 1986 or so. I thought it was good, but it was preaching to the choir ... I already knew how miserable modern life is.

It's the end of 2003 and I just saw it again for the first time in 17 years, and I'm shocked at how hilarious it is! Much funnier, and much more from the heart, than the serious young man thought.

See it. And if you're an old geek like me, you'll love the set design. The old equipmnent is aging really well! As is the movie.

Filled with deep symbolism and dark humor, "Brazil" is a dynamic movie that, in Terry Gilliam's words, is not about the future, "but the present." There are some moments of sheer genius in this film. One is the restaurant scene in which a terrorist bomb explodes on the other side of where some characters are eating. The unharmed patrons pause for a moment, then, unblinking and without turning, go back to their meals and conversation. The musicians, some slightly charred, resume playing. And, capping it off, Sam's youth-obsessed mother, Ida (the divine Katherine Helmond) says to her friend, "What were we saying?" as workers scramble to set up a screen so that the dying and burning cannot distort the lovely view. This is Grade-A commentary on the way civilians ignore horrible crimes because of their commonplace occurrances. It often takes a presidential assassination, a bombed federal building with millions trapped inside, a downed airplane lost at sea, a Columbine High School, a Titanic, or a towering inferno to make everyone look up for two seconds before you hear them say "Oh, God, is that STILL in the papers?" Another shining moment is actually several moments. Ida's gruesome but intriguing plastic surgery, along with her increasing youth throughout the picture, goes up alongside her friend. This friend, visiting an "acid man," rapidly deteriorates throughout the film until she is a nasty, gelatinous mess, tipping its hat (so to speak) to the Beverly Hills facelift crowd. The other great achievement is the repeated appearance of forms. Forms, forms, you can't repair a wire, or even get another form, without one. Beauracracy is another great target of "Brazil." This is one film not to be missed, but will only be understood even slightly, unfortunately, by painfully few (not even Roger Ebert got it. Ha! Imagine that!). Still, it deserves to be noticed as one of the greatest films of modern years.

There are a million different takes on the actual movie "Brazil," but what I hope to do in this review is actually rate the collection put together by Criterion.

The 3-DVD box set of "Brazil" starts off with the "final final" director's cut of the film, topping out at 142 minutes. (There are eight minutes of footage added to this release.) The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 dimensions. Fact is, the transfer of the movie is so-so.

For all the Criterion hoopla, the print here is flawed. The notes pay tribute to a few digital scratch removers, but I was truly surprised by the amount of garbage in the print (dirt, empty spots, and such) that litter the frames. One of Sam's initial dream flights has considerable gunk inhabiting the lower left corner, and any frame by frame analysis will reveal an endless parade of bits of stuff inhabiting every shot. To be honest, I expected a lot more here and if there is any criticism of this collection, it lies with this fault primarily. They could have cleaned everything up considerably more than they did. And that's a shame at this price.

Colors and contrast in the print look good, though, and the sound is fabulous. They pulled out a full stereo soundtrack and made it sing, so kudos there, too. The sound is clean and vibrant.

The booklet detailing the film is good, but not the best I've seen, even for a lesser boxset. The content listings for the other two DVDs are little more than a single overview sheets.

Director Terry Gilliam's commentary track on the first disc is priceless and fascinating, almost worthy of the cost for the set alone. As a film geek, I personally find all director commentaries to be interesting, so I may not be the best judge. In this case, though, Gilliam gives us a rich look at the film that stands up to the best of other directors's commentaries I've heard.

Criterion's skimping on the booklets is made up for in the second disc, which contains all the background of the film. "The Battle of Brazil" is the high point as Gilliam and some of the Universal Studios execs discuss the crazy backstory that almost led to the demise of the film as we know it. The film's handlers and financiers all fretted that they had an arthouse piece that would go nowhere, but Gilliam refused to make the desired cuts or to swerve from the darkness of the ending. It wasn't until he managed to sneak a final edit of the movie to the Los Angeles Film Critics organization that he was able to outduel the execs. When the critics lauded the film and lavished their prizes on it, the naysayer's bluff was called and the film was released, albeit to only modest box-office that barely made back its money. Film critic Jack Matthews hosts this slightly more than an hour examination of the battle between the creative forces and the forces of pragmatism.

The second DVD also includes "What is Brazil?" - a mostly throwaway behind the scenes look at the making of the film that features the cast and some of the writers. I didn't find it particularly illuminating.

The big disappointment in the second DVD is that many of the production notes covering the design, special effects, score, and more are not filmed, but simply text. I wanted more than that. Somewhat disappointing. There are some good insights into the flying effects in the dream sequences, though. That much of it was model work is simply amazing.

