Template:Infobox movie certificates Brazil (first released on February 20, 1985) is a dystopic black comedy feature film directed by Monty Python member Terry Gilliam. It was written by Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. It stars Jonathan Pryce, and features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm. Co-writer McKeown also has a small role.
| Brazil | |
|---|---|
| File:Brazil 11.jpg | |
| Directed by | Terry Gilliam |
| Written by | Terry Gilliam Tom Stoppard Charles McKeown |
| Produced by | Arnon Milchan |
| Starring | Jonathan Pryce Robert De Niro Kim Greist Michael Palin Katherine Helmond Bob Hoskins Ian Holm |
| Music by | Michael Kamen Walter Scharf |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox (Europe) Universal Pictures (US) |
Release dates |  February 20, 1985 February 22, 1985 December 18, 1985 |
Running time | 142 min. (original version) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$15 million |
The world is a mixture of uchronic aesthetics drawn from various styles of the mid-20th century but without fixing it on a particular real-life timeframe since these appear along with futuristic machines, technology and organizations.
Although Brazil performed poorly at the box office, the film remains a cult favorite. In tone and setting, it has similarities to Gilliam's later reality-twisting Twelve Monkeys.
Synopsis
Template:Spoiler Set "somewhere in the 20th century" at 8:49PM, the retro-futuristic world of Brazil is a gritty urban hellhole patched over with cosmetic surgery and "designer ducts for your discriminating taste"; it appears to be almost post-apocalyptic in nature. Life in the world of Brazil has become so hopelessly overcomplicated that chaos has taken over and the world appears to be on the perpetual verge of complete mechanical failure on all fronts. This is due not only to the given enemies of the state (terrorists), but also to a bureaucratic implosion and the insanely increasing amount of paperwork required to get anything done. This quagmire hampers any attempts to effect change on the system, and people who work outside the bureaucracy (such as Harry Tuttle, a furtive rogue heating technician) are declared terrorists.
The story deals with Sam Lowry (Pryce), a low-level bureaucrat technician whose primary interests in life are his vivid dream fantasies to the tune of a 1930s Brazilian song "Aquarela do Brasil". He inadvertently gets entangled in terrorist intrigue when his dream woman (Greist) turns up as the neighbor of a man ("Buttle") arrested as a terrorist instead of another man ("Tuttle") due to a typographical error (and literal computer bug, a fly that fell into a teleprinter). Other people in Sam's life include the real Harry Tuttle (De Niro), the "terrorist" who is actually a helpful heating technician; Jack (Palin), a family man and childhood friend of Sam's who works as a government torturer; and Sam's mother (Helmond). It also features his nervous boss, played by Holm, and a friend of his mother (who undergoes a series of increasingly disturbing cosmetic surgeries).
A mysterious wave of terrorist bombings is fought by the powerful Ministry of Information (MOI), whose jackbooted thugs refuse to admit to arresting and torturing the wrong man. Sam's simultaneous pursuit of the truth and the woman he fantasizes about brings him into contact with the higher echelons of the Ministry, despite Jack's repeated warnings that his quest will inevitably bring Sam more danger than he can cope with.
Analysis
Gilliam refers to this film as the second of a trilogy of movies, starting with Time Bandits (1981) and ending with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989). He notes that the three films share a related theme of the struggle for imagination and free thinking in a world that suppresses these ideas.
Cinematically, the film has been viewed as a dark parody of science fiction adventure films (the film has been referred to as lampooning George Lucas' THX 1138 or Star Wars films — particularly in Sam's dream of his duel with the Samurai, which is similar to Luke's dreamed duel with Vader in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Films that came after Brazil, such as Dark City and The Matrix also feature a reluctant, ordinary citizen rebelling against a dictatorship.
Brazil can be viewed as suggesting parallels with the societies of the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) or the United States under President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), both of which contemporary to the film's production.
Conversely, Brazil's government bureaucracy with communism, social-democracy and socialism is analogous to Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Gilliam has said that Brazil was inspired by Nineteen Eighty-Four, but is written from today's perspective rather than looking to the future like Orwell's novel. In Gilliam's words Brazil was, "The Nineteen Eighty-Four for 1984."[1] In fact, Gilliam's working title for the movie was 1984½.
Music
The song "Aquarela do Brasil" is the core tune in the movie, although various other pieces of background music appear. The score was written by Michael Kamen, who also composed music for Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
The tune is broken down into two parts for the music. The leading tune, the part to which the words are sung, is generally used in the higher points. The eight-note backbeat ("dum dum dum, dum te dum te dum") is generally used alone and to a more sarcastic effect.
Releases
Theatrical releases
The movie, a production of producer Arnon Milchan's company Embassy International Pictures (not to be confused with Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures), was released internationally outside the US by 20th Century Fox in Gilliam's original 142-minute version, while Universal handled US distribution.
Gilliam's original cut of the film ended on a dark note, and Universal Studios executives thought the ending tested poorly. Universal chairman Sid Sheinberg insisted on dramatically re-editing the film to give it a happy ending, a decision that Gilliam resisted vigorously. As with Blade Runner, which had been released three years earlier, a version of Brazil was created by the movie studio with a more consumer-friendly ending. After a lengthy delay to the film's release, Gilliam took out a full-page ad in the trade magazine Variety urging Sheinberg to release 'Brazil'. Finally, after Brazil was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for "Best Picture", Universal released a modified 131-minute version supervised by Gilliam, in 1985. The clashes between Sheinberg and Gilliam are documented in Jack Matthews' book The Battle of Brazil (1987).
Video releases
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In North America, the film was released on VHS and Laserdisc in the 131-minute US version. A slightly modified version of the original European cut is currently available on DVD (referred to in the director's commentary as the "fifth and final cut", it uses the American cloud opening instead of a stark blank screen setting the time and place).
Sheinberg's edit, the so-called "Love Conquers All" version, was shown on syndicated television and was first made available for sale to consumers as a separate disc in a 5-disc Criterion Collection Brazil laserdisc box set in 1996, and subsequent DVD 3-disc set in 1999 (which also featured a special video documentary version of Jack Mathews' book, with new Gilliam interviews and tape-recorded interviews from Sid Sheinberg for the original book).
The box set presents the feature film in its correct aspect ratio for the first time, but the version on the DVD is not enhanced for newer widescreen HDTVs. New separate 16:9-enhanced editions of the film in both a complete set and separate film-only disc are being re-issued on DVD by Criterion to be released September 5th, 2006.
Critical responses
In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Brazil the 20th greatest British movie of all time. In 2005 Time magazine's film reviewers Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel named Brazil in an unranked list of the 100 best films of all time.In 2006 Channel 4 voted Brazil one of the '50 films to see before you die', shortly before its broadcast on BBC Four.
See also
External links
- Brazil at IMDb
- Template:Filmsite
- Brazil at Rotten Tomatoes
- Rotten Library Brazil page
- Unofficial Fan Page Dedication
- The Terry Gilliam Files: The Saga of Brazil
- Lyrics to Russell/Barroso song Brazil
- Several articles comparing "Brazil" to Bush's America
- Brazil FAQ
- Review by Science Fiction Weekly
- Criterion Collection essay by Jack Mathews
- Keith Short - Film Sculptor Image of Set piece created for this film
- [2] - Part 1 of a 1985 news report on the film at YouTube.
- [3] - Part 2 of a 1985 news report on the film at YouTube.