Brazil

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

Amazon.com
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

Product Description
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 Gilliam

If you buy the Criterion Collection Version, you get two movies, neither of which is 2 hours, 11 minutes long! The first disc is the International Release from 1985, as distributed by Fox, which is 2 hours, 22 minutes long. The other disc is the 94 minute cut (abomination, what have you) created by Sid Sheinberg and Universal Studios.

Again, even the standard release of the Brazil DVD is a product of Universal butchering, which, while it allows for a dark ending, cuts a couple of scenes at the end that help to tie the film together. If you have not seen all 142 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes) of Brazil, you have not been to Brazil...

Universal has continued to disappoint me with sub-standard DVD releases (the Jerk and The Sting, both full screen and poor digital transfers, Dune in its shortened domestic release, and many more), which brings me to my original point, which is that Criterion, who's special edition DVDs are consistently wonderful, should do all of Universal's DVDs, and put us out of our misery.


Brazil - the ultimate dvd boxset for Criterion collectors!!!!   July 16, 2006
DA MAN (SINGAPORE)
72 out of 77 found this review helpful

This is the re-release of Brazil by Criterion, which stars Robert DeNiro, Jonathan Pryce, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins and many more, and directored by Terry Gilliam.... this is the ulitmate movie that all science fiction buffs must own...

So what is the difference between this release and the previous 3 disc collection???? Well primarily, it's for the new Anamorphic presentation of the film, it will otherwise be the same as the previous release......

For those who already own the previous release, my suggestion is to go for the single discer to replace the older non Anamorphic feature disc, but for those who don't have a copy... what are u waiting for ???? Get this boxset today!!!!This is the very defintion of what eXtras on a dvd collector's set should have..... Criterion accomplished the untinkiable!!!

For the benefit of those who do not have the previous release, this is the breakdown of all the dvd details....

142 minutes, Color,1.78:1 Aspect Ratio, Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Anamorphically enhanced, English.

DISC ONE:

All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Terry Gilliam, with a remastered Dolby stereo surround soundtrack--NOW IN ANAMORPHIC!!

Audio commentary by Gilliam

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

PLUS: An essay by Jack Mathews

DISC TWO:

A treasure trove of Brazil-iana:

30-minute on-set documentary What Is Brazil?

Criterion's original exposé The Battle of "Brazil": A Video History, which reassembles players in the battle over the film's U.S. release

Hundreds of storyboards, drawings, and publicity and production stills

Rare raw and behind-the-scenes footage

Exclusive video interviews with the production team

Original theatrical trailer

DISC THREE:

The 94-minute "Love Conquers All" version of Brazil, with all the changes Gilliam refused to make

An audio essay by journalist David Morgan




When the Bandages Come Off   July 20, 2002
Marc Ruby™ (Warren, MI USA)
39 out of 40 found this review helpful

Produced in 1985, "Brazil" is a black (and bleak) comedy about a future gone eerily awry. A future that, since this is 2002, is already coming true around us. Terry Gilliam's brilliant, colorfully retro vision of the future has little in common with the styling of Orwell's "1984," but deep inside the message is the nearly the same. The only real difference is that, unlike Orwell, Gilliam believes that the one fragile hope is the durability of the human imagination.

The opening scenes of the film reveal a manic world, where a bug (literally) in the works triggers the spectacular arrest of one Archibald Buttle, whose off-screen death under interrogation triggers a flurry of clerical paperwork. The world we see is fascinating, full of automation nearly gone berserk and the hapless human machinery that fills in the gaps. In this world, one may not only face hard interrogation, but be billed for that service as well. When Buttle, mistaken for terrorist Harry Tuttle, suffers a heart attack under questioning, Information Retrieval issues a refund. However, his wife's lack of a bank account triggers a series of complications. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a daydreaming bureaucrat in the Ministry of Information, takes up the task of resolving the situation by hand delivering the check.

Harry faces many delightfully comic situations on his quest, as machinery refuses to function for him and the people in his world seem to treat him as something not quite socially acceptable. But all of this is brought up sharply when he finally confronts the widow. "My husband's dead, is he," she cries, "What have you done with his body?" Suddenly we are confronted with the truth. The surface is only a surface. As in "The Matrix," once you are past it something horrific looms. "Brazil" will continue to play this theme throughout. Walls conceal semi-organic, hostile masses of tubes and ductwork, room dividers separate upper-class diners from the gory reality of a terrorist bombing. Masses of plastic surgery cover the flaws of aging beauty.

It is no surprise that Harry falls victim to his own daydreams. Looking up through a hole in Mrs. Buttle's ceiling Lowry spies the face of the woman of his dreams, Jill the truck driver, played wonderfully by Kim Geist. In his desperate attempts to track her down, Sam transfers into the dark world of Information Retrieval. There, aided my his friend Jack Lint (Michael Palin), he finds out what he needs, but inadvertently sets in motion a series of events that can only be describes as a burlesque apocalypse. Layer after layer of his society's illusions collapse around him and Jill with humorous, but nightmarish precision.

Terry Gilliam has proven himself a genius at using dark humor and sarcasm to engage in a plot that would be horribly difficult otherwise. As in "The Fisher King," we laugh and snicker right up until we confront the truth. "Brazil" is a brilliant example of this. Full of the imaginative imagery of a retro-future world and great acting by a cast that includes the likes of Robert De Niro and Katherine Helmond it is an experience that stuns the sensibilities while bringing home its message. In his notes, Gilliam calls this a light-hearted nightmare. One will haunt you for some time to come.