The last DVD features the bowdlerized, 94 minute TV syndication release of the film dubbed "Love Conquers All." This happy ending version was done apart from Gilliam and probably represents what the studio heads had hoped would be the released version. "Execrable" is too kind a word to use to describe this version. Critic David Morgan's commentary notes all that was left out, and a few scenes that were added back in. While this version isn't worth your time, it is worthy of inclusion in the set, fleshing out the madness that almost killed the movie entirely.

I have always considered "Brazil" to be genius, frankly. As a dystopia, the world it portrays out-Orwells them all. If you hate bureaucracy--and who but bureaucrats doesn't--then this is the film for you. And only Gilliam would be daring enough to make a renegade HVAC repairman a mythically heroic addition to that world.

Plenty of people don't get this movie and I don't know why. Roger Ebert loved "Dark City," but passed on "Brazil," inexplicably, so even critics aren't perfect. Many of today's films owe much to "Brazil" and that alone makes it important.

In the end, three stars for the package and five for the film itself. The lack of a more pristine print subtracts two full stars from what would have otherwise been a perfect review, however. Criterion's boxset, though flawed, is still the best way to experience the film, so if you are a fan of "Brazil" or Gilliam's work, this is the only way to fly.

The movie is superb, and I simply cannot understand the bad reviews but, whatsoever...
My review will not address the movie itself. It is too good to say anything bad about it.
My review is regarding the North American cut of this movie.
As someone who came in Canada from Europe, I was familiar with the 142-min "European" cut. When the blu-ray edition came on the market I purchased it immediately - however, not having time, I put it on the shelf for later view this being the reason for my late review. But, let me say what my issue is. The North American cut is 10 minutes shorter than the European cut - I didn't know this until watching the blu-ray and finding - with a big surprise - that a big chunk is missing between Sam's arrest and his final interview. During this missing part, we find dialogs like this one between Sam and Mr. Helpmann (approximation version):
[Sam] What happened to Jill?
[Mr.H] She's dead. She was shot during your arrest.
[Sam] But, she was already dead. (in papers - my note)
[Mr.H] Yeas, indeed. This is an inconvenient.

Now, I want to see anyone responsible from Universal to come and tell me that this isn't an interesting dialog for anyone watching this movie, and doesn't it create a more complete image about the hyper-bureaucratic-fascist society described in this movie. And, although difficult to do this, I still can understand that the average movie goer cannot stand more than 2 hours in a cinema theater, I don't understand why a version released on DVD should be butchered like this. Eventually, at home, I may stop it and replay as many times as I like. Of course, by average spectator I mean guys paying to watch movies like Mission Impossible with Tom "The Thetan" Cruise.

So, because of the length of this edition, I cannot give this product more than 3 stars. I am really sorry for the efforts of actors, stuff, and even the tech guys who worked for transcribing this great movie on blu-ray. Shame on you Universal and to your paternalism.

This movie is incredible. Neat special effects, strange gadgets, memorable characters (Sam Lowry, Harry Tuttle and Harvey Lime to name a few), and a mixture of action, romance and comedy. Yep, Brazil has it all!

With this 3-disc set, you get the final director's cut with optional commentary by Terry Gilliam. I found Gilliam's commentary to be interesting and hilarious. I'm sure you'll enjoy it too. The good people at Criterion have restored the movie and you'll notice the difference right away. It's crystal clear except for a few tiny bits of debris on some of the frames, but you won't even notice those.

The 2nd disc contains the extras. There is an excellent documentary on here entitled "The Battle of Brazil". This takes you back to 1985 when there was a battle between director Terry Gilliam and head of Universal Pictures Sid Scheinberg over whether or not Brazil should be changed.
There are also some videos on stunts and special effects, as well as a 10 minute video about the musical score.

On the 3rd Disc, there is the 94 minute "Love Conquers All" version of Brazil. This is the heavily edited version made by Scheinberg. There are a ton of important scenes from the original version that were left out to make the film more "Hollywoodesque" and to appeal to a larger audience. In my opinion, this version is absolute crap, but it is important to have it in this set. This shows you what would have happened if Scheinberg succeeded in releasing this version of the film. The brilliant original version would have been destroyed and no one would have been able to bask in it's greatness.

I highly recommend this set. If you've never seen Brazil before, the restored Criterion version will make the experience much more enjoyable. You'll love it! Don't miss out

Brazil is an excellent postmodern take on totalitarianism in the bureaucratic world. The show dashingly flips between absurdist satire and existential tragedy.

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.