Terry Gilliam's Brazil

[Kirkman1987]

I just recently watched Brazil for the first time.

It had been one of those films for me that you always mean to see but never get around to it. I'm a Python fan and like the other Gilliam films I've seen, but this was just amazing. I need to rewatch it a few times, but my first impression is that it deserves to be placed in the top tier of sci-fi films.

Really, I'm not sure what all I can say. It's a visual feast, and has a wide range of emotions. I loved it.

Oh, and I'm sure I'll have that theme tune in my head forever now.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

I have always thought that Brazil was an amazing success on just about every artistic level imaginable.

It's a great film, it's a great myth, it contains unforgettable imagery, inspired performances, and some of the most brutally incisive social commentary ever put on film.

I often find it hard to understand how Gilliam could do this, Munchausen, Fisher King, and 12 Monkeys, and then just sort of fall into a giant pit of fail. I guess I have to chalk it up to his Curse.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I totally love this film. I can't wait till it comes out on Blu-Ray, as I'm very eager to buy it.

 

[Mysterion]

One of my favorites. And Harry Tuttle is possibly the best Robert DeNiro character EVER.

Here's Harry in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosrujtjJHA

 

[Bones2]

I'm not a Python fan, but I like this film a lot.

 

[Christopher]

I just recently watched Brazil for the first time.

It had been one of those films for me that you always mean to see but never get around to it.

Me too. I just saw it a month or two ago. I think it's probably Gilliam's most impressive film. What I really liked about it was that it didn't really have any villains other than the system. With the exception of Bob Hoskins' plumber character, nobody in this film was really intentionally malevolent or cruel. They were just oblivious or self-absorbed. They were cogs in a bureaucratic machine that had spiralled out of anyone's control, doing their duty and focusing on their own small areas of responsibility with nobody really seeing how it all added up to a huge injustice. It takes a while, maybe more than one showing, for the viewer to realize that

Spoiler: Brazil

there are no terrorists. It's just inept maintenance causing the ubiquitous public services to break down. Jill is nothing but a messenger; she only comes under suspicion because she protests the wrongful arrest of her neighbor, who was falsely suspected of terrorism because of a clerical error. But the fear of imaginary terrorists has led otherwise decent people to believe they have to tolerate or even participate in actions such as abduction, torture, and killing in the name of protecting society. It was chillingly prophetic.

And I think that "Information Retrieval" is a brilliantly Orwellian euphemism for a department of torture.

It did have a few flaws, of course. I wasn't too fond of the actress playing Jill; she didn't strike me as the "ideal fantasy woman" type. It was weird that Sam was dreaming about Jill before he met her; was the resemblance to his dream woman simply a coincidence, or was there some ambiguity to reality itself here, the line between dream and reality so tenuous that dreams could anticipate reality? And there was one horribly contrived bit, the way Mr. Helpmann called attention to the phrase "ERE I AM JH" for no other reason than that the script needed to ensure that Sam would remember the phrase later to use as a password. There should've been a better way of getting Sam into that office, one that didn't require such a blatant, forced plot device.

One thing's for sure -- I'll never look at ducts the same way again.

 

[Mr Light]

One of my all time favorite movies! I even got the Criterion 3 disc version of it but I keep putting off looking at it.

 

[auntiehill]

I saw this in the theaters when I was just a teenager. Needless to say, it impressed the HELL out of me. It really is a visual masterpiece ; I'm not sure if Gilliam can ever top it.

 

[Awesome Possum]

A wonderful film and as long as you see the real ending, hauntingly sad.

 

[Davros]

I'm not a Python fan,

Blasphemy!

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

A wonderful film and as long as you see the real ending, hauntingly sad.

Agreed. The fact that there is a version out there that edits out the last 30 seconds or so of the film is just a travesty.

 

[Klaus]

My 2nd favorite movie of all time after Casablanca...

The book The Battle of Brazil is very good too, tells the story of the typical Gilliam struggle over making the movie and includes the annotated script w/more dream sequences he wanted to include but couldn't afford.

 

[auntiehill]

A wonderful film and as long as you see the real ending, hauntingly sad.

Agreed. The fact that there is a version out there that edits out the last 30 seconds or so of the film is just a travesty.

Bu----who-----what the HELL?! Who the would do such a thing?! I had no idea that anyone had done that. That just....baffles me.

 

[Harvey]

It's not just the last 30 seconds that were edited out of the film--the studio's cut is a much greater travesty than that. Although it is a nice piece of film history that I'm glad to have included on the Criterion DVD set (where's the Blu-Ray?!).

 

[Starbreaker]

Not a huge fan of this movie, but I completely appreciate the utter weirdness of it.

 

[Captain Pike]

It's brilliant.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I love this film and it's my second favorite Gilliam film after 12 Monkeys. Unfortunately, I've only seen it once, but I think I need to rectify that sometime soon.

 

[ITL]

Love this movie. Weird, wonderful and rather marvellous.

BTW - just imagine if someone used a 1988 Mac as the basis for a computer based on the ones in Brazil...

 

[John Picard]

I am 41 and watched Brazil, for the first time ever, a few months ago. A friend of mine said, "Oh, I'm sorry" when I stated it was in my Netflix queue.

The movie, left me a bit I understood much of what it alluded to in society; however, it was just

I thought 12 Monkeys was a better piece of work by Gilliam.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

I always got this vibe that the "Brazil" future and the "12 Monkeys" future were linked somehow. Sure, they're both Gilliam, but the futures look so similar. Maybe Brazil is after the future of 12 Monkeys? That's all I'll say for now.. spoilers and all